IZMIR Metropolitan Municipality has signed a €165m financing agreement with international lenders for the construction of two new light rail lines, which will serve the districts of Konak and Karsiyaka.
Transport planners are starting to consider how "big data" retrieved from passenger smart cards, computers and mobile phones could improve the design of urban rail networks and timetables, and improve operations by predicting ridership.
HANNOVERIANS had their first opportunity to sample the city's new type TW 3000 light rail vehicles on March 8, when two of the trams carried a total of 3200 passengers on free demonstration trips between Main Station and Allerweg in the city centre.
LEIPZIG Transport Authority (LVB) has issued a call for tender for up to 41 light rail vehicles to be supplied between 2016 and 2020, with the first five vehicles supplied as a pre-series.
BELGIAN light rail operator, De Lijn, has issued a call for tender for 146 low-floor LRVs for operation in Antwerp, Ghent and the West Flanders coastal line. The deadline to participate is April 17.
BUDAPEST Transport Centre (BKK) has placed a €90m contract with CAF, Spain, for a fleet of 37 low-floor LRVs of two types with an option for another 87 units. Delivery will start at the end of 2015.
CREA, the public transport authority in Rouen, France, has sold 28 Alstom trams to the Turkish city of Gaziantep in a deal worth €5.2m.
ŠKODA Transportation announced on March 5 that it has completed testing and certification of its new Catfree catenary-free propulsion system for light rail vehicles, which has been undergoing trials at the company's facility in Plzen, Czech Republic.
SERVICES are being launched today on a tram-train line in northwestern France linking Nantes with Châteaubriant. Passengers will be able to try the new service free of charge until March 2.
THE United States Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has granted conceptual planning approval to the construction of a $US 1.34bn starter light rail line in the city of Durham, North Carolina.
