The San Francisco Bay Area’s BART held a farewell event on April 20 to mark the final withdrawal of its original fleet after 51½ years. This included a celebration at MacArthur station and a final journey with three trains brought out of storage for the day. Some vehicles have been made available to a museum and for use as short-term rental accommodation and a bike repair shop.
HID has launched its VAL150 Platform Ticket Validator which can process barcodes, QR codes, closed loop cards and open loop contactless EMV payment. The validator is integrated with a Linux computer and housed in a weatherproof casing.
A southwestern branch of Hefei metro Line 4 opened on May 1, running 14 km from Beiyanhu to Shaomaigang with three underground and five elevated stations. This takes the Hefei metro to 210 km and 161 stations. A further extension will run from Shaomaigang to Ziyunhu.
The Iranian Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines & Agriculture has announced that testing is underway with a metro trainset which has been developed by a consortium of five domestic companies in accordance with national and European standards. Trials are to be undertaken in Tehran, and it is envisaged that the design could meet up to 90% of the country’s demand for metro trains.
New York City Department of Social Services and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority have launched a 90-day pilot enabling participants in the Fair Fares discount programme for low-income users to pay for half-price Subway and bus travel using OMNY tap-and-go cards. Roll-out for all Fair Fares customers is planned for the future.
Keolis North America has appointed Jannet Walker-Ford, Senior-Vice President & Principal Director National Transit & Rail Business Line Leader at WSP USA, as Chair of its corporate board.
Delhi Metro Rail Corp has introduced an indigenously developed Crew Management System. More than 1 200 train operators can now use kiosks at 14 sites to sign on and off, with breath testing, biometric attendance and live photo capture. DMRC said digital rostering, leave requests and defect reporting could save paperwork equivalent to 417 trees per year.
Managing Director of Blackpool Transport Jane Cole has joined the UK’s Light Rail Safety & Standards Board as a non-executive director. Colin Kerr will continue to serve on the LRSSB board following his retirement as Safety & Projects Manager at Edinburgh Trams.
The US Federal Transit Administration is collaborating with the American Public Transportation Association and the Center for Urban Transportation Research to identify current and future priorities for the development of voluntary consensus standards, recommended practices or guidance documents. An industry survey is underway with responses invited by May 31.