Lutz Bertling will take over as President and Chief Operating Officer of Berlin-based Bombardier Transportation in June. Prior to joining Bombardier, Bertling was President and Chief Executive of Eurocopter Group, a subsidiary of EADS. He will replace André Navarri, who will remain as Strategic Advisor to the President and Chief Executive Officer of Bombardier Inc  Pierre Beaudoin until he retires in 2014.  

New Chairman and Chief Executive of Veolia Transdev Jean-Marc Janaillac has made a series of changes following the project for Caisse des Dépôts to increase its holding and Veolia Environment to scale down its stake. Janaillac has replaced both Jérôme Gallot as Chief Executive and Antoine Frérot as Chairman. Frérot remains a director, as does Antoine Gosset-Grainville on behalf of Caisse des Dépôts, a French state-owned investment bank. Janai

Sir Peter Hendy , Commissioner of Transport for London is set to become the new president of UITP, The International Association of Public Transport. Hendy’s nomination will be confirmed at the UITP’s biennial congress taking place in Geneva at the end of May. He will succeed Ousmane Thiam from Dakar, Senegal, the first African President of the Association who took over from  Alain Flausch when he was selected in 20111 as the new Secretary General of UITP. Hendy has held the

RATP Dev has confirmed that Elaine Holt has been appointed its UK Rail Franchise Director and will lead its work to pre-qualify for London’s Crossrail operator concession. Holt most recently led National Express’s bid for the Great Western rail franchise after being CEO of Directly Operated Railways, and Chairman of East Coast, from when the government took over the operation in 2009 until 2011. Holt started her career at British Airways in 1987 and worked in a variety of senior

In the changes following the moves of Howard Smith and Howard Collins, Director of Strategy and Service Development Gareth Powell  (pictured) will take overall responsibility for London Rail, alongside his existing responsibilities. Jonathan Fox will be the Acting Director of London Rail and report to Powell.  Rory O’Neill will become the Acting Director of the DLR, and along with Danny Price, Head of the Emirates Airline cable car and Sharon Thompson, the Director of Tramlink,

From popular media and political comment, it sometimes seems that fare levels are a really critical issue for public transport, but in fact the role of detailed pricing policies and the wider funding equation are arguably far more important in delivering what users want and growing the market. Analysis of demand elasticity for metro networks worldwide (Anderson, 2011) actually shows that demand is more sensitive to change in level of service than to change in price. It shows, in particular, th

Network Rail studies into future long-distance rail demand in Britain are forecasting significant growth based on national economic and social trends and relative costs . The approach is explained in a draft report on long-distance travel that will inform capacity planning for Network Rail’s regulatory control period 6 (2019/20-2023/24) and beyond. The market study is the first of four to be prepared, with the other three covering regional urban passenger demand; London & South East

The potential use of existing public transport electricity supply infrastructure for future multimodal electric urban mobility schemes has been considered at an event organised by UITP, The International Association of Public Transport in Brussels. The move towards more electric mobility in urban areas will require major investment in the supporting electric grid and charging infrastructure, and existing systems used by trams, metros and railways could potentially be leveraged for wider benefi

The European market for Carsharing services -traditionally referred to as car clubs in the UK - continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. Between 2008 and 2012 there was almost a 90% increase in participating members from 500,000 to over 940,000 in “Traditional” or “Peer to Peer (P2P)” Carsharing schemes.  According to Frost & Sullivan analysis, this trend is set to continue; 2020 could see over 15 million traditional Carsharing members (including both personal

Kassel is a German city of 200,000 people, lying 150 kilometres north of Frankfurt and just over an hour away on the high-speed Deutsche Bahn ICE train from Frankfurt Airport station. In a league table of German cities ranked by economic development, conducted by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research and published in the magazine Wirtschaftswoche (Economic Weekly), Kassel has emerged as the most dynamic place in the entire country. That means not the top-performing city – more predi

According to National Rail’s Journey Planner, a simple trip in the Greater London area from Watford Junction to Woking requires two mainline trains and an Underground ride. First, there is a Midland Mainline (or London Overground)train to London Euston, followed by a transfer to London Underground’s Northern Line to Waterloo, followed by a second transfer at Waterloo to a Southwest Trains service to Woking. This journey requires coordinating three train schedules, passing through up

Delivering major city rail schemes is so expensive, complicated and integral to city economies that it is hard to believe that a purely private sector approach to finance could ever deliver them, even in an era of shrinking public sector activity. But it will be a new generation of public sector development bodies, with new powers and financial models that will generally drive them forward. Some examples of the new approaches are beginning to emerge. The massive Grand Paris Express project 

D espite having historically one of the most comprehensive of the world’s urban and commuter rail systems, London has been playing catch up to Paris, and indeed other cities with S-Bahn-type railways, on its rail network development. While Paris has a mature cross city rail network in the form of its five RER lines, and is now moving on to developing its Grand Paris Express network of orbital super metro lines, London is trying to do both at once, and coming from a long way behind. Thames

Biting the bullet on expensive, transformational, railway schemes is something that mainland European governments have been good at, as exemplified by the development of national high speed rail networks in various countries. But in France attention has turned to capital city Paris, and bullets haven’t come much bigger and faster than that of Grand Paris Express, a plan to revolutionise urban railways there, with a price tag to match. Spiralling costs and delays in estimated completion dat

Though Paris and London have attracted attention by developing their regional heavy rail networks to supplement existing tube/metro lines through new cross-city tunnels, they are not the only cities who have taken their city railways beyond the traditional model of large stations at surface level. Elsewhere in Europe Vienna is replacing its South terminal station with a new central Hauptbahnhof station which will link together the routes which converge on Vienna, including international servic

Plans for strategic rail network development in London and Paris tell a tale of two cities facing similar challenges. Both have realised that radial rail transport terminating at central locations means massive numbers of passengers overloading local distributor networks of buses or existing underground metros. And both have realised that many travellers are actually trying to get from one side of the city to the other, and don’t want to change between trains which terminate in the city ce

The majority of the world’s population now live in urban areas. That point was reached in 2008, according to official UN statistics, as the continuing migration from the countryside and population growth within metropolitan areas have combined to  change the way the majority of the world’s citizens live. 3.3 billion of us now live in urban areas. In 1950 there was just one city of over 10m people – New York. Now there are 27, and experts believe that by the end of 2015, t

IIn the last issue we reported a significant transaction involving a car hire business moving across into urban mobility, with the acquisition of the ZipCar car share system by Avis. It’s not the only major strategic move being made by major players interested in a new role for cars in cities, and now the subject of New Transit’s new Car Share and Urban Mobility event in Brussels on 9th July. Another major deal has seen the big money US private equity firm Carlyle Group buying Addiso

T There’s little disagreement that electrification is the best power system for most railways. But what should be done about branch lines where the business case might not be as clear as that for mainline railway electrification? Without it, through trains from the mainline need to be diesel powered even while travelling the majority of their time under the wires – and diesel trains are less efficient and less reliable than electric ones. Two contrasting approaches in the UK give so

IIn quitting London bus operations, UK-based transport group First has made good on its promise to raise £100m through disposal of non-core operations, with the surprise sale of practically all its London bus operations to two foreign groups for £80m. But it raises some interesting questions about the difference in approach to tendered markets between UK groups and those from the rest of the world. First is to sell eight of its London bus garages – five with 494 vehicles in We

JR Central has put its latest-generation Shinkansen train, the N700A into service from Tokoyo to Osaka. The 300km/h 16- car tilting trains seating 1323 passengers feature a number of improvements, including LED lighting (which is around 20% more efficient), bogie vibration detection, enhanced ATC, sound absorption throughout and improved brake discs which reduce braking distances by up to 10%. The 13 new trains also feature a new cruise control system, the fixed speed running device, which re

Could Germany be on the brink of war, facing invasion by Britain, Poland and France? We’re talking coaches, and it’s an intriguing possibility brought on by the recent liberalisation of Germany’s long-distance public transport market, and the arrival of Britain’s National Express Group. Until a few months ago, state railway operator Deutsche Bahn held a monopoly over long distance transport in Germany. Wherever DB operated a long-distance rail corridor, no competition wa

If it were not already a trademark, French state railway operator SNCF must have been tempted to call their latest TGV service “easyTGV” so closely does it mirror many of the practices of low-cost airlines. Instead, “TGV Ouigo” is the chosen name for a new product that is planned to make high speed train travel cheaper for for SNCF to operate as well as for passengers. Services started between Paris and Marseille/Montpellier in early April. Four TGV units have been fully

It’s 50 years since the publication in 1963 of two pivotal reports on British transport: The Reshaping of British Railways by Dr Richard Beeching, and Traffic in Towns by Colin (later Sir Colin) Buchanan. Both represented sea changes in the accepted transport wisdom of the time. What do they tell us today? Beeching’s report said that the then railway network was a financial basket case, with too many little used and loss-making secondary routes. It called for a focus on core routes

Passenger transport does not operate in isolation. People travel for reasons, and transport systems provide a vital ingredient to economic and social life. Never more so than in and around cities. This issue of New Transit examines the partnership that mass transit needs to forge with those in charge of city economies and development to provide the successful bloodstreams of thriving urban areas. It looks at how the delivery of movement between and within conurbations is being addressed by new

The city of Bristol’s newly elected mayor George Ferguson (pictured) has named a panel to advise him on transport matters. Ferguson, an architect by profession, has campaigned for a more comprehensive approach to the city’s planning and design and a review of existing projects including a Bus Rapid Transit scheme. Members of his panel are John Grimshaw, the founder of Bristol-based cycle route promoter Sustrans; Pip Sheard, of the Transport for Greater Bristol Alliance; former Badge

Martin Harris has been named the new managing director of Go-Ahead Group’s subsidiary the Brighton & Hove Bus Company. Harris, currently commercial director of Go North East, is succeeding Roger French who is retiring on 1 April. Harris has 32 years’ experience in the bus industry, having begun his career in Brighton as a senior management trainee for Brighton & Hove’s predecessor Southdown in 1980. After two years in Yorkshireand he was later part of the management t

MTR, the Hong-Kong based rail company that runs the London Overground and is bidding for the Essex Thameside and Thameslink franchises in the UK, has appointed a new European Operations Director as part of its expansion strategy for the region. Oliver Bratton joins MTR’s London office and will report to Jeremy Long, CEO – European Business. Bratton will lead the UK and European office’s work on development of operations strategies for franchise and concessions bids, as well as

Sir Roy McNulty, who has been a Non-Executive Director of Gatwick airport since March 2011, will become its Chairman from 1st April. Sir Roy was Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority from 2001 until 2009, and Executive Chairman of National Air Traffic Services Limited (NATS) between 1999 and 2001. He was Deputy Chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority.Previously Sir Roy was Chairman and Chief Executive of aircraft manufacturer Short Brothers in Belfast. He was appointed by the UK Transport

Mike Cooper, currently an Executive Director at Deutsche Bahn owned Arriva, and who has successfully led the Arriva UK Bus division since 2005, has been appointed Deputy Chief Executive to Chief Executive  David Martin. He will take on specific accountability for the Arriva Mainland Europe division. His appointment is part of senior management changes following the decision by David Evans, Managing Director - Arriva Mainland Europe, to retire after twelve years supporting development of th

In the last few years, QR codes have gone from being an innovative and functional method of tracking components in a factory, to being hailed as a must-have sales conversion tool, to then being discarded as a gimmick that should be consigned to history as other new technologies like NFC and EMV are seen as the way ahead . There are certainly myriad examples of QR codes being used as a quick, faddy way to advertise to consumers without adding much value. So how do you get away from this poor use

Global technology analyst ABI Research is predicting that 2.1bn contactless ‘credentials’ – a combination of smartcards and radio frequency identification (RFID) solutions – will have entered the transport and ticketing market in 2018. The forecast figure is just over double that achieved in 2012. Last year, MiFare solutions, using technology owned by Netherlands-headquartered NXP Semiconductors, continued to account for the bulk of the market with a share of just over 8

What is claimed to be the world’s first fully mobile and wireless information display system is now being offered as a innovative new communications solution to transport operators, replacing printed posters and white boards Developed by Met Systems who have managed the design, supply and installation of ESUB’s (Electronic Service Update Boards) across the London Underground network, WiSI is the future of standardised on-station communications claims the company. Created to direct

The Opal smartcard system for public transport currently being installed in Sydney by the Cubic-led Pearl consortium for regional agency Transport New South Wales (NSW), is being claimed as the world’s geographically largest to date, covering the whole of the 40,000km2 Greater Sydney area. Being trialled initially on harbour ferries, it will roll out on CityRail services during 2013-14 and, by end-2015, is due to be operational at more than 300 train stations and on 5,000 buses. Transpor

The international airline community is hoping to bring in a new distribution system that provides a comprehensive price and service offer. The International Air Transport Association’s  “New Distribution Capability,” formally adopted at its World Passenger Symposium in Abu Dhabi, calls for the creation of a Dynamic Airline Shopping engine API based on IATA XML messages. The NDC envisions a model in which airlines create their own product offers within their own systems, a

Audi drivers can now access information from their cars about current train connections from anywhere in Germany, and soon anywhere in Europe, under a strategic partnership between the car maker and Hannover based software systems developer HaCon to integrate timetable data into its multimedia system. HaCon supplies timetable data from all over Europe for Audi and its MMI Navigation plus. Travellers in A3 models equipped with Audi connect can now get information about train stations and trains

A London based company is developing its shared executive travel minibus service with the introduction of all electric 10 and 16 seater vehicles. The GUTSi Executive Transfer service is based upon consolidating regular passenger journeys for people commuting in London and seeking to avoid the stresses of public transport whilst able to use their travel time for working without all travelling in separate vehicles. The GUTSi Express Commuting Service brings together commuters each morning using

Chinese electric bus specialist BYD and Bulmineral Ltd of Bulgaria have signed an agreement to create a 50:50 joint venture company, named Auto Group Motors, to produce electric buses in Europe. This is claimed to be the first electric bus JV company in Europe and the first overseas electric vehicle JV for BYD. BYD, which is the worlds largest all-electric bus manufacturer, will manufacture pure electric buses in Breznik, Bulgaria, targeting both local markets in Bulgaria and elsewhere in Europ

Van Hool, the Belgian bus manufacturer has signed a contract with Nobina, the largest passenger transport company in Scandinavia, to supply 15 hybrid Exqui.City buses that will be used to carry passengers in Malmö and the Skane region in Sweden from June 2014. Sometimes referred to as a “tram-bus” because of its appearance, the hybrid “Exqui.City design Malmö” will be an electrically driven, 24-metre-long, bi-articulated vehicle. Its electricity will be produc

The news that Avis have bought Zipcar, and that car2go (run by Daimler, Mercedes’s parent company) have begun building up carshare operations around London, has further highlighted the potential of this sector to produce new solutions for urban mobility and potentially pose a challenge to traditional public transport. But will these new players in the urban transport mix - including other major car manufacturers like Peugeot and BMW and car hire firms like Hertz, Sixt and Enterprise - take

While waiting for a train I often inspect the promotional material and timetables on display at a station. It’s a simple check on what the railway has to offer. This nerdish activity can tell us something more general about weaknesses in the railway’s provision of information and how it perceives is the best way to present the available travel options.  Moreover, unless the industry thinks through the information it is providing, such weaknesses are all too likely to be transfer

In order to create a sustainable business model for those providing passenger transport services, it is critical that we increase their quality and attractiveness and seek new, innovative ways to encourage customers to change their travel habits, to leave their cars at home and opt for public transport options. This requires individual enterprises – and the industry as a whole - to think differently, to unlearn old practices and ways of thinking, and create new, innovative and customer-foc

The embracing of social media by the public transport industry over the last year or so has been a major advance in using the technology revolution to improve customer information and engagement. It has also helped to position the sector as more forward-thinking and modern. However, the industry should be aware that launching on social media is not the end of the journey; it’s just a step in the continuing revolution in customer engagement. This revolution is significantly disrupting many

A Plymouth-based train driver has won a European transport photography competition for this stunning photograph of an Arriva CrossCountry passenger train in Dawlish, South Devon. Chris Hopkins of CrossCountry took the Arriva Photo of the Year 2012 award for his dramatic image of a  Bombardier Voyager 220 diesel-electric high-speed multiple-unit train at Coryton Cove, nestled in between the magnificent red cliffs.     Chris, aged 43, said: “It was warm summer morning

A number of European cities have significance and development activity which means that their leaders are key European transport figures in their own right. London and Paris are two such cities whose chiefs appear earlier in our listing.  Mayor Boris Johnson and Transport for London’s commissioner Peter Hendy have forged a successful partnership between elected politician and public servant that has delivered a generally well regarded , system though relations between  Pierre M

At the EU level the significance of transport policy has continued to grow and with it the implications for those who operate and plan it at national and local levels. The importance of transport commissioner Siim Kallas is obvious, hence his appearance in our top 12 people, but is closely followed by that of Brian Simpson, chair of the European Parliament transport and tourism committee. Matthias Ruete heads the Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) in the European Commissio

Alongside the UK’s leading passenger transport directors and decision-makers are their equivalents in Europe, both within the individual states, and across the continent as a whole. New Transit cannot attempt to produce similar lists to that for the UK for each European country, but we do recognise that there is a Europe-wide group of big hitters who either have activity and influence beyond their own borders, or are leaders of innovation and achievement within their own domain, and are e

Across the transport sector there are certain individuals whose activities stand out either as beyond the significance of their own specific role within an organisation, or for introducing new ideas from an inventive technological or entrepreneurial standpoint. In an era of rapid change to the way transport services are managed, marketed and paid for it is not surprising that a group of such people feature amongst our power list. Elaine Rosscraig, Stagecoach’s head of bus customer insigh

UK transport is heavily influenced, as elsewhere, by political leaders. Transport problems and challenges exist at both a national and local level and it is Boris Johnson Mayor of London who New Transit believes has continued to be most significant in his interventions in transport over the past year and hence included in our top dozen power people. He faced an election last year against his old adversary Ken Livingstone, which he narrowly won, and then gained the reflected glory of both the Oly

A group of fifty leading senior executives and managers form this year’s New Transit UK passenger transport providers Power List. There are several changes from last year as new appointments have lifted individuals into positions of greater responsibility and others have moved out. Four of the most senior UK passenger transport group heads are featured in our overall top 12 people listing on the previous pages- David Martin at Arriva, Sir Brian Souter at Stagecoach, Tim O’Toole at F

Jerome Gallot, Chief Executive, Veolia Transdev Why is he on the list? Gallot is chief executive of the world’s largest private sector transport group. What kind of year has he had? Distracting. Has spent most of it dealing with the fact that one of the owners of the group doesn’t really want to be in this marriage any more, but doesn’t really want to get out of it unless it gets a really good divorce settlement. Veolia’s shilly-shallying over what to do with it

Alain Flausch, Secretary General UITP Why is he on the list? The International Union of Public Transport has become a big hitter in discussing, presenting and promoting a positive future for public transport. Flausch’s appointment as General Secretary from his previous presidency and leading role in Europe as the head of Brussels Transport has lifted it to an even higher level. What kind of year has he had? Productive. Detailed work on policies has set benchmarks through a range

Dean Finch, Chief Executive, National Express Group Why is he on the list? Finch has real authority to play to NEG’s unique strategic strengths, and develop a growing multimodal portfolio. What kind of year has he had? Progressive. Finch has quietly got on with improving National Express’s position and he has achieved much. Margins are improving at the West Midlands bus operation and core coach patronage on its major network is growing. The company has been short listed for t

Tim O’Toole, Chief Executive FirstGroup Why is he on the list? First is still one of the world’s largest private sector transport groups, despite its current troubles. What kind of year has he had? Not good. Gained and lost an incredibly important UK rail franchise. Disposals programme in UK bus has struggled to generate momentum, let alone cash. Several operations wound up without benefitting from sales at all. Saw its place as UK’s biggest bus operator assumed by ri

Guillaume Pepy, Chairman SNCF Why is he on the list? Leads SNCF, second only to DB in Europe and internationally. Bangs the table at EU level. Hard What kind of year has he had? Mixed. Has continued to ensure that SNCF, or train operators in which it has a significant stake, remains the only passenger train operator in France, bar one sleeper train service. Has fought against the EU’s Fourth Railway Package which would threaten this position. Ended 2012 with a large fine for anti

Pierre Mongin, Chief Executive, RATP Why is he on the list? Expansion-minded leader of Paris’s transport operations. What kind of year has he had? Unspectacular. RATP has continued to invest in technology to improve the Paris operations and consolidate its position as a genuine player in world transport markets. But no one is sure about the financial plan. Its European division has meanwhile been swallowed up into a Europe and Asia business unit. Is that taking on too much and migh

Siim Kallas, EC Transport Commissioner Why is he on the list? He is responsible for the wider framework of much of Europe’s transport system, and is restless and interventionist in pursuing a customer-focussed agenda. What kind of year has he had? Combative. SNCF and DB have been especially opposed to Kallas’s Fourth Railway Package, which is intended to open up the rail markets of the EU by requiring open tendering of subsidised railway operations, and complete separation

David Martin Chief Executive, ARRIVA Why is he on the list? A key player in the consolidation of European passenger transport and well resourced to expand. What kind of year has he had? Steady. Deutsche Bahn respects Arriva’s skills and independence and refers to Arriva as its “entrepreneurial arm”. Martin, a veteran of around 200 M&A deals, is in a position to do what he enjoys best, leading business development, and he has added additional train, tram and bus ope

European Commission vice president for transport Siim Kallas has been forced by France and Germany to accept a watered down version of his long awaited plans for the EU’s Fourth Railway Package. The new framework designed to encourage greater competition and innovation in rail services has now accepted single-company infrastructure and train operators as a way for countries to organise their railways. Throughout the formulation of the Fourth Railway Package, published in February, Kallas

Trains, metros, buses and trams are more than a transport mode. They provide a very significant social environment too. The quality of the experience people have when travelling - space, comfort, temperature and personal security - are some of the key issues determining willingness to use public transport, particularly amongst women. Recent incidents suggest that there could be new problems emerging here. Rape and murder, as happened to a young women on a bus in Delhi might be an extreme inciden

It’s a public transport practitioner’s dream experiment: what would happen if a city made its public transport completely free, permanently? The Estonian capital Tallinn is finding out, because as of New Year’s Day, that is exactly what it has done. The city’s local authority says the move will “safeguard social cohesion of local communities by granting equal mobility opportunities to all social strata.” It is hoped that car drivers will find it an incentive

Significance can be a difficult thing to establish- but it is a task worth addressing in determining priorities, spotting trends and choosing who to follow. New Transit readily accepts the challenge in identifying the technologies , social and economic changes and key people who are shaping the future in the world of passenger transport. This is our annual ‘people-focussed’ issue and we have further expanded our search this year to put the spotlight on nearly 200 individuals who thro

Advisory firm Alvarez & Marsal has appointed the former chief executive of Network Rail to spearhead a push in transport and infrastructure as it believes the sectors “have not woken up” to the threat of the financial crisis. Iain Coucher (pictured) becomes a Managing Director in its London office to head its transport and infrastructure-focused business across Europe. In addition to his time as chief executive at Network Rail, Coucher also served as chief executive of TubeLine

Like dinosaurs, a lot of people in public transport still remain wedded to a vision comprising a number of discrete modes.  The one they are concerned with themselves is the important one, of course- be it bus, rail or tram for example, and the rest have their acknowledged, but inferior, little world - with even a space maybe reserved in the mobility mix for active travel (foot and bike), boat and plane. But join them up as a seamless boundary-less offer, never!  You can’t mix ru

Alistair Aitken has been appointed Director of Sales (Commercial) for Trapeze Group UK.  He will help the group further address the commercial bus operator market, working alongside sales Director, Chris Gough, who is responsible for public sector clients.  Aitkin joins from Almex, where he was UK Sales and Marketing Manager. Trapeze offers multidimensional technology solutions in the passenger transport field, including advanced scheduling & planning software, intelligent transpo

Tim Buxton (pictured)has been appointed by consultant Steer Davies Gleave to strengthen its rail expertise, and support its portfolio of UK and international rail projects in the rail team headed by Jim Collins . Buxton was Deputy Director, Rail Commercial Contracts, in the Department for Transport’s rail team before joining Veolia Transdev, where he was Director, UK Rail. At the Department for Transport, Buxton managed the government’s primary relationship with many of the transp

John Barlass has been recruited by MTR to a new position of European engineering director. He will be focussing on rolling stock fleet issues for MTR’s current operations including London Overground and the Stockholm Metro, as well as for future bids. He has been fleet and engineering director at UK franchises Central Trains and London Midland as well as at the Dubai Metro network.

Roger French stands down at Brighton & Hove One of Britain’s best known bus managers, Roger French, managing director of Go-Ahead’s Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company, is to retire in March after 42 years in the transport industry. French said: “After 30 years running buses in Brighton and Hove, I have decided it’s now time to relax and enjoy my retirement”. David Brown, group chief executive at Go-Ahead said: “Roger has been amazing in the inn

Stagecoach Group has announced two senior appointments as it targets commercial growth opportunities in its passenger transport markets. Alistair Smith (55, pictured) currently Group IT Director, has been appointed to the wider role of Director of Commercial and IT, and Stephanie Rivet (37, pictured below) has joined from Virgin Rail as Head of Commercial, reporting to Smith. At Virgin, which she joined in 1999 after also working for Eurostar, she has been Director, Revenue Management, helping

Vehicle interiors are a regular part of my work - and perhaps the most challenging. Trying to make them attractive, exciting, stylish, cool, classy, sassy, striking, calming, sumptuous, possibly all at the same time. So it strikes me as odd that the very environment that can make people enjoy a journey and relish making it again, can so often be average to bad. Let down by poor design, inferior detailing and a singular lack of understanding as to how our eyes need to be pleased, let alone our ba

The UK Technology Strategy Board is launching a funding programme for business-led innovation to stimulate the development of fuel cell and hydrogen technologies, with two new competitions: ‘Building Fuel Cell Manufacturing and the Supply Chain’ (up to £5 million) and ‘Supporting European Collaboration in Fuel Cells and Hydrogen’ (up to £1 million). The second project has the aim of encouraging collaboration with potential European partners to enable the deve

Cubic Transportation Systems has won the 2012 SESAMES Award in the trusted internet/ authentication category at the November 2012 CARTES exhibition and conference in Paris. A joint submission by Cubic and NXP Semiconductors, the solution is designed to ensure the secure use of personal mobile phones to top-up contactless transit fare cards. It qualified for the award on the grounds of its integration of authentication and encryption technologies, use of wireless mobile networks, Cubic’s

Rail Plus Australasia has launched a new Europe-wide business class rail booking tool. Aimed at encouraging wider take-up of expanding European high-speed rail services, it offers corporate travellers access to a choice of fares negotiated directly with individual carriers. Chief executive David Stafford said  that Paris-London by Eurostar was by far the largest point-to-point seller in the Australian market. “Rail has 88% of the market and business travellers are catching on fast in

Over 6000 Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority commuters downloaded a new mobile ticketing app to Android and iPhone smartphones in the first week of availability.  Developed by UK mobile payment specialist company Masabi, the app – introduced as a cost-effective alternative to installing additional ticket vending machines - is currently being offered to passengers using lines starting from Boston’s North Station on the area’s T zoned commuter rail system. The trave

The European railway industry put on an impressive display of its buoyancy and technological innovation at this year’s biennial Innotrans exhibition in Berlin. There could be little doubt that the sector is booming and the manufacturers are on a impressive programme of technological innovation and design development- particularly in the areas of high speed trains, high capacity commuter rolling stock, new generation trams and providing vehicles to the growing number of open access and priv

T he cost-effective mass movement of people is at the heart of urban transport. There has always been an acknowledged gap between those distances and connections best suited to self-powered travel (walking and cycling), and journeys by the mechanised modes. Over short distances the choice becomes an interesting one – that between moving people in vehicles, and transporting them on continuously moving systems (escalators) or very frequent ones (elevators). Such mechanical systems offering

Operators, infrastructure and technology suppliers, passenger representatives and a wide range of other stakeholders gathered at the Travel 2020 event to discuss how technology is driving change in the transport sector. Much of the discussion revolved around the importance of achieving a customer-focused approach by listening to passengers and putting their needs at the centre of future developments. This revolutionary idea of listening to the customer might sound like a statement of the mind-

Non-stop interchange One of the things that most spoils high speed rail is the need for trains to make intermediate stops. The faster the train’s design speed, the greater the penalty for stopping. While it’s no problem on a low speed rural branch line for a local train stop at a station, the amount of time it takes to decelerate a high speed train from 200mph to 0mph, and then back again, makes a huge addition to its journey time, which could otherwise be offered for end-to-end t

Smart Links - the range of short distance, often automated transport modes - have begun to shake up long-held models of what public transport is, and what it can do, over the last decade. Yet they are still only just beginning to show their true utility. This fledgling sector could well be in a position similar to the early years of railway development, when pioneering lines showed the potential, but it took several years before the rest of the world caught on and railway mania exploded. If so

The concept of coach-train, or Car à Haut Niveau de Service (CHNS), is being explored as an interurban public transport solution in several locations in mainland Europe. But there are some agitators who believe that even the schemes proposed so far have barely scratched the surface of the potential for coaches. Leading the charge is transport data management company ITO World’s chief executive officer Peter Miller, who runs the Coachways UK blog, which is a focus for ideas in the

In transport terms, the rail network was the pioneer of fast, efficient long-distance and commuter travel. It replaced the horse drawn stagecoach links between towns and cities, and allowed the growth of suburbs served by commuter trains.  Motor buses - and coaches - came late, and though the bus has long been seen as a logical companion to rail transport in urban areas, and a feeder to it regionally, its sister, the coach, is usually regarded as a poor relation to the train. But modern co

Along with tram-train, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is one of the longest established ‘blended’ modes of transport. It’s also one of the hardest to define, covering a wide range of technologies and operating environments, and even names. It’s known as BHNS in France, for example. What is certain is that the concept is going from strength to strength, and new systems are coming on stream at a fast pace. The latest data from EMBARQ, the international specialists in the concept,

Step outside many European urban railway stations, and the first thing a passenger often encounters is the platforms of a tram stop, ensuring swift and efficient dispersal of passengers from the station. Increasingly it’s not only trams which run through these mini terminals. As trams and buses both run on roads, and low floor buses are intended to call at shallow platforms (or footways as they are often better known), it should not be a problem for all the local passenger transport serv

When does a light rail scheme become a metro? And when does a metro become a suburban or commuter rail system? As railway vehicle technologies and system specifi cations move forward, it is becoming increasingly hard to tell where the dividing line is, and as successful light rail schemes generate more patronage, they are morphing into something much more like metros where planners and promoters are willing to let systems develop organically. Likewise with the arrival of more cross city commute

There were lively debates  on the future of smart ticketing and payment at two key sessions in the Travel 2020 conference. Transport Minister Norman Baker, and Jenni Borg, his senior civil servant responsible for the topic, both came under pressure to move away from current commitments to a single smartcard technology solution and embrace new options for the EMV bank card and mobile phone payments already being implemented within TfL and some train and bus operators. The first indications

More than 50 exhibitors met over 500 visitors at this year’s Travel 2020 event at the Kia Oval in London on October 10th and 11th. Smart systems for passenger information, payment, management support and customer service represented the core exhibits, along with complimentary transport and mobility concepts including car share and demand responsive systems. Visitors came from transport operators in the UK and Europe, local transport authorities and government bodies, plus innovative sys

T he UK led the way in franchising of passenger train operations, but its experience has hardly become the ‘How To’ guide for the rest of Europe. The abandonment of the West Coast franchise is just the latest round of franchising that has fallen apart in the harsh light of reality. The problems, blamed on a flawed assessment process, but also raising questions about staffing resources within the Department for Transport (DfT) and bidders’ ability to predict revenues over the 1

It’s been an unexpectedly good couple of months for Virgin Group chairman and serial entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson. It looked like the end for his railway services in late summer when he was told his Virgin Trains operation had lost the right to operate the West Coast route, but his successful challenge has led to the UK government giving him a franchise extension until a new competition can be held. Branson has meanwhile been turning his eyes to the heavens, positing a genuine future

If there is one thing that has helped railways re-invent themselves as a sexy futuristic travel mode it has to be the coming of the high-speed train. Starting in Japan with the ShinKansen Bullet trains, and now a global phenomenon, just the initials ICE, TGV or HST seem to conjure a magical response amongst both users, and more importantly, political leaders. Everyone seems to want to have a cutting edge high-speed network with suitably stylish and iconic trains. This year’s Innotrans sh

Open access train companies are beginning to play a bigger role across the European Rail Network, which could have significant longer term implications for both the passenger market and the EU’s evolving framework for its liberalisation. The pace of innovation is not even, and whilst some countries are hardly at first base in facilitating real competition the Czech Republic is an example of some  lively activity. While the majority of services in the Czech Republic are still run by

A report into what went wrong with the UK Department for Transport’s (DfT’s) attempt to refranchise the intercity West Coast operation this summer makes highly uncomfortable reading for the Department. A lack of transparency in the bidding process, published guidance not being complied with, inconsistencies in the treatment of bidders, and technical flaws in the model used to calculate the amount of risk capital bidders were asked to provide, are all identified in the independent rev

First Group has sought to position itself in recent years as the UK’s largest transport group, and a major player on the world stage. When new chief executive Tim O’Toole took the helm two years ago there were acknowledged problems of both profitability and strategy. Things have arguably now got worse. The rail division is in turmoil after a new UK West Coast intercity franchise was snatched from its grasp and other franchise competitions put on hold (see below), and the bus division

New Transit makes a point of talking as much about service delivery and marketing issues, and the systems and technologies that can enhance them, as the design and capability of passenger transport vehicles themselves. But the development of the different modal options is an important part of the changing passenger transport equation. In this issue we look in depth at the way distinctions between the different types of transport vehicles- train, tram, bus and coach etc - is becoming blurred, and

National Express Group has made key appointments in its new local subsidiary in Germany bidding for contracts to operate regional rail lines. The new German subsidiary National Express Rail GmbH based in Düsseldorf is headed by Tobias Richter, who has joined from DB Regio. At one time he was Director of Regentalbahn AG and CEO of Vogtlandbahn GmbH, which both became part of Arriva Deutschland and are now owned by Netinera. More recently he co-founded open access freight operator Integro T

Success in a nice problem to have, but finding the best solution to the problem of a lack of capacity in the face of rising passenger numbers can prove challenging. A number of rapid transit systems across Europe are facing that challenge in different ways. Introducing Bus Rapid Transit has a record of building the market by changing perceptions of conventional bus services, and in the UK, the Cambridgeshire guided busway opened last year has proved a real hit. It carried its one-millionth pass

Alex Perry has been appointed managing director of Arriva’s UK Midlands bus business. He joins after seven years with National Express Group where he was latterly operations director for its UK Coach division. He was a graduate trainee at FirstGroup, and went on to become managing director of its business in Bristol, Somerset and Avon. Perry replaces Bob Hind, who retired at the end of July after being managing director at the business since 2007. It employs more than 1900 staff, and prov

Train operator First Capital Connect has introduced a cashless payment service for taxis picking up passengers at its stations in the south-east of England. The roll-out of the new payment arrangements started in June. The Dash cashless technology, including a mobile phone app, has been developed and delivered by Adaptis Solutions, a provider of transport payment platforms for parking, permits, buses, boats and trains. Manni Marway, chief executive of Adaptis Solutions, said: “There is g

An on board train system from Clearsy  has been designed to measure the distance between the platform and the train before installing a gap-bridging system as well as authorising it and deploying it. The gap-filler is a mobile platform filling the space between the train and the platform edge to help passengers with reduced mobility. GAPS comprises lasers which scan the edge of the platform and receive the data to check whether or not the platform is compatible with the gap filler. It then

Wireless charging systems for buses are already in use in the Italian cities of Turin and Genoa. The UK’s first electric bus service to use inductive wireless charging is to be launched next summer in Milton Keynes. The project will see eight all-electric buses replace diesel vehicles on route 7 operated by Arriva. Rather than having to have their batteries recharged at the depot, the vehicles will use inductive charging technology to recharge on the street. Power transmitted from a pri

W hat makes a great city – or more to the point, a great city to live and work in, enjoy, travel around easily and feel good about being in. And, from the perspective of those of us working in the mobility field, what kind of transport system helps deliver such a place? Rankings abound declaring which are the best cities in the world to live in, for example, the HR consultancy firm Mercer puts out an annual Quality of Living Survey, and the Economist Intelligence Unit produces both the Gl

Many senior people in the passenger transport sector recognise that sometimes they need to reposition their product, and the way it is perceived and experienced by their clients. Perhaps now more than ever. However well we think we perform, the emotional and personal reactions of travellers (the fear of loss of personal control) means anything less than perfect can damage reputation. We know that the offer is only as strong as its weakest link; one bad journey can turn a new user away quickly. D

M ost public transit users in urban areas do not just take individual bus and rail services. They use “the system.” And that means alighting from a metro or rail station and connecting to a bus to complete a journey, or vice versa. It’s a regular activity but not always easy. How many cities make this process logical, convenient and user-friendly with wayfinding signage from the station exit directing people to the bus stop, with appropriate maps and supporting information to

We need to work together to get the best out of the passenger transport system. The key issue in this is trust, and an ability to cooperate even where transport operators are working in a strongly commercial context. We want to also help improve the relationship operators have with their customers - on both areas of difficulty when things go wrong, and in establishing much more creative customer-supplier dialogues. As the voice of the passenger we want to facilitate this process and add dimensi

The transport world is changing and we need to respond to that by creating a new business model, particularly in the bus sector. Essentially, we need to look afresh at how we market our services and develop new sales channels, payment methods and personalised marketing techniques. Go-Ahead believe in a strongly devolved management model for our individual bus companies, with marketing plans developed locally and best practice shared across the group where appropriate. The industry needs to mak

There’s a generational shift in attitudes and behaviour going on, the implications of which could be profound if the industry grasps the opportunity offered. Automobile ownership levels amongst young people are dropping for the first time- particularly in the developed world i.e. the UK, Europe, USA and Canada. It’s partly economic, partly social and partly because patterns of travel need are changing with the advent of things like on-line shopping. No longer is the car viewed as an

Organisations involved in transport services face the challenge of changing to meet  fast -evolving technologies and customer expectations that are reshaping their market. Most are large companies that have inherited ways of working and structures of delivery that inhibit this change. They need to understand what can be done to really reshape the way they operate and the approach of individuals within them. The unchanging and repetitive constraints of business, the nature of group dynam

Public transport needs to focus on its core asset: the network, and make visible to users and potential users the true extent and stability of the system available. The vehicles that run the services are transitory and the network is invisible, so perceived as less substantial and stable over time than it actually is. A key is to make the hubs the showcase for the system - the places where vehicles pick up and people can connect with the system: bus stops, stations and interchanges. High q

The UK government has dusted down an approach that failed before to deal with the politically tricky issue of London’s future airport capacity: set up a commission to find a solution. The replacement of Justine Greening by Patrick McLoughlin as UK transport secretary has brought the possibility of a third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport a step closer. But the creation of a Commission into airport capacity leaves the government in danger of repeating mistakes made in the 1960s an

A recognition of the new place information about transport occupies in society and the economy was signalled this summer when Ministers of Transport and Telecommunications reached a common understanding on the future steps for boosting the “Connecting Europe Facility,” and its objectives for growth and economic recovery, through the concept of “Intelligent Communications Transport”. During an Informal Transport and Telecommunications meeting in Lefkosia (Nicosia) in Jul

Once upon a time there was the timetable. And just the timetable. Now we have a world of information provision barely dreamed of a generation ago. On-line searchable databases, stop-specific departures, individualised schedules, real time service monitoring, arrival time predictions, personalised alerts, and more. But for all this explosion of material, is it the right information, presented in the right way and in a way that, whatever our specific needs, we can assimilate easily and use with al

Repositioning the passenger transport business through partnership building, delivering an integrated offer and a culture change to put the customer at the centre of thinking are key themes for this year’s Travel 2020 conference and exhibition which will take place on the 10th & 11th October 2012 at Kia Oval, London. A total of eight topic areas are being addressed by the event in two days of wide ranging discussion about the future of passenger transport service and system developme

Mobile phone company Nokia has released its new app for public transport users following successful beta testing. ‘Transport’ (called Transit in the US and Bus & Bahn in Germany) gives timetable-based stop-by-stop route options and departure times from an input location for over 100 cities and urban areas worldwide, and route options for a further 450 locations. The app allows Lumia Windows Phone users to search for bus and train routes, and arrival and departure times. They can

Public address and voice alarm specialist ATEÏS-Group have switched their UK activities away from ATEÏS UK to a new partner and distributor Fuzion. The new Walton on Thames based agents are professionals in audio distribution and system design including after-sales service and support, with almost 20 years of experience in the professional audio field. Fuzion’s drafting and rack-building facilities enable them to provide service from the drawing board to final commissioning. AT

A demonstration run by the UK’s first hydrogen-powered locomotive was a feature of the seventh International Hydrail Conference on July 3-4, hosted by the University of Birmingham and sponsored by the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research & Education. The 260 mm gauge locomotive had been built by the university’s students and staff to compete in the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ inaugural Railway Challenge contest. Built mainly from off-the-shelf components, it is

UK operator Stagecoach Group is to trial a new smartphone app developed by global mobility solutions specialist Vix Technology, enabling bus users to receive, store and validate their bus tickets using their mobile phones. The initial trial will take place on Stagecoach buses across Cambridgeshire, including those on the Cambridge Park & Ride and Guided Busway services. The system will use near field communications (NFC) and has been developed on the Android platform. Passengers will be a

CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive in China has unveiled a prototype light metro trainset which uses supercapacitor energy storage to operate without an external power supply. Developed in conjunction with Chinese Academy of Engineering, the trainset has underfloor power pick-ups which are used to charge the roof-mounted supercapacitor unit from a fixed supply while the train is stood at a station. Charging takes 30 sec and can power the train for 2 km. Energy regenerated during braking is recover

We’ve all been stuck on a station platform or at a bus-stop at one time or another, and there’s nothing more frustrating than having no idea about when your transport is actually going to turn up. Recent research carried out by Passenger Focus showed getting this information during delays is passengers’ fifth highest priority for improvement, behind the most obvious needs of value for money, punctuality, frequency and being able to get a seat. That’s why we have spent

The digital revolution has unlocked a rush of new information systems that offer diverse ways of putting both encyclopaedic and highly specific rail and bus service information in front of users. But by their very diversity and variety such messages risk being overlooked in the resultant potential ‘information overload’. Sometimes, a single simple overriding ‘alert’ or ‘announcement’ needs to get through above the rest. The basic means to do this - the publi

An invitation to contribute to New Transit from my perspective as an information and systems design specialist came just as Britain’s transport network was being put to a significant test in the form of handling the intensive movement needs of the Olympics. It was a perfect showcase for a whole range of issues affecting transport in the new digital information era - and the implications for those who run the system, and travel on it. So I can’t resist the opportunity to look at the

The quest for more integrated multi-modal and customer-facing passenger transport information solutions has led to new partnerships between transport bodies and IT systems specialists to create new planning and management tools. Veolia Transdev and IBM announced this June that they are together developing a smarter mobility solution designed to help cities alleviate congestion, optimize transportation infrastructures and improve the urban traveler experience. The first application of the smart

Data quality was – perhaps unsurprisingly - the first issue raised at a this summer’s New Transit  roundtable on public transport information, held in the run up to Travel 2020 2012 being held at the Kia Oval from 10-11 October. “We need much higher-quality and more easily captured and managed core data”, urged Gary Umpleby, general manager of the UK operation of Swedish transport software developer Hogia UK and chair of ITS UK’s Public Transport Interest Group

The release of both scheduled and real-time travel information by the UK rail industry as open data is raising the quality of service advice to customers and offers a prospect of new national and regional multi-modal journey planners interfacing the rail and equivalent bus systems.  The key is the rail industry’s DARWIN national real-time database. The railway operates to a timetable and from this it should be possible to derive data that is capable of being fed to all users who pro

In the world of passenger information systems, there’s been a growing need to provide robust and versatile software packages to give transport authorities more control over the content displayed via the screens and kiosks they provide. UK company RSL responded by creating an Electronic Passenger Information (EPI) system which can manage information across a range of displays and kiosks. When Derby City Council developed the new Riverlights Bus Station, for example, RSL designed and built

There is an increasing understanding for those who are connected with information provision that the way people perceive and use it differs markedly. Both psychology and physical factors come into play, with some categories of user much more comfortable with a particular form of information provision or simply unable to access others due to their health, age or other handicaps. Ensuring that public transport information is available to all has particularly to acknowledge that numbers of potent

The announcement of the government’s electrification plan for the UK railway network during 2014-19 (see New Directions page 8) has allowed confirmation of £4.5bn of orders for the government-procured Intercity Express trains for the new East Coast and Great Western franchises, under moves that will bring their assembly to a new factory in Britain. Agility Trains (a consortium of Hitachi and John Laing) was originally named supplier and maintainer of the replacements for the ageing

The specification has emerged for the new longer franchises at Great Western (currently operated by First) and East Coast (currently operated by state-owned Directly Operated Railways after National Express’s withdrawal from the route in the face of unaffordable premium payments). The government is meanwhile seeking to protect its new franchises from Open Access competitors to further improve their financial performance. The Great Western franchise’s Invitation to Tender was issued

Legal action, petitions, pleas to the UK Parliament, and plans for competing flights by dissapointed rival Virgin have followed the naming of First as the new operator for the West Coast train operating franchise between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Scotland. The franchise is the first of a significant batch to be re-let, embodying new government thinking on the running and development of the UK rail system. But it has raised questions of forecasting demand and how to ensure that an over

Relatively short connections in the transport network can have a disproportionate significance in both addressing end-to-end journey requirements, and complementing the accessibility needs of large activity sites and potential new development opportunities. In this field, some recent innovative systems are showing exciting potential to tackle problems in new ways – and even more economically and rapidly than hitherto. A group of emerging, new generation short transport concepts are offe

More significant transfers of responsibility for European public transport services have been taking place this summer as the competitive marketplace required by the EU comes further on stream. Perhaps the most significant is DB owned Arriva beginning the first phase of Sweden’s largest integrated multi-modal public transport tender for the Stockholm area. Storstockholms Lokaltrafik selected Arriva for two parallel operating contracts covering local bus and light services. The start dates

Arriva’s purchase of British patient transport provider Ambuline not only moves it further towards a model of mobility provider and away from the scheduled transport-only model which has generally applied to major British transport groups so far, but also places it in prime position to benefit from changes in local authority socially necessary transport provision. DB subsidiary Arriva purchased Birmingham-based Ambuline in June for an undisclosed sum. Ambuline employs 240 people and curr

The future of public transport in Britain will be more electric, the UK government has decided, as it begins the process of catching up with mainland European thinking on public transport power supply. It has given the go ahead to substantial electrification works on the country’s rail network, and a commitment to fund plans to reintroduce the first electric trolleybuses in the country, since the last one was withdrawn from Bradford in 1972. While European mainland railways are electrifi

Richard Parry has been appointed to be managing director of the new Intercity West Coast franchise just awarded to First Group. He headed the bid having previously worked with Tim O’Toole First Group Chief Executive as acting MD and Deputy MD for London Underground. First says he has extensive experience of operational delivery, customer service improvements and stakeholder engagement and will be supported by First’s commercial and revenue development expertise from elsewhere in its

Only three months after taking over as the head of Keolis, the subsidiary of SNCF, David Azéma has resigned to lead the French government Agency which holds its interests in public enterprises of the State where he was appointed on 1 August 2012 by the government.  The former right-hand man of SNCF chief executive Guillaume Pepy leaves as head of Keolis - the SNCF subsidiary specializing in local public transport to take the lead at Agency State holdings (EPA ), a public body respons

Sir Brian Souter is to take over as chairman of Stagecoach next  May when Sir George Mathewson retires, despite concern that the UK corporate governance code states that a chief executive should not go on to chair the same company. Stagecoach’s long-standing finance director, Martin Griffiths, will graduate to chief executive under the changes. He will be replaced in turn by Ross Paterson, currently director of finance and company secretary. Gary Watts, Stagecoach’s most senio

This issue has information as its focus – the information that drives the passenger transport business and the management of its operations, and influences and supports the travel decision-making by millions of users everyday. It might be obvious, but it’s worth saying again: information is power, and people can’t use what they don’t know is available. And even if they do know that a particular service exists, they now expect to know it is running reliably, and what it i

Stefan Roseanu has been appointed general manager of the Romanian railway passenger transport operator, CFR Calatori. Roseanu was co-founder of Club Feroviar, an organisation which supports and promotes public rail transport both nationally and internationally and is also part of the work group “Rail Strategy Platform” summoned by the Vice President of the European Commission and its transport chief, Siim Kallas, to debate issues confronting the European railway sector and to advise

UK Transport Secretary Justine Greening has announced the appointment of four Non-Executive Directors to the Board of HS2 Ltd. They include Richard Brown, former chief executive of Eurostar. HS2 Ltd, headed by Alison Munro, is the independent company set up to deliver a high speed rail network between London and the North of England, and has now moved from an advisory role to become a delivery body, including providing advice which enables the Department for Transport to deposit a hybrid Bill w

Virgin Trains’ chief operating officer, Chris Gibb, has been seconded to Network Rail for the remainder of this year to work with the Network Rail team on improving the performance of the infrastructure on the southern end of the West Coast Main Line, on which Virgin is franchise holder. Gibb will retain a number of his current duties and responsibilities for Virgin and will continue to undertake these alongside the role in Network Rail. He will report to Robin Gisby, Network Rail’s

Serco Group, the international services company, has appointed Richard Williams as Managing Director, Transport, as part of its newly formed UK & European Division. Serco’s Transportation business provides a wide ranging set of services within the sector in the UK and globally. His appointment follows the departure of Matthew Beeton to join National Express (this page) and before that of Jeroen Weimar, previously Serco’s transport MD, to become chief operating officer UK Bus wit

Martyn Briggs has been promoted to the position of programme manager, mobility, at Frost & Sullivan’s automotive and transportation team. He joined the international growth consultancy as a consultant last year, moving from MVA Consultancy, where he was a senior consultant in the policy, strategy and evaluation team.

National Express has recruited Matthew Beeton from Serco to be the Chief Operating Officer for its Coach business. At Serco, he was Managing Director of the company’s Transportation Systems division, having had a career in the transport industry spanning nearly two decades, including director positions with Rolls Royce, Bombardier and Northern Rail. He will now oversee the operational, maintenance, engineering and partner operators of the National Express Coach business, Britain’s

UK london-midlands rail route developer HS2 Ltd has awarded its final four professional services contracts for land referencing support. The successful companies will arrange access to land for ecological, environmental and engineering surveys, working closely with HS2 Ltd’s own property team, environment specialists and engineers. Terraquest has won two bids. They are a £752,000 London Metropolitan Area contract covering the route from Euston Station to the Colne Valley viaduct, in

New buses from manufacturer VDL have achieved claimed significant additional weight savings which reduce fuel consumption, so cutting costs and improving operators’ environmental impact. The Transport Publics 2012 exhibition saw VDL displaying its Citea Light Low Entry model, which is an innovative, low weight concept for a low-entry single deck bus designed for both city and intercity transport. New methods of construction have resulted in a very low weight, leading to considerably lowe

Metro, the West Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority, has agreed a £7 million plan to implement a smartcard ticketing system for bus users in Bradford and neighbouring districts. The green light follows a successful joint bid by Metro and bus operators to the Department for Transport (DfT) for almost £5 million of funding. Plans include fitting alround 400 vehicles run by smaller operators with smartcard readers, to bring them into line with those of Transdev Keighley and Arriv

US on-line grocer Peapod has turned a busy Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) L station at State and Lake Streets into a virtual supermarket aisle, enabling commuters to use their smartphones to scan and buy any of 70 regularly-bought items. Appearing overnight on formerly blank walls, 2.13m-high virtual shelves line both sides of a 18.3m-long pedestrian tunnel, filled with images of everyday items. Android and iPhone users can download a free Peapod mobile barcode scanner app from a section of t

UK company Screenreader.net has developed an Android smartphone app specifically to aid public transport users who find the system a challenge to use. Aimed at those with disabilities, the Safe & Sound concept features large on-screen buttons for travellers with defective sight, and all buttons speak when touched. The company is looking for co-operation amongst bus operators and campaigning organisations to help with development and distribution of the device, which costs £295. It ru

Energy  use in transport is currently far from being sustainable. Across Europe, energy consumption for passenger and freight transport has increased in line with the rise in transport demand over the last few decades, putting heavy pressure on fossil fuel resources as well as increasing emissions of greenhouse gases. Transport is the only sector where energy consumption and CO2 emissions continue to grow, and it is now responsible for around 25% of total EU greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

We’re a pretty insular lot – us Brits that is. And I reckon we’re particularly insular in transport thinking, and how we make the best of our railways and improve their sustainability. For years we swallowed the Government’s mantra that rail electrification was not an important idea, whilst everyone else around the world was busy electrifying like it was going out of fashion. Were we right and the rest wrong? I don’t think so, and the wheel has turned full circle. D

The term ‘smarter choices’ is increasingly used to describe the development and promotion of sustainable transport, both in terms of the decisions by users about their travel choices, and by transport system providers about their service offer. However,  care is needed managing these programmes as smart language does not does not necessarily imply practical outcomes. One of the critical issues is the distinction between marketing and promotion, known as ‘soft measures&rs

A range of innovative concepts have been emerging to provide rail based transport solutions for areas of low demand over short distances. The fruits of both individual inventors and large companies looking for the next technology, they have featured smaller, alternatively powered vehicles capable of running on both existing and new track for journey lengths of 2kms or so. The quest has been to find economical and attractive links to the main rail networks that can replace conventional branch li

The public transport industry makes surprisingly little numerical play on its carbon credentials, but carbon calculators can demonstrate to potential users that by taking public transport they are doing something virtuous. Some public transport websites do provide personal carbon calculators which allow users to compare the carbon impact of their journey with that of the same car journey. Both the UK Department for Transport’s Transport Direct website and Germany’s DB travel inform

With dense populations and small footprints, urban areas offer one of the most fertile grounds for promoting sustainable transport, yet transport operators and local politicians seem often to fail to make best use of this opportunity. The rising cost of fuel is making car users think about other journey options, and young people postpone getting a licence or a car. This is a big opportunity for change. Good network design offers opportunities for public transport to improve its environmental ef

There was considerable media coverage earlier this year when the UK’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders published its 2012 New Car CO2 Emissions Report, and announced that the automotive industry was playing its part in combating climate change. According to SMMT’s figures, a new car bought in the UK is now 18.0% more efficient than the average car in use in the UK. A new car in 2011 emitted 27.2% less CO2 than one did 15 years ago while CO2 emissions from all cars in use be

At Arriva’s UK bus division, a £1.5m programme is being initiated to reduce use of energy and utility resources. The programme has been driven primarily by the need to look across the business to minimise costs in response to challenging trading conditions. However, the new focus is also designed to deliver significant environmental benefits. Financial payback on the programme is expected within two years, demonstrating the value that targeted investments in environmental sustainabil

By 2021, the world’s automotive industry will be producing some eight million hybrid electric cars a year, according to industry expert Dr Peter Harrop.  It will be only a part of what Harrop, who spoke at New Transit’s Electric Futures event in London in April, expects to become a US$260bn-plus market for electric vehicles, including many buses. He is the chairman and founder of consultancy and publisher IDTechEx, which specialises in electric vehicles, printed electronics and

The vision of smart electric energy transfer to public transport vehicles in short bursts as they operate in urban areas may be close to being realised. Certainly that’s the belief of  pioneers like Conductix Wampfler who have been trialing the IPT Charge system  in Italy for 10 years, and demonstrating that the technology establishes electric buses as a real option. Advocates believe that for local public transport in particular, the electric bus is the mode of the future being

Smarter lighting across vehicles and premises has caught the attention of transport operators seeking to reduce costs as well as carbon emissions. Rolling stock leasing company Porterbrook trialled an LED-based lighting system on a suburban train in the West Midlands during 2009. It monitored ambient lighting and adjusted lighting levels accordingly, estimated to save 129 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year, through reduced electricity consumption, if rolled out to the rest of the West Midlands el

It is a win-win situation when the engineering, commercial and marketing departments of passenger transport organisations can find common cause in their business objectives, and a shared message to present to the public and political decision-makers. But the idea of ‘going green’ is increasingly providing just that opportunity - with improved economic and environmental credentials going hand-in-hand. Applying smarter thinking about how bus and rail systems are designed, equipped and

Payments Technology –  will travel lead the mobile phone transactions revolution? When bank card payments arrive, is there still a role for the operator smartcard Information –  the knowledge that guides travel decision making. Who will supply it?How will it be received by customers? Where is it all heading? Customer Relationship Management and loyalty in travel – connecting with the audience and building understanding wit

A special focus on partnership building to create win-win outcomes in transport provision, and the culture change needed to provide a genuine customer-facing ethos, has been added to the programme for this year’s major Travel 2020 exhibition and conference which will take place on the 10th & 11th October 2012 at Kia Oval, London. The highly topical issue joins the eight major topic areas already being addressed by the event in two days of wide ranging discussion about the future of p

Acomprehensive showcase of the French passenger transport world was provided at this year’s 5th Transport Publics expo held in Paris. The Biennial event brings together the whole of the industry across modes and involves both the system suppliers, transport authorities and operators. As well as a big range of buses, a tram, vehicle and passenger service delivery equipment and technologies, a feature of the show was major displays by all the French operating groups including RATP, Veolia T

The double decker is the bus design that refuses to die. By rights, it shouldn’t exist, given that it involves passengers walking up and down steep staircases on a moving vehicle, while passengers upstairs can get up to all kinds of mischief out of sight of the only member of staff on the bus. The amount of space accessible to people who can’t use stairs is small, especially on eccentric multi-door, multi-staircase, projects like the New Bus for London. The European Bus System of the

Having spent his first term modifying the congestion charge, delivering the London cycle hire scheme and ordering prototypes for his new London bus, Boris Johnson is turning his attention more heavily to rail having secured his re-election as London Mayor in May. He is seeking to address the problem of strikes and poor reliability on the London Underground, and to extend his responsibility for suburban rail services. Giving evidence to the London Assembly, Johnson said he had set Transport for

An innovative French scheme appears to have solved many of the financial and operational issues around the provision of Demand Responsive Transport (DRT). The scheme, based around St Brieuc (Brittany), uses bespoke computer technology to deliver a comprehensive half-hourly ‘virtual’ bus network in rural areas, which cannot sustain conventional bus services. It books and plans journeys on local taxis, and automatically pays taxi providers. While the advantages of DRT are well recogni

A customised version of Van Hool’s ExquiCity bus design for Metz, unveiled at Transports Publics, the biennial European mobility exhibition in Paris at the beginning of June, illustrates the latest thinking on how to deliver a genuinely enhanced road passenger transport offer to reflect the possibilities of BHNS/BRT provision as an alternative or precursor to tramway or LRT. It is a 24 metre long, bi-articulated bus with a diesel-electric hybrid drive system that will be used for public

The steady opening up of European rail markets to competition is involving some tough decisions about how to package the offer of contracts. Germany and the Netherlands have been early implementors of the EU requirements, but have been facing some controversial issues. In June, the Berlin Senate voted to push ahead with controversial proposals to split the city’s S-Bahn network into three separate businesses in order to introduce competition when tendering for operating concessions. Bids

West Yorkshire’s Integrated Transport Authority (ITA) members have voted to support the introduction of England’s first Quality Contract framework for bus services. Their move reflects a growing frustration that the UK is failing to achieve the benefits of genuine operator/local authority partnership in passenger transport provision since the introduction of privatisation and deregulation outside London. But the authority has looked to Sweden rather than London for its model of colla

Public transport has long traded on its green credentials and the lower carbon emissions which attend to passenger journeys on buses, trains, trams, and other sustainable modes, compared to similar trips in the private car. But, it is not enough to stand still in this area, not least because the fuel efficiency and other eco-credentials of new cars are improving rapidly, and the motor industry is already strongly promoting new cars as a greener choice too. In a difficult economic climate invest

Within 10 years, most of the world’s buses will be electric (mainly hybrids), industry consultant Dr Peter Harrop told New Transit’s ’ April conference on Electric Futures for Public Transport. He expects hybrids to become more like pure electrics over time, looking forward to new developments in supercapacitors, and on-vehicle lamination of electrics bringing huge weight savings. He forsaw large, flexible rooftop solar panels; and multiple energy harvesting (eg from shock abso

Introduction of Montpellier’s two new tramway lines has been supported by a new tram driver simulator. It is “the first of its kind in France,” says Vincent Cordonnier, director of Transamo, the tram engineering branch of Veolia Transdev that worked with system operator TaM to develop the tool. The network’s growing complexity is the reason for bringing the simulator into play. With the introduction of Lines 3 & 4, the zone around the city’s main line St-Roch

Consultant Atkins has secured a £13.3 million contract to produce preliminary designs for the two High Speed 2 (HS2) running lines through the 91km Country South section of the new rail link, given the go ahead by the UK government earlier this year. Covering Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire, the award covers design work for the Colne Valley Viaduct, twin bore tunnels under the Chilterns and a range of new ‘green’ tunnels, int

UK rail mobile phone ticketing pioneer Masabi has won a contract to launch the US’ first smartphone rail ticketing system for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA).It is the US’ fifth largest transit agency carrying some some 1.3 million passenger trips each weekday. The system will allow passengers to buy and display rail tickets on their smartphones across the MBTA’s commuter rail network. It will support iPhone, Android and Blackberry devices and is expected

Glasgow commuters will offered contactless smartcard payment on the city’s single-line circular Subway from 2013 as part of the system’s £288m upgrade. The Scottish Government is contributing funding for the system, developed by Ecebs and the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT). It is due to be in place in time for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. At present there is a flat fare, and a new system will introduce lower rates for short journeys. To avoid people being caught

UK chip designer ARM, The Netherlands-HQ’d  digital security vendor Gemalto, and German smartcard fare and parking system provider Giesecke & Devrient have set up a joint venture aimed at delivering a common security standard for the growing numbers of electronic payment services and devices. Reflecting the increasing availability of direct access to bank and credit/debit card accounts, the JV hopes that, with improved security standards delivered in a way that makes for easier

With the Competition Commission’s review of Britain’s bus market now complete, the Government has launched its formal new bus policy statement. As expected there are no radical changes to the deregulated framework that has now been in place for some 25 years, or moves to bring franchising into play outside London, though Local Transport Minister Norman Baker kept the door open for English local authorities to pursue bus Quality Contracts with a measure of formal control, whilst usin

Phase one of South Hampshire’s new Eclipse Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) busway, connecting business and residential areas in Fareham and Gosport, has been opened. The dedicated busway has been constructed on a former railway line to enable buses to bypass normal traffic in a congested part of the area and upgrade the public transport offer in a bid to get people out of their cars. The majority of funding for the busway came from a £20m Government grant.  A fleet of 14 brand new, hi

National Express Group has highlighted that the UK government’s decision to scrap concessionary travel programmes for coach passengers last November will cost its coach division £15m of lost revenue this year. In its first quarter trading statement, the group said that “mitigating the lower profit” that the reduced revenue would cause would be the coach division’s major challenge in 2012. Initial progress following the launch of National Express’s own conces

It’s bright red, has plush seats, a great stereo and can roll over the Italian countryside at more than 227 mph. If your guess is a new Ferrari, you’re not completely wrong. Italian company Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (NTV) recently inaugurated Europe’s first open access high speed train service with new Italo trains from Alstom, but with the obvious influence of one of NTV’s owners, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Ferrari’s chairman. NTV’s initial fleet of 25 t

The UK Department for Transport has published a new rail demand forecasting framework developed by consultants Oxera and Arup that suggests current industry expectations of passenger responses to price and journey time changes may be wrong. It adds to an emerging understanding that the old principles and practices of revenue management are increasingly out of date. Commissioned by the DfT, Transport Scotland and the Passenger Demand Forecasting Council, the ‘Revisiting the elasticity-base

In depth discussions with industry experts are guiding the programme for  this year’s major Travel 2020 exhibition and conference which will take place on the 10th & 11th October 2012 at Kia Oval, London. The issues they identify in the seven major topic areas being addressed by the event are setting the scene for two days of wide ranging discussion about the future of passenger transport service and systems development. The event is led by New Transit and partners RTiG INFORM w

The French passenger transport sector has achieved a strong and focused representative framework that brings the operating industry across all the modes together in a single body, which itself works closely with the parallel organisation for local transport authorities and their political leadership. The Union des Transports Publics et Ferroviaires now includes both urban bus and tram systems, and since 2006 the rail sector too, with ten rail undertakings including SNCF and Eurostar. A determi

With a significant presence in the French domestic coach travel market SNCF has recently ordered fifty coaches from two manufacturers for its project Speed, long distance coach lines. The dedicated unit of SNCF Voyages, led by Maria Harti, still officially refuses to comment on a project that would compete with Eurolines internationally.  The draft long-distance plan was revealed at the end of last year by an article in Le Figaro. It reflected the impending liberalization of the French co

France’s rail market is perceived as being one of the most difficult in Europe for any new operator to break into. And both the giant state-owned rail company and the government seem determined to keep it that way - whatever EU competition policy may say. Although complying with European regulations requiring the separation of train operations from infrastructure, intended to make on-rail competition and involvement by the private sector easier, France’s rail network still operates

Roland Ries is argualbly the most significant politician in French municipal transport. He is a member of the Senate and a leading member of the socialist party and as Strasbourg Mayor since 2008 he has led the  further development of the city’s tramway and transport system. Ries has also been President of the authorities responsible for transport (GART) since 2008. In this capacity he puts forward the views of elected members who run city and regional transport authorities at Nationa

Three months before the victory of François Hollande as France’s new socialist President, his transport adviser during the campaign, Roland Ries, Mayor of Strasbourg and Senate member, presented the would-be president’s ten point transport plan.  The clearest statement to date of how President Hollande will approach this policy area, it reflects his wider campaign pledges to drive forward economic growth and public investment, address environmental issues and put equity

Alstom and Transmashholding launch new Moscow tramway Alstom are in partnership with Transmash-holding (TMH) to supply a  high-speed low-floor tramway to be built in Russia with associated innovative management systems. The modular prototype presented in  Moscow is based on Alstom’s flagship  Citadis, designed for maximum speed of  75kph, and average  25kph compared to  11kph for existing tramways in Moscow. More Pendolinos for Virgin and very high speed A

Alstom and the French Strategic Investment Fund (FSI) have been studying  a joint €60 million purchase of 85% of specialist Alsatian tram manufacturer Translohr. Parent company of the group Lohr Industries would retain a 15% stake. It appears that the acquisition would underpin the continued sustainability of the business by providing access to the commercial network of Alstom Transport and its offer to city authorities, and expertise in management, technical skills and purchasing po

Keolis Keolis is majority owned by French state railway company SNCF, which has just raised its stake from 56.7% to 70% of the company by buying out part of the private equity interests which now hold the rest other than management and staff with 2.8%. In 2010, revenues at the group were 4.1 billion euros, up 16% on 2009, with 32% of its turnover being generated in French urban areas. The company has 47,200 employees (30,800 in France, 16,400 outside). It currently operates 160 subsidiaries i

A feature of France’s public transport system is that tram lines are much more common than in countries of a similar size and urban structure like Britain. France has 22 tram networks comprising a total of 41 lines. In the past twelve months new lines have been opened in Dijon, Le Havre and Montpellier. Britain has just five, including  the only long standing traditional network in Blackpool. French trams can be found operating in what would be regarded in Britain as quite small town

The French Capital is something of an exception to the organisational arrangements which apply to passenger transport delivery in the rest of the country. Public transport in Paris is over seen by a transport association called Syndicat des Transports d’Ile-de-France (STIF), which covers all of the Ile-de-France, essentially the Greater Paris area. Until 2004 half of STIF was comprised of representatives from France’s national government. Following a decision that the national govern

Some features of the French public transport system are internationally known – and admired. But the policy, organisational and funding framework behind them is not so well understood, and even the performance of the system in terms of patronage levels, modal split, commercial results and passenger and political ratings is sometimes hard for outsiders to discover. Amongst the most widely recognised elements are the impresive high speed rail network, the advanced development of urban rail

We’ve thrown the spotlight on France for this issue. There is a great deal happening in the French passenger transport scene which is innovative and positive and well worth the attention of professionals from other countries. As New Transit was going to press, François Hollande was elected President, on a slate of increased public spending to achieve growth, and a concern for greater equity. Both these objectives could impact upon transport, as could a highly sceptical view on the

Here in the United States, French cities have a romantic allure, as indeed they seem to have the world over. Ask someone if they would be interested in a vacation to Paris or to the urban centres of the French Riviera, and likely you’ll get a very favourable response. Why is this? My theory is that many French cities offer things that people crave when they want the best in urban life. Cities such as Paris, Nice, Lyon, Montpellier, Strasbourg—to name just a few—are interestin

­It is a truth more or less universally acknowledged, that a French city mayor seeking re-election must be in want of a tram. In France the tram represents more than just an urban-friendly, bang on trend mode of transport. Much more is riding on it. In a word: votes. The thinking here is along the lines of ‘give the people a tram and they’ll vote for me.’ Brand new tramways, or line extensions, or the introduction of new trams, are typically inaugurated prior to city elec

The elections in May were significant in so many ways. For me, they were particularly notable  as I was elected onto Kirklees Council to represent Golcar ward in the Colne Valley in West Yorkshire. This small blip on the political radar as many English authorities turned ‘red’ with Labour’s sweeping gains across the country may have been missed by most New Transit readers. They were probably more interested in the bigger picture in Britain and Europe – and the big ci

A common theme among many futuristic views of our personal mobility is the way in which data will be used to make transportation smarter. It will change the relationships between citizens, transport providers and the state. It will impact all our professional lives – notably in the ways in which we deploy our resources, and how we operate and measure our organizations. The intelligent and creative use of data will make transport more accessible, adaptable, predictable and above all, more s

Design is a language that is international, and in an increasingly global society we are all better able to understand its vocabulary, grammar and syntax whether we are from Brighton or Bratislava, or whether that design was created in London or Lille. That said, design also has the capability to speak with a local accent, and in the area of passenger transport there is an opportunity to reflect the culture and personality of particular places in the design, identity and styling of the vehicles

A closer focus from France on its operations in the UK seems to be signalled by RATP with the departure of Paul Matthews, who has headed RATP Dev UK business since last year. The move leaves RATP’s interests in the UK under Cyril Carniel, director of the Northern Europe Business Unit, which also covers Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.  Matthews was formerly managing director of Transdev London United, but following the separation of RATP’s interests in

Professor José Manuel Viegas, a Portuguese national, has been chosen as Secretary-General-elect of the International Transport Forum. At their Annual Summit in Leipzig in May, Ministers from the 53 member countries chose Viegas as the next head of the organisation, which has been without a head since the departure of Belgian Carole Coune who was appointed a year ago, but left within a few months to return to SNCB, the Belgian state rail operator. Viegas will take over from Michael Klot

Ruth Humphrey has been appointed as Project Director - Depots, for Siemens Rail Systems, and  will have overall responsibility for delivery of the Thameslink depots at Hornsey and Three Bridges.  Humphrey has over 20 years industry experience in engineering projects, and over the past 10 years has led the delivery of a variety of heavy  and light rail construction projects.  She will work closely with recently-appointed Thameslink Rolling Stock Project Programme Director Da

First Hull Trains has appointed Brian Christie as its new operations manager. He was previously train driver manager at First Capital Connect and before that production manager at DB Schenker Rail (UK) and operations manager at EWS Railways.  

David Azéma, currently Chief Operating Officer of SNCF Group, in charge of the group's strategy and its development in France and abroad, is to become managing director of SNCF’s Keolis subsidiary, succeeding Michel Bleitrach. Keolis is SNCF’s worldwide business for operating buses, trams and light rail systems, and international rail ventures. Azéma is presently SNCF deputy general manager and member of Keolis board of directors. This board will also be reorganized

FirstGroup has appointed a new group finance director to replace Jeff Carr who left the company in November. Chris Surch will join First in September from  international waste management business Shanks Group where he has been finance director since 2009. Prior to joining Shanks he held senior financial roles at Smiths Group and TI Group. He began his career at Pricewaterhouse Coopers. FirstGroup chief executive Tim O’Toole said that the appointment of a new finance director had bee

Mike Goggin, Director, International & Advisory at consultant Steer Davies Gleave has been appointed by international transport operator MTR Corporation of Hong Kong to lead their bid for the 15-year Essex Thameside rail franchise. The role is a short term project. Goggin re-joined SDG earlier this year after a period as Stations Director at Network Rail.

The UK Railway Industry Association has appointed David Bill as its new International Development Director. Bill is a civil engineer by qualification and started his career in the railway electrification division of Balfour Beatty, where he became the Director responsible for a portfolio of international projects and international business development, of which he became director. He went to Hong Kong as General Manager for Rail and Power Transmission. For a two year period Bill was seconded

 FirstGroup has bolstered its UK Bus management with the appointment of Jeroen Weimar as Chief Operating Officer. Weimar will join on June 11 from Serco where he was Managing Director of its UK transport business with revenues of £530m employing over 7000 people.  His responsibilities included the National Traffic Control Centre, the Docklands Light Railway, the Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme in London, and Serco’s joint ventures with Abellio that operate Merseyrail and Norther

Richard Bowker has left his position as CEO of Etihad Rail, the company responsible for the United Arab Emirates'  US $11bn railway network construction programme, Bowker joined Etihad, formerly known as Union Railway, in 2009 after leaving Britain's National Express Group as it hit a finacial crisis and surrendered its East Coast franchise. He was previously chairman of the now defunct Strategic Rail Authority. He will join the English Football Association as an independent director. Et

Momentum has appeared to be building inexorably in the UK towards following the European example of devolving much greater responsibility for local rail services to local or regional government. In setting out the practical implications, the Department for Transport’s much delayed Command Paper responding to the original McNulty review recommendations from last May has acted as something of a reality check. The benefits devolution could bring in terms of making informed decisions, local

­T­­he UK Government has issued its consultation paper on options for decentralising local and regional rail services within England. It’s a hot topic and the suggested options include some potentially radical stuff, but my suspicion is that we face a fairly tortuous journey to any new responsibility framework, with an uneven response, reflecting the lack of effective regional or sub-regional government in Britain. The UK does not have a clear federal structure like the USA

When I was doing management training some years ago a frequent theme in college lectures was the difference between supplier-led and consumer-led organisations. Our lecturer had clearly identified the fact that many passenger transport operators were then still in the former camp. Whilst I instinctively knew he was right, it required quite a major effort of will to bend one’s thinking to see things through the eyes of the customer, particularly when the surrounding culture was generally no

Plans in the UK government’s rail Command Paper for retailers close to stations, and potentially high street libraries, post offices and supermarkets, to sell rail tickets could draw on technology developed for Merseyrail’s MtoGo concept. The first MtoGo combined convenience store and ticket sales outlet was opened in 2006 at Liverpool’s Moorfields, and has since been extended to a further seven stations. The concept was enabled by a ticketing system developed by Fujitsu wh

A project involving the Association of Train Operating Companies has begun to consider building on the UK’s Rail Settlement Plan philosophy to offer payment reconciliation across all modes of transportThe project – South East Fares and Ticketing (SEFT) – was launched following the announcement in the Chancellor’s November budget that £45m would be provided as part funding for implementation of ITSO smartcard rail ticketing across the south east. While SEFT began

There is a new kind of transport enthusiast, the “app collector”. I recently realised that my own collection of travel apps looks small when compared with that of an avid collector. There is an increasing range of apps that address similar travel information challenges in different ways. How many do I actually need? Looking on the Android store for “bus London”, for example, there are 31 apps that give bus departures in London and all have at least 3 stars, with mo

We’ve commented before in New Transit about the ways in which the transport modes are coming together, with public transport increasingly seen as a key element in an integrated mobility offer. What we couldn’t have forecast however, was the fact that two very senior men from Ford Motor Company would be featuring in the same issue for their major impact on thinking and leadership of the passenger transport sector. In February, the head of Ford gave his thoughts on the future of tran

Arriva UK Bus has reported that its mobile ticketing application was used more than two million times during its first two years of operation. A further three million journeys will be made using the app this year, the operator estimates. There have been more than 65,000 registrations of the service, which represents one in four of regular users, said Arriva. The free app, designed by Concept Data Technologies and Arriva, can be used on any internet-enabled mobile phone. Some 16% of all off-

Thales has launched its 500 series platform gates and ticket reader. The OR500 reader is compatible with most contactless payment systems and bank cards, said the company. The OR 500, due to be available by the end of this year, can be integrated into greenfield projects or as an upgrade in any regional or nationwide fare collection systems, said Thales. The firms adds that its “expertise in cryptology” ensures that data exchanges and equipment in the management system is totally sec

Abellio London & Surrey is using planning and timetabling software from supplier Omnibus for its 77 routes from six depots. The bus operator, which runs services in central, south and west London and across north Surrey, has adopted a range of Omnibus software solutions. These include OmniTIMES for timetable design and management, and OmniBASE for vehicle scheduling and data management. Abellio has been gradually installing the Omnibus systems over the past two years. The new style ti

Peter Huntley, 55, who died in a fall in the Lake District on 9 February, was a widely admired, energetic and innovative professional in the UK transport world who was about to embark on a further adventure in a multi-dimensional career. A keen cyclist, walker and climber, Huntley was in training for a gruelling 16-day trek to the North Pole in April in aid of charity Transaid, which tackles poverty in the developing world by providing better transport. Born in Hartlepool, Huntley entered the

Richard McClean has taken over from Tom Clift as managing director at rail operator Grand Central. McClean (above) will continue as head of parent group Arriva’s Tyne & Wear Metro operation. Grand Central, which runs direct services between Sunderland, Hartlepool and London, was taken over by DB-owned Arriva UK in November 2011. Sean English, currently Grand Central’s operations director, will take on the new role of general manager.

Stagecoach has confirmed senior management teams at its rail companies South West Trains and East Midlands Trains, with Mark Steward  appointed operations director at SWT in place of Ian Johnston. Christian Roth takes up the position of engineering director and Andy West finance director with SWT. The new customer service director is Jake Kelly while Kelly Barlow takes charge of human resources and Brian Cook is director of safety & environment. Steward has led the operations team at Ea

The insurance industry isn’t often looked upon as a paragon of retail virtue, so you might think it a bit odd if I suggest that those in the passenger transport business could learn a thing or two from that sector. But let’s see if I can persuade you. The proposition is my recurring concern: the reward from genuine customer focussed thinking. Once a year I fill in a form for my car insurance. It asks me to confirm some things about me (age, length of driving licence, etc), the vehi

Rail Minister Theresa Villiers has announced the transport operators shortlisted to bid for the next Great Western, Thameslink and Essex Thameside rail franchises. They are: Great Western: FirstGroup, Arriva/DB UK Investments, National Express and Stagecoach These bidders will receive the Invitation to Tender in May 2012. It is anticipated that the successful bidder will be announced in December 2012, with the contract commencing in April 2013. The length of the franchise term will be 15 y

Kevin Carr has been appointed managing director of Go North East in succession to Peter Huntley, who left the business at the end of last year considering that he had completed the business turnaround he had been recruited to carry out six years ago. Carr, who had been MD on an interim basis, joined the company as an apprentice electrician in 1975 and has worked his way through the ranks. Go-Ahead chief executive David Brown said Carr’s understanding of the business and the role it plays i

Why is he on the list? Gallot is chief executive of the world’s largest private sector transport group. What kind of year has he had? Triumph to disaster. After completing the merger with Veolia, Gallot headed a company with €8bn turnover in 27 countries. Deals worth €3bn in the final quarter of 2011 included the contract to run the USA’s largest private bus system.  But in December the rug was pulled from under Gallot by Veolia’s announcement that it would

Why is he on the list? The International Union of Public Transport has become a big hitter in discussing, presenting and promoting a positive future for public transport. Flausch’s appointment as General Secretary from his previous presidency and leading role in Europe as the head of Brussels Transport has lifted it to an even higher level. What kind of year has he had? The UITP had a highly successful congress in Dubai, with a further strengthening of its mission to double public tra

Why is he on the list? Higgins is the leader of UK reforms which could have a far reaching influence nationally and internationally. What kind of year has he had? Dynamic. Higgins has pre-empted government legislation by taking up the agenda of the McNulty rail review. Network Rail has devolved responsibility for operations to regional MDs and led the creation of new co-operative alliances with the company’s engineering contractors and train operator customers. However questions may s

Why is he on the list? Leads SNCF, second only to DB in Europe and internationally. What kind of year has he had? Recovery strategy appeared effective in addressing  some structural issues, and financial agreements with the French state and track authority RFF have given SNCF a more solid foundation. International/domestic freight and local transport businesses grew rapidly and TGV performance recovered, but Pepy acknowledges profit margins across his €30bn business are well belo

Why is he on the list? Expansion-minded leader of Paris’s transport operations. What kind of year has he had? Potentially pivotal year in positioning RATP as a major player in European consolidation. The Veolia Transdev merger saw RATP take over 16 companies in return for its 25% stake in Transdev, establishing a direct presence in the UK and Switzerland and making it the largest  foreign operator in Italy. RATP now has a presence in 12 countries on five continents. Introduction o

Why is he on the list? Leads arguably the premier urban transport authority in Europe. What kind of year has he had? A huge year. Transport for London unveiled plans for the world’s first citywide contactless bankcard EMV payment system; the new version of the Routemaster was launched; and Johnson’s idea for a Thames estuary airport began to gain ground. Olympic plans are ahead of schedule and promise to leave a lasting legacy on demand management and communication systems as we

Why is he on the list? First could become the world’s largest private sector transport group following Veolia Transdev divorce. What kind of year has he had? The weaknesses in Moir Lockhead’s inheritance began to become apparent. The ‘recession-proof’ US school bus division saw margins fall below 1%; turning the UK bus division into an entrepreneurial business is proving a slow process; and the Great Western rail franchise will be handed back three years early. What

Why is he on the list? Continues to see opportunities in a way nobody else matches. What kind of year has he had? Solid achievement at Stagecoach, buccaneering deal making in private interests. Amid difficult economic conditions, Stagecoach confirmed the resilience of its growth-led business model, pushing bus margins to an astonishing 18%. No sign of slow down in ideas as Souter launched Megabus sleepers and mulled new concepts in market segmentation. In his private business, Souter Invest

Why is he on the list? Perhaps the key influence on forthcoming consolidation of European passenger transport. What kind of year has he had? Deutsche Bahn has made good on its promise to respect Arriva’s skills and independence and now refers to Arriva as its “entrepreneurial arm”. It puts Martin, a veteran of around 200 M&A deals, in a position to do what he enjoys best, leading business development. Financial statements suggest solid if unspectacular growth in 2011.

The major changes reshaping the passenger transport business are having a significant impact on where real power lies. They include the roles given to key individuals leading the sector and of the organisations controlling policy and finance, and those driving new developments in technology and service delivery. To reflect these tectonic shifts in how we should view power, influence and leadership in passenger transport, New Transit has restructured its annual and eagerly-awaited People Issue.

Across the world, major cycle hire schemes are becoming an increasingly prevalent part of the urban transport mix, with cities such as London, Paris and Barcelona among the leaders. At the same time, car clubs have begun to gain in scale and use. Similarly, the concept of integrating cycle and car hire with public transport has been established through schemes run by major European rail operators to cater for the ‘last mile’ of door-to-door journeys, which are often outside the scope

Continuing economic uncertainty and spending restraints have depressed the UK bus vehicle market, but the industry has had one bright spot from the £25 million on offer under the Government’s Green Bus Fund III initiative. “I’m happy not to be gloomy about 2012”, Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders’ Bus and Coach Section Chair Adrian Wickens says. The Volvo Bus Product Planning Manager expects to see full take-up of the third-round extension of the fu

Six months away from the start of the Olympic Games in London, concerns remain at the ability of the transport system to perform at the required world leading level. A huge effort has been made by London to take the opportunity of the Games to showcase both the city and its transport system, with an emphasis on providing public transport services that cover the vast majority of the needs of participants and visitors. However, there are doubts – including amongst professionals involved

FirstGroup plc has announced changes to its management board. Sidney Barrie, the group’s commercial director is to retire and will step down from the board at the end of March. Audrey Baxter stepped down as independent non-executive director at the end of last year. Since 2009 she had chaired the Remuneration Committee, and has been succeeded by David Begg. Non-executive employee director Martyn Williams also retired at the end of last year at the end of his term, and Mick Barker, employ

Carole Coune has rejoined SNCB Holding, the Belgian state rail operator. Last August she was appointed president of the International Transport Forum of the OECD, but resigned unexpectedly in November. She is now back on the board of SNCB Holding responsible for the mobility files and the reform of the structures of the Belgian railways, in cooperation with the cabinet minister Paul Magnette. In 2005 she was made Director General of the Federal Public Service Mobility and Transport and in 200

The Wright Group has hired Dr Alan Lennon as its new non-executive chairman. Alongside this appointment he will continue to serve as non-executive director of InvestNI, Business in the Community and Young Enterprise. Lennon replaces Jeff Wright who held the position of chairman since 2006. He will continue with the Wright Group as a non-executive director. Born and educated in Northern Ireland, Lennon gained a first class honours degree in mechanical engineering from Queens University Belfast,

FirstGroup has appointed Richard Parry in the newly created role in the West Coast Intercity rail franchise bid team. Parry joins the group after 19 years at Transport for London (TfL) in a range of senior posts. He was most recently the body’s deputy managing? director and director of strategy and commercial for TfL's London? Underground and rail divisions. ?Vernon Barker, managing director First UK Rail, said: “The wealth of experience that Richard brings will be invaluable? to

Neil Scales is leaving MerseyTravel as chief executive and director general to take over as chief executive of TransLink, the public transport authority in Brisbane, Australia, in March. Scales has spent 15 years at MerseyTravel. He said: “For me this is a challenge to make a real difference on the other side of the world and an opportunity of a once-in-a-lifetime experience Down Under.” Chair of Merseytravel Mark Dowd said: “I have worked with Neil Scales for 15 years, and h

Recent months have seen the arrival in London of the so-called Borismaster - the new Routemaster bus for London initiated by Mayor Boris Johnston - and the unveiling at the National Exhibition Centre in November of what could perhaps be called the Raymaster - the new bus for Nottingham, in which I have myself played a role. It’s a restyling of the Tempo that I worked on for trentbarton and Optare. There’s also been launches of prototypes of the ‘European Bus System of the Fut

The public transport industry has a sometimes ambivalent attitude when it comes to making transport fully accessible for disabled travellers. The whole notion can be characterised as an unwelcome bureaucratic intervention, with the money involved seen to be better spent on other initiatives. The alternative, and perhaps more imaginative approach, is that catering for such needs can make the public transport offering more generally attractive for a much wider range of users - both existing and po

Around  40% of Europeans  choose not to travel using shared or collective transport if the journey involves a connection. And, in Europe, 83% of us prefer to use a car for our daily or occasional travel. These two percentages are perplexing in this age of eco-citizenship. Although the range of shared and collective transport options is ever-increasing in Europe, the constraints related to a trip whose components and uncertainties are beyond the control of an individual continue to be

A new recruitment firm specialising in railway engineering and construction has been set up by Andy Ridout. Advance Training & Recruitment Services is placing candidates in engineering, management and project services roles, both contract and permanent, in all of the major rail disciplines particularly focussing on signalling & telecomms, permanent way, electrification and power, civil/structural and rolling-stock. Andy Ridout has worked in the UK rail recruitment sector for 15 years in

Warwickshire County Council has appointed consultant Mott MacDonald to produce the outline designs for the new Stratford Parkway Station scheme. The consultant has previously designed the Warwick and Coleshill Parkway stations in the county. The outline design work on the £8.8m project is due to be completed by early summer 2012, with the new station scheduled to open by December 2013. The council has also appointed consultant SLC Rail to oversee the rail elements of the project includi

Bus operator First Glasgow has installed QR codes on more than 5,000 bus stops across the city. Passengers with smartphones can scan the codes to access a mobile friendly version of the FirstGroup website and get bus service updates, timetables and news. A First Glasgow spokeswoman said: “The QR codes have been printed on vinyl stickers, suitable to withstand the elements, and when scanned using a smart phone the customer is taken directly to our mobile website where they can get informat

Centro has teamed up with Rotala Buses to launch the Signature smartcard, allowing passengers in the West Midlands to pay fares electronically for the first time. They will also enjoy a cheaper fare compared to paying by cash. The technology is being road-tested on Rotala’s Signature services in and around Solihull. Passenger feedback and the performance of the technology will be closely monitored over the coming weeks as part of an on-going evaluation. Geoff Inskip, chief executive of Ce

Rail passengers in Northern Ireland can now buy, receive and display an electronic ticket on their mobile phones. Translink decided to roll out the service to all passengers at the start of this year after a successful trial involving 200 people. The system, developed by Translink Ticketing Systems and Trapeze Group, is compatible on any standard mobile phone that can access the internet as well as iPhone, Blackberry and Android handsets. By downloading the free mLink app, customers can buy tic

First TransPennine Express (FTPE) has become the first train operator in the country to give customers direct access to station, train control and revenue protection staff via twitter, rather than directing enquiries to corporate call centres. The new @tpeassist twitter account will enable customers’ tweets to be answered directly by staff who have specialist knowledge and who are dealing with situations on the ground as they develop. The service links customers to a team of FTPE’

Paris-style dedicated lines. Almost all metro lines operate with just one route or line per tunnel, instead of multiple routes per tunnel as in New York City, or on the Metropolitan or Circle Line in London. This simplifies train operations and eliminates junction delays as different routes merge onto the same tracks. The disadvantage with this model is that customers must transfer between different lines—sometimes circuitously—instead of enjoying a one seat ride. No express service

Which world city has today’s largest metro? It’s a question that is defined by the word ‘today’. If I’d asked you ten, or even five years ago, the answer would have been very different! But since 2010 the record holder has been the Chinese metropolis of Shanghai. With 420 kilometers (261 miles) Shanghai has surpassed London and New York to grab the title of the world’s largest metro as measured by route kilometers (or miles). With multiple sections of triple

In November a small conference took place in San Francisco at which communications experts from many transit agencies, vendors and systems integrators gathered to discuss the latest developments in wireless technologies and the impact they would have on passenger transportation. Staged by London-based Global Transport Forum the event included site visits to local rail and bus operators Amtrak, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, Caltrain and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). A hot topic wa

­T­­he ‘rail product’ is only as strong as its weakest link, and that link is often the station. So it’s good to see some real positives emerging on the station front. Both big and small. I had a heart-warming start to 2012 when I travelled on a local train, in the ‘investment-starved’ North of England, and stopped at a brand new and impressive station. It’s called ‘Buckshaw Parkway’, located between Leyland and Chorley in Lancashire,

More than ever, the successful delivery of quality public transport is in the hands of leaders, visionaries and innovators who see a positive – and different – future for bus, tram, metro, rail and other increasingly varied elements of a passenger transport system that provides a real and complete alternative to dependency on the private car. Massive business activity, a huge part of national and local government responsibility, and a major opportunity for smart suppliers is offered

Transport secretary Justine Greening is to give serious consideration to plans for a new hub airport in the Thames Estuary unveiled in November by a team including internationally renowned architect Lord Foster.  A Department for Transport (DfT) spokesman said that, although the government had ruled out expansion of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports, a Thames Estuary airport would “be considered as part of our wider review of aviation policy”. London mayor Boris Johnson

Steer Davies Gleave is working with the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA) in Michigan, USA, to develop a 30-year transit master plan for the city and the surrounding region. The AATA, which is branded TheRide, operates a comprehensive city-wide, fixed-route network, limited commuter express buses routes, park & ride and door-to-door services within the urban area. Like the public transport agencies of many mid-sized US cities, it is increasingly challenged to provide a diversity of

Peter Henderson, group asset management director at Network Rail, is to leave in 2012 after a decade with the organisation. He is one of the original board members of Network Rail, which he joined in 2002 as it acquired and succeeded Railtrack. Henderson has over 25 years experience as an engineer and project manager in the transport business, holding senior roles in  projects including the construction of the Tyne and Wear Metro and the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway.

Travel and transaction technology provider Amadeus has hired Thomas Drexler from DB as its new director of rail. His appointment follows the company’s establishment of a new businesses division to diversify the company and grow its rail, hotel, ground transportation and IT businesses. Drexler’s most recent role was vice president of sales at Deutsche Bahn, where he also held various commercial roles for the last eight years, and has helped spearhead the introduction of new technolo

First UK Bus has hired Lisa Mota Pinto as business development director. Pinto’s main areas of expertise are strategic and operational management leadership, commercial strategies, business development, re-structures and mergers and acquisitions activity. She has worked with a range of companies including the Serco Group, National Express, Arriva, Deutsche Bahn, DfT, Passenger Focus, PwC, Deutsche Bank and HighSpeed (UK & Abroad).  

Merseyrail has appointed Maarten Spaargaren (right) as its new managing director. He replaces another Dutch MD at Merseyrail, Bart Schmeink, who is leaving to become chief executive of GVB Amsterdam. Spaargaren worked as a consultant before joining Dutch national rail company NS in 1999. He has held various positions within NS from heading the timetable development department, to leading the bid for the High Speed Line South between Amsterdam and Brussels, to operations director. Spaargaren ha

Bryony Chamberlain has been appointed director of megabus.com, Stagecoach’s business in North America, in a switch of jobs with Edward Hodgson who returns to the UK  to take over as managing director, Stagecoach West Scotland. Hodgson has held the US post for three years, developing the inter-city and inter-state megabus.com network. Before that he was commercial director of Stagecoach South. Bryony Chamberlain joined Stagecoach in 1996 as a graduate trainee. She joined Coach USA

Peter Huntley is to step down as managing director of Go North East at the end of the year, to embark on a self-funded charity trek to the North Pole. He took up the role five years ago in a move from the TAS Consultancy, which he founded and led to return to operational management. He has more than 35 years experience in the bus industry, including periods working for local and national government on policy development. He has also written for trade publications on the public transport sector,

Elaine Holt will be joining National Express as bid director of its rail franchise procurement team in January. She was most recently employed at the Department for Transport as chief executive of Directly Operated Railways and chairman of the East Coast Main Line Company. She was previously managing director of First Capital Connect, and held a number senior positions across First Group.

Go Ahead has appointed Patrick Verwer as its new managing director of London Midland, moving up from his position as managing director of rail development with the group. Alex Hynes (right) takes over his previous role,  after being at  London Midland as commercial director since November 2007 when Govia started operating the franchise. Prior to that, Hynes was a key member of Go Ahead’s bid team and has also worked in rail consultancy and regulation. David Brown, Go Ahead&r

With 14 lines, 300 stations, 213 kilometres of tracks and about 1.4 billion passengers per year, the Métro de Paris ranks among the densest and busiest in the world. It is also one of the most innovative, with a unique focus on technological innovations in train control which has just reached a new milestone. The network is run by the regional government-owned Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP) Group, which also manages an extensive suburban regional express network a

On long distance Megabus routes, where Stagecoach has concentrated on a budget offer, a premium range could be introduced following a trial Gold service between Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen. The frequency of non-stop Gold services on the route is now being doubled following strong initial demand for a higher quality experience including better seat room, Wifi, on-board refreshment, and on-board customer service attendants. New business has been generated without impacting Megabus patronage

The early ‘Wild West’ days following UK bus industry deregulation are most often characterised as a period of destructive bus wars and cost cutting.  Yet it is a period that Stagecoach chief executive Sir Brian Souter believes has some still-relevant lessons for the way the industry should develop over the next decade. In many respects the late 1980s were a period of innovation and product development as well as competitive excesses, he believes. Initiatives included new high f

Vodafone is developing a future business strategy based on evolving from a provider of mobile connectivity to a provider of business solutions, and transport is at the heart of its thinking, the Travel 2020 event heard. Max Croot, Vodafone Global Enterprises M2M business development manager, told the Travel 2020 conference that the company’s current business model would rapidly become outdated. Future business strategy would be based on developing data mining capabilities based on its abi

The development of transport services in the UK and across much of the world is a “market failure”, that has caused huge costs to the economy, health and the environment according to TRL’s new director of sustainable transport, Heather Allen. Allen, formerly sustainable transport manager at UITP, the International Association of Public Transport, told the Travel 2020 conference that in contrast to other public services such as health and education, the quality of transport acr

Shopping in Apple’s famous Fifth Avenue store in New York may appear to have little in common with bus service design. However, Ken Lin, senior planning manager at Parsons Brinckerhoff’s New York office, told the Travel 2020 conference that delivering a comparable experience is a practical ambition for the bus industry to aspire to. The store is characterised by its minimalist clean design, high quality customer assistance, distinctive product branding and products that become part

More than 600 visitors attended Travel 2020 throughout the two day event at the Kia Oval. There was a full house for the introductory plenary session on day one to hear the Transport Minister Norman Baker, Sir Brian Souter and Tom Steinberg, and up to 100 attendees at some of the 60 specialist sessions that took place in three parallel themes. The exhibition featured 52 stands which drew a constant stream of visitors. Exhibitors expressed very positive views on the discussions that took place w

The Travel 2020 event at the beginning of November featured two days of cutting edge information exchange and debate about the future of passenger transport service provision, information and payment systems and the management of customer relationships. The tone for discussions amongst the audience of transport and travel professionals was set by the first morning’s  plenary presentations by transport minister Norman Baker and Stagecoach chief executive Sir Brian Souter. Baker outlin

It is always good to be challenged by practice elsewhere, and theTravel2020 conference this year did this very effectively, not least with the talk from Kenneth Lin of Parsons Brinckerhoff’s New York office, bringing us up to date with passenger transport developments around the world, and in particular America.  I was especially interested by a photo of electronic roadside displays in Phoenix, Arizona which, if I understood correctly, show how many seats are available on the next bus. 

­T­­he concept of ‘localism’ is one that’s set to have an increasing impact on the way transport is planned and managed. In Britain, the agenda is gathering momentum in several Government departments, and the Localism Bill received Royal Assent recently. There’s nothing in there specifically about transport, but that’s not the point. There’s a growing commitment to a culture of ‘localism’ which stretches well beyond the UK Coalition Gov

East Midlands Trains has installed 30 new collection-only ticket machines at eight of the major stations on its network. The Parkeon machines are designed to complement the full service ticket machines already in place at East Midlands Trains stations. Passengers can book their tickets in advance at www.eastmidlands.co.uk and then collect them at the station by using the credit or debit card they used for their booking. The new machines have been installed at Sheffield, Nottingham, Chesterfie

Southern has launched a pilot of its new smartcard, the key, at all stations on the line from Brighton to Seaford. Around 100 passengers, stakeholders and Southern staff are taking part in the three-month pilot. They will offer feedback to allow the system to be refined before it is rolled out across the rest of Southern’s network next year and potentially link up with bus travel. Smartcard holders can purchase tickets online or at ticket machines at Southern stations between Brighton and

Bus operator Wilts & Dorset has adopted a system that allows smart phone users to access real-time information by scanning tags located on bus stops. Passengers with NFC (near field communications) phones will be able to find out how soon the next bus will arrive at 250 bus stops on routes between Poole, Bournemouth, Castelpoint and Southbourne. The system, developed by Track4Services, has already been trialled by Poole council. Ed Wills, divisional director at Wilts & Dorset, said tha

A track-side device that detects potential technical faults with trains has been installed by South West Trains at Mortlake near Richmond in south-west London. RailBAM, supplied by Siemens, monitors 300 trains a day on the Wessex route between London, Southampton and Weymouth. An array of sensitive microphones mounted at the side of the track listen to individual axle bearings on each train as it passes. Sound signatures emitted by the bearings and the wheels are captured by the acoustic senso

ScotRail has introduced train simulation software as an interactive training tool offering a “driver’s eye view” of the Edinburgh Waverley to Glasgow Queen Street line. Train Simulator 2012 allows trainee drivers to operate the trains seated in replicas of Class 170 diesel and Class 334 electric train cabs at Glasgow Central station. “The train cabs are so realistic that drivers usually forget they are training in the virtual reality world,” said a ScotRail spokeswo

Technological visions and applications for passenger transport are being offered with increasing confidence, and the evidence from the Travel 2020 event in November is that the speed of their development is accelerating. Two weeks before the event, on 17th October, saw the official launch of London Countdown II from Transport For London.  This enables access to real time information on bus arrival predictions for all London’s 19,000 bus stops via the web, mobile web and SMS. A healthy

For railway systems  there are a range of areas of activity to improve electric traction efficiency with both short, medium and long-term horizons. They range from grid-wide issues including harnessing wasted power and returning it for re-use, to adopting the latest hybrid technology from the automotive sector. A report this year on an Energy Roadmap for the European Railway Sector, by the European Rail Research Advisory Council looked at a dozen topics ranging from infrastructure and powe

The latest electric bus from Polish builder Solaris is based on the 8.9 m Urbino family midibus. At the heart of its power system is a 120 kW four-pole asynchronous traction motor supplied by Vossloh Kiepe. Energy is stored in two batteries weighing 700 kg each. These liquid-cooled lithium-ion batteries have a rated voltage of 600 V and the capacity to store 120 kWh. The battery capacity gives the Solaris Urbino electric a claimed range of up to 100 km and a maximum speed of 50 km/h. The bat

Though BAE Systems is a UK multinational, which has harnessed capability from across its varied industrial experience to develop a leading role in power systems for transport, the core development of hybrid buses took place in the USA, where BAE Systems acquired Lockheed Martin Control Systems over a decade ago. A global pioneer was New York City Transit, which introduced heavy-duty hybrid technology in 1998 with four new Orion hybrid buses with the Lockheed System. Under an ambitious project

Electric power has always been an important feature of attractive and efficient public transport. Metros and other urban railways could not operate without it, and commuter and inter city trains have benefited hugely from electrification. Trams leapt forward by converting from horse drawn power to electric, while trolley buses were another step forward for urban bus transport. Wholly electric buses without wires have never yet been a practical solution, but the application of hybrid electric d

Readers of my previous columns in New Transit magazine will be aware that I have been developing a discussion about the different business models that passenger transport providers can chose to pursue, and the issues they face in the particular business, political and regulatory environments in which they operate. I was aware that I was walking in a something of a minefield, and facing a real danger of just talking theory and concepts, rather than practicalities. So this time I’m going to

France has long been regarded as among the most protectionist of European transport markets. But this month state transport giant SNCF will face its first competition from a foreign operator when Italian state railways Trenitalia, in joint venture with Veoila, starts the Thello open access service between Paris, Milan and Venice after three years of preparations. It is not the only sign of market opening in France. A report by the competition authorities for the French government has recommend

In the United States, ‘paratransit’ - social services transport for the elderly and disabled, that is often grouped with school transport - is a profitable, mainstream activity for both local operators and the major international transport groups. FirstGroup has been a leading player since the acquisition of Bruce Transportation over a decade ago, operating fixed route, flexible route services and dial-a-rides as well as providing call centre support. Contracts can have significant

It’s over 50 years ago since the iconic London double deck open rear platform Routemaster entered service. Incredibly, examples are still running in London, albeit on two heritage routes. Other examples from the one-time fleet of over two and a half thousand have been sold around the world and still ply their trade in various ways. Londoners - and Britons -  have loved this bus, and no image of London has been complete without it, as attested by the  subject of our big picture c

The commissioning of the first automatic trains on the Paris Metro’s oldest and most popular line at the beginning of November  was a world first for operator RATP in terms of technology and organization. For the first time, an existing subway line has been automated without any major interruption to services. Until December 2012, when all trains will be automated, RATP is also tackling the challenge of combining both driverless automatic and manually driven trains on the same line.

There is a tendency for important new technologies to find initial adoption slowly, and then witness a relative explosion of general application. There are several understandable reasons for this: scepticism about their value and significance; innate conservatism in the industries they will affect (coupled with some institutional resistance); and unattractive early economics, which make them seem expensive until the real benefits are demonstrated and the cost per unit comes down with volume pr

The concept of the ‘tram-train’ seems to be very much the ‘flavour of the decade’ in rail transit circles. No doubt this is as a result of its seeming popularity on the continent of Europe. I would suggest however, that what is sometimes proposed under the same name,  and currently being so in Britain, is quite a different animal, even if technically it may ultimately closely resemble the original product. The issue is not the technology – but the application

Stagecoach has hit out at Edinburgh City Council after it refused planning permission for facilities needed to run a cross-Forth hovercraft service. Plans for the service have now been abandoned with Stagecoach accusing the council of “stifling innovation”. Edinburgh’s planning committee rejected Stagecoach’s application for hovercraft landing and passenger facilities at Portobello only weeks after Fife Council gave permission for similar construction work at Kirkcaldy,

Elaine Holt is to join National Express in January as a rail bid director after failing to agree a new contract with the government’s Directly Operated Railway (DOR) subsidiary. Holt, who is chairman of both DOR and its East Coast rail operation, was previously bid director at FirstGroup. After winning the First Capital Connect (FCC) contract she was appointed managing director of FCC, prior to joining DOR. National Express said her appointment signalled its commitment to retain a presenc

E­veryone knows - or should know - that it’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it that counts. Just as this applies to speech, it applies to notices. Ah, notices; those lovely bits of communication that are peppered across public transport vehicles and terminii, and which all too often through their phrasing, syntax, vocabulary and lack of design can communicate hidden messages far more toxic than those the originators intended. And why is it that such notices are so often

At present, public  transport provision, retailing and information is largely dominated by the agenda of individual operators and local authorities, rather than the way consumers would prefer to review the market and make buying decisions. Different transport offers continue to exist largely in silos. As a result, the services provided to the public continue to be based predominantly on the specialisms of the parties involved, and the products and services they feel comfortable in offering.

Annual events are a curious balance of continuity and novelty. A robust event has a clear and unambiguous function, and often a pretty stable following. But each year’s event has to be fresh and new too. In putting together our second Travel 2020 event, RTIG and our partners New Transit have been very conscious of this. We knew, based on the success of last year’s fantastic event, that we’d hit a good note, and we were pretty confident that we could pull it off again. What we

In a fast-changing world it’s a key challenge for all those involved in planning and providing passenger transport services to make decisions about how their products and services evolve, and address the next wave of opportunities and customer needs. Travel 2020 is the pioneering event that explores and analyses the future of passenger transport, its technologies, systems and markets. It addresses new approaches to the provision of rail, bus, tram and associated mobility choices, by embr

Manchester and London are vying to become the UK’s smartphone public transport commuter capital with new schemes to deliver high quality real time information to users. Working with technology service company Logica, Realtime information  specialist Vix-ACIS and First Manchester buses, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) plans a 2012 rollout of a ‘personal satnav’. It follows on from the Technology Strategy Board co-funded 18-month Empowered Traveller project, whic

The M55 consortium, led by Mott MacDonald and including Baca Architects, has submitted a feasibility study to assess the viability of a railway connection between Amsterdam-South and Almere-South Centre under the IJmeer Lake in the Netherlands. As part of its proposal, on behalf of Werkmaatschappij Almere-Amsterdam (WAA), the consortium has designed a 20km long connection from Diemen-Zuid to Almere Centrum. This includes a 9km tunnel under IJburg and IJmeer. This will include five new stations

Transport designers Priestmangoode has unveiled a new design concept called LoungeLink for trains that travel to and from airports. This creates an office/lounge suite interior, suitable for business fliers, in using the transit time in an office type environment, where users could download files, emails and with internet access. Presently, business travellers may be out of contact with their office or clients for the entire duration of their travel, from leaving the city centre until they r

Traveline Cymru has launched a bilingual iPhone app, developed by Trapeze Group. The free app allows passengers to plan their journey, find nearby bus stops and bus routes, locate park and ride sites, travel alerts, scheduled network disruptions and get contact details for bus and rail companies. Jo Foxall, marketing manager for Traveline Cymru, said: “All the information from our website is on the app, in a simple and easy to use format for people to access on the go. There are other tra

Global automated fare collection specialist Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) has partnered with US commuter rail operator the Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO) in a 12-month pilot to implement what they claim to be the first transit-branded, contactless Visa prepaid card in North America. Passengers in the Philadelphia/New Jersey region of the north east US can use the new Wave & Pay ANYWHERE Card for both their transport fares on the high-speed service and for retail purchases.

A pedestrian simulation tool has been launched by German software provider PTV to help inform railways station operators, city planners and architects. PTV says the new tool, Viswalk, can calculate the capacity of railway and underground stations, identify the best walking routes for passengers, assess queuing patterns at ticket windows and work out evacuation procedures. During the planning phase Viswalk can be used to help determine railway station design based on a set of criteria, accordin

Dynamic bus stations, already well established on the European mainland, are gaining ground in the UK. The latest, opening in October 2011 in Chatham, Medway, uses the dynamic bay allocation module of transport intelligence developer Vix-ACIS’ acis Interchange range of public transport terminal products. Conventional bus stations work by presetting the allocation of stands for specific journeys. While this has traditionally proved convenient for passengers, drivers and operations staff a

­T­­here  is an increasingly stark contrast between how sustainable mobility (especially public transport) is perceived by politicians and academics, and how it is thought about by the general public. Experts look at how it ‘delivers’ on paper while the public experience using it in practice. This year’s ‘Travel 2020’ conference is highlighting just how quickly things are changing in our transport systems, and what needs to be put in place  to

­I­­t seems slightly self-indulgent to use this ‘opinion’ column to go into the ins and outs of my local train service in the South Pennines, but hey – it is my opinion, and current plans perfectly highlight some of the dillemas surrounding the age-old question of what railways are for. I live in the large Yorkshire textile village of Slaithwaite, about four miles west of Huddersfield in the Colne Valley, on the busy Huddersfield to Manchester Trans-Pennine route.

Jorma Halonen has joined the Board of Optare as a non-executive director. Halonen, former chairman of Volvo Bus Corporation, is to replace David Stonehouse who stands down from the Optare board to pursue other business interests. Finnish born Halonen has nearly 20 years experience in the bus and truck industry. He spent seven years working with the Volvo Group, latterly as the group deputy chief executive and chairman of Volvo Bus Corporation. He is currently an independent non-executive direc

Simon Pearson has been appointed as regional revenue development manager for First’s bus operations in the North of England. Based  in Leeds, he will be responsible for developing ticketing strategies across First bus networks in the North (West and North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and the North West). He joins First from East Coast Trains where he worked for 12 years and was head of retail development.

Suzanne Wise, general counsel for Premier Foods plc, will join Network Rail as general counsel in the new year. She takes over from Hazel Walker, group company secretary, who left Network Rail in September after nine years with the company. The new title of general counsel reflects a broader scope to the role that will encompass a new department — transparency, covering data protection, business ethics and access to information.  

The Stagecoach Group has appointed Tim Shoveller (pictured) as new managing director of South West Trains. He will take over from Andy Pitt, who is to retire at the end of the year. Pitt, who has more than 28 years’ experience in the passenger rail industry, joined South West Trains as managing director in 2009. He oversaw the development of the group’s franchise bids, including the successful submissions for South Western and East Midlands. ?? Shoveller has 20 years’ experien

Chair of the Department for Transport’s Directly Operated Railways,  Elaine Holt, is to leave at the end of December to take up a new ‘senior post’ within the industry. Holt was appointed in mid-2009 to take over the running of Intercity East Coast from National Express. It is believed she had been in negotiations to remain, but was unable to agree terms. Holt said:  “We’ve achieved a huge amount  and we’re just starting to see the benefits of

New multi-modal transport information and ticketing services which are expected to become available over the next decade are likely to have a profound impact on transport authorities’ role in delivering timetable and journey planning services to the public. While the public sector currently has a primary role in providing local service information to the public through its statutory responsibilities, Tim Rivett, head of information technology at South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executi

During the past year IBM has held a series of discussions with transport operators and authorities about the possibility of integrating ticketing and journey time information into a new mobility brokerage service covering all modes of transport. Data on collective passenger movements and journey purposes gained from bankcard payment datasets and mobile phone tracking could also be integrated into new information ledgers. So could individual customer movement data, although data protection issues

Cubic Transportation is among the companies presenting a new vision for transport systems at the Travel 2020 conference, based on integrating information and payment systems for all modes of public and private transport. The IT tools to implement its ‘Nextcity’ vision are in different stages of development and are being created from a range of Cubic systems explains Martin Howell, worldwide marketing and communication Director at Cubic Transportation Systems. Cubic is a leading pro

Amongst the continuing fundamental changes that are re-shaping the landscape of passenger transport provision, perhaps the most significant element, alongside the new technologies, is the arrival of more and more new players from industries that have previously had relatively little direct involvement in the transport sector, and who are now  beginning to take a significant interest in it. Mobile phone companies, payment card companies, and major IT system integrators are all seriously pl

Global airline Emirates and Transport for London have agreed a sponsorship deal for London’s cable car Thames river crossing which is scheduled for completion next summer. The link, which will provide a direct connection between the Greenwich Peninsula and Royal Victoria Docks, will be known as the Emirates Air Line in a 10-year deal worth £36m. It will connect two of London’s biggest venues, the O2 entertainment centre and Excel exhibition site. The two new stations are set to

The rail industry has put delivering a major capacity enhancement scheme in Manchester and further electrification projects at the top of investment priorities for the next five-year spending plan. Delivering the full £500m Northern Hub project in Manchester, and electrifying the trans-Pennine route and Cardiff Valley line commuter network, are among investments proposed in the rail industry’s Initial Industry Plan for Network Rail’s next five-year control period (CP5), coveri

UK Train passenger numbers have jumped 5.3% in the period June to September, according to the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC). This would confirm that the railways are set for their busiest peacetime year since the 1920s with more than 1.3bn journeys expected to have been made by train by the end of this year. ATOC said one of the reasons behind the rise in rail travel is the increasingly high price of petrol, leading more leisure travellers to switch from road to rail on summer

As the sole private sector owner of a high speed rail line in Europe, the UK’s HS1 has  an obvious incentive to encourage new businesses to compete against Eurostar. The  concession to operate the line between London and the Channel Tunnel was privatised last year and  is now owned by two Canadian pension funds, and lasts for 30 years.  Chief executive Nicola Shaw is certain that further competition to Eurostar will emerge on London-Europe rail routes,  in additi

The start of a prospective new era for the 125 year old Blackpool Tramway was unveiled on the 8th of September at the new Starr Gate depot. The first of sixteen Bombardier Flexity 2 trams emerged from the brand new depot through a cloud of dry ice in the Purple and White Blackpool Council livery. Flexity 001 will be used on test from now until Easter 2012 and will be joined by the remaining trams later in the year. The £100million total investment - £33m in the fleet and the remainde

Three months ago, Arriva pulled one of its most highly rated managers, Jonathan May, from his role as managing director of its North East bus business, to head a new company, Arriva Transport Solutions (ATS). May, who had been working part time on setting up ATS for the previous six months, is now full time in his new role which is dedicated to finding innovative ways of working with local authorities. The aim is to provide better value for money from all vehicles and resources operated by both

In early 2010, Arriva announced that it would be implementing a new strategy designed to position its UK bus business as local authorities’ partner of choice. A survey of 21 local authorities had been carried out, and while it showed that Arriva’s operational performance was well regarded, councils felt the company needed to take more account of their strategic aims, and wanted a greater level of engagement. “I think that what local authorities crave is a discussion with opera

The discussions and connections that will be made this year at the Travel 2020 conference and exhibition are likely to shape some very significant new developments. Last year’s inaugural event was a huge success, which set the bar high for this year of course. But it looks as though we will be going forward very strongly indeed. One of the key things we are trying to do is to get a big picture view without losing the relevance to specialist professionals. This isn’t easy but it is

­I­­t’s easy to under-estimate how unfamiliar many people are with using public transport.  A lot of the population simply don’t ever take the train or bus- so have little conception of how the system works. Last year, a community group did some research in my neighbourhood about people’s awareness of local transport and it revealed a huge lack of understanding. We seem to very often assume that people somehow ‘know’ that there’s a train and b

Those at the leading edge of thinking and innovation will know from recent conferences, editorial commentary and political agendas, that a current major industry focus is on addressing Urban Mobility in its widest sense. This is an area offering huge potential in terms of both creative service and system development, and customer benefits. We must expect a paradigm shift towards intelligent urban and transport planning. It will be a key focus of the forthcoming Travel 2020 conference and exhibit

Chiltern railway’s upgraded mainline service has begun operation, cutting up to 30 minutes from journey times between London Marylebone to Birmingham, as the result of a comprehensive programme of improvements involving a number of specialist partners working on line speed enhancements. The £125m project, known as Evergreen 3, is divided into two phases. The first involves Mainline work while the second will include the reconstruction of stations at Bicester Town and Islip, new platforms

A fleet of 21 Stagecoach buses fitted with BAE System’s hybrid electric propulsion system is now in service across Sheffield. The launch of the double deck buses, powered by BAE System’s HybriDrive® Series system, took place on 18 September. This follows the rolling out of similar hybrid electrically powered buses in London, Reading, Oxford, Manchester, Newcastle, Hull and Edinburgh over the past 18 months. Meanwhile, bus operator London United has reported that its fleet of 27

Six longer trams have been ordered for Croydon to allow a more frequent service on the busiest parts of the network. The trams are 32 metres long, making them 2.5m longer than existing vehicles, and are air-conditioned and low-floor to allow better access. The Variobahn model trams, to be built in Germany by Stadler, are each made up of five sections with wide gangways giving them a more spacious interior. To accommodate the longer vehicles, tramstops and the depot will be modified. The con

First Group is pioneering a new accreditation scheme to enhance the diagnostic skills of its inspection technicians and mechanics. The approach began with the assessment of all 350 inspection technicians. This was undertaken jointly by First and the Freight Transport Association. This identified a common training need to bring them all up to the standard required by the business. Graham Belgum, First UK Bus business improvement director, said: “Over the past five years technology has mov

New camera technology that provides detailed images of faults on overhead rail wires is being rolled out by Network Rail. It is supplying 30 cameras to maintenance delivery units across the UK. Engineers can safely operate the cameras without turning off the power and closing the line. When carrying out track patrols, engineers can attach the camera to the overhead wire and hold it steady using two stabilising arms on insulated poles. The camera, supplied by Kongsberg Maritime Ltd, can tilt so

A new and innovative travel app based on the principle of social networking is to be launched in October. The Mynet app, developed by My Travel Network, will inform users of disruptions, rate and view user ratings of rail operators and stations. The free service will initially be available on iPhone, with a Google Android version launched before the end of the year. “The primary source of information comes from our users,” said Colin Macgadie, My Travel Network’s creative dire

Here’s a scenario: you are a commuter into a metropolitan area and out again. You travel to work in the morning, have to be at your office by 9 am, leave at 5, travel back home. You make the trip every  Monday to Friday in a normal week, for around 220 days in the year. Seems unremarkable, I know, but the demise of this kind of activity has been predicted quite often – for reasons ranging from the decline of cities as a focus of our economic life, to the rise of tele-working. In

Alexander Eriksen is the new chief executive at Nomad Digital, which provides the rail industry with broadband communications solutions. Eriksen, who is Danish and lives in the UK, founded Pulz8 and Commute Media, both of which developed applications for passenger, train operators and train builders. Nomad founder and executive chairman Nigel Wallbridge said: “Alexander knows our sector in detail and yet will bring a new perspective. He understands why we have been successful and the impo

Jonathan Crick has been appointed London Stansted Airport’s new commercial director. He joins from easyBus, where he is currently chief executive. His previous roles include 15 years’ experience at Monarch Airlines, including spells as commercial director and sales & marketing director. Crick says his priorities in the new role include increasing the number of airlines and passengers using the airport, the “very best retail facilities” and “maximising the commer

Management consultancy Boxwood has appointed Terry Morgan as a non-executive board director. Morgan’s role will involve deepening the company’s knowledge on transport and infrastructure. Since 2009 Morgan has been chairman of Crossrail, the £14.9bn project sponsored by the DfT and TfL. Prior to this, he was chief executive of Tube Lines, and before that group managing director, operations for BAE Systems. He is currently President of the Chartered Management Institute. Other

The UK Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) has appointed three new non-executive directors — Mark Fairbairn, Stephen Nelson and Ray O’Toole. The appointments will run until until September 2015. Mark Fairbairn has been at National Grid since 1998. From 2003 to 2007 he was chief operating officer UK distribution and since 2007, executive director gas distribution. Stephen Nelson held a range of roles at drinks company Diageo from 1996 to 2003. He then worked at J Sainsbury’s bef

Libor Lochman has been unanimously elected new executive director of the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) by the CER General Assembly. He will take over from Johannes Ludewig, who is retiring at the end of this year. Lochman, who is currently CER’s deputy executive director, has an extensive knowledge of both the European rail sector and EU policy, said CER chairman Maruo Moretti. “He has tremendously contributed to the successful work of CER over the

First Group finance director Jeff Carr is leaving to become chief financial officer of Dutch international retailing group Royal Ahold. Carr spent four years as finance director at EasyJet before moving to First in 2009. Also at First, Vernon Barker joins the executive management team below board level as managing director of the UK Rail division. The post was filled by group chief executive Tim O’Toole  since the departure of Mary Grant in March. Barker has been managing director o

Carole Coune has taken over as secretary general of the International Transport Forum at the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Paris-based intergovernmental organisation. She was previously president of the management board at Belgium’s Transport Ministry. As a trained lawyer, she started her career with the Belgian National Railway. Coune replaces Jack Short, secretary general of the ITF since its inception in 2006 and previously with its predecessor the E

Merseyrail’s managing director Bart Schmeink is to join GVB Amsterdam as its new chief executive on 1 December. GVB is the public transport company of the greater Amsterdam area operating buses, trams, metros and ferries, and is responsible for its tram and metro infrastructure. Schmeink has been Merseyrail’s MD since 2008 and helped to ensure the operator’s “continued position as the most punctual train company in the UK”, said councillor Mark Dowd, chair of Merse

Alstom Transport UK & Ireland has appointed Terence Watson as its new managing director. He joined parent company Alstom Transport in 1994 as international commercial director for rail traction systems, and went on to hold many senior management roles both in the UK and, since 1999, in the company’s Paris headquarters. Watson said: “Alstom Transport has a long history in the UK and Ireland, from the supply of tube stock, regional trains, the West Coast Pendolino fleet and Dublin

The International Association of Public Transport (UITP) has appointed Alain Flausch (pictured) as new secretary general. He will take over at the end of year from Hans Rat, who will retire after 13 years as head of the UITP. Ousmane Thiam, most senior vice-president, will take over from Alain Flausch as president of the UITP. Flausch has been chief executive of the Société des Transports Intercommunaux de Bruxelles (STIB), the public transport company in Brussels, for the last 1

The announcement of plans for new international services has coincided with a series of private  schemes for new open access domestic routes unveiled this year. Several of the companies are backed by businessmen of international standing, and rival international operators, and reflect the pioneering approach to ‘open access’ followed in the UK.  In Italy, Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo is a shareholder in NTV which is expected to challenge Trenitalia on core routes

While the market for long distance European rail travel looks set to be principally contested by state-owned operators, the potential to develop new inter-urban coach markets is firmly private sector territory.  National  Express Group is arguably Europe’s biggest scheduled long-distance coach operator, with a major network  in the UK and through its involvement in Eurolines, the marketing consortium for the continent’s international network subsidary. At the present

The sole service to have so far taken advantage of EU law to open the market for cross border rail services is a joint venture between Deutsche Bahn, Austrian state-owned operator OBB and Italian regional operator LeNord,  on the Munich-Innsbruck-Verona route. The operation began last year when Italian national operator Trenitalia pulled out of, or according to some reports was dropped from, the Eurocity  joint venture with OBB and DB. OBB/DB then used the new European regulations to

The latest batches of trains ordered by Eurostar, SNCF and DB will provide a large additional capability to operate new international services on top of those services already operated in alliances. SNCF has started receiving the first trains from an order with Alstom for 55 Duplex AGV sets which feature traction equipment suited to all currents used on European rail networks,  and signalling equipment compatible with systems in Switzerland, Germany, Luxemburg and France. Modifications wil

There is a need to remove the inconsistencies and to have a symmetrical market operating across the 27 countries, ”Johann Metzner DB’s Head of Transport Policy told this summer’s House of Lords inquiry into European rail services.“ In some cases the independence of national regulators has even been called into question, while in others, the lack of effective separation between infrastructure and operations has  led to suggestions that questionable mechanisms are bei

Both Eurostar and Deutsche Bahn have been keen to explain the untapped demand that they believe can be exploited by their new international services, both by competing against airlines and developing other avenues of business.  The potential to take on the airlines is demonstrated by Eurostar’s success on its London-Paris and Brussels services, which have claimed 80% market share, with most of the remaining air passengers only choosing to fly so they can interlinine to connecting fl

This summer, a series of announcements by Deutsche Bahn, Eurostar and SNCF underlined the fact  that the major European rail  operators are beginning to prepare for a new era of international competition. Deutsche Bahn has already applied to run services from Frankfurt and Amsterdam to London through the Channel Tunnel from December 2013, while Eurostar has announced plans to serve a series of new destinations beyond Paris and Brussels, possibly as soon as 2014. Destinations in the Ne

Network Rail’s chairman Rick Haythornthwaite has told the rail industry that it must address its failure to engage with the public, businesses and communities. In a speech announcing that he would not stand for re-election next year when his term expires, Haythornthwaite said there was a huge disconnect between the industry’s and the public’s view of the railway. While the industry could be proud of its record in growing business and improving service quality, issues such as f

The UK’s European leadership in contactless EMV bankcard transport payment is forging ahead. Shortly after Transport for London introduces EMV payment for bus and tube travel across its network next year, as the first city authority in any country to do so, passengers on FirstGroup services in the rest of England will also be able to pay for bus travel with contactless bankcards. The company announced at the start of this month that it would be fitting new ticket machines with dual smartca

FirstGroup’s announcement that it will skip a technology and introduce contactless bankcard payment across its English bus fleet from next year, is just the latest step in a revolution that is gathering pace. The past few weeks have also seen the UK’s Association of Train Operating Companies all but admit that operators have plans to close nearly 700 station ticket offices due to the growth in new ticket retailing technology, much of it used by customers well away from the station, a

Stagecoach chief executive Brian Souter has agreed to make the opening address at this year’s major Travel 2020 exhibition and conference which will take place on the 2nd & 3rd November 2011 at Kia Oval, London. He will join transport minister Norman Baker in setting the scene for two days of wide ranging discussion about the future of passenger transport service and systems development. Event sponsor New Transit and partners RTIG INFORM are pleased to announce that three quarters of t

Sometimes, it’s not the individual elements in the transport system that require a new way of thinking, but the links between them. Over the last few years, I’ve been very involved in the development of high speed trains around the world. It’s a really exciting time for this technology. One of our first rail projects was back in 2001 when we designed the Virgin Pendolino and Voyager trains. With our background in product design, the results were a departure from more traditio

For the past decade the Dutch company APTS,  a division of Netherlands-based bus manufacturer VDL Group, has been developing its Phileas bus based Rapid Transit system to incorporate a range of innovative features that can, in the words of managing director Rude Bouwman “replace all the trams in the world in 20 years” He believes the automation of passenger transport, and in particular introducing driverless technology, can mean buses offer a similar rapid transit service to tr

A few years ago I was awarded a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship to visit Australia and the Far East to study aspects of public transport.  During this I was given guided tours of both the Adelaide Guided Busway (O-Bahn) and Brisbane's South-East Busway.  Since then I have also visited a range of Bus Rapid Transport schemes in the UK, Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.  Several things impressed me about all these: firstly that there was tremendous local pride in each city's B

The last issue of this magazine considered the role of walking as a crucial part of the Mobility Mix. It was pointed out that virtually every public transport journey starts and ends on foot. The latter element is, arguably even more important than the former. Users are at their most vulnerable when completing the last stage of their journey.  The surroundings may be unfamiliar to them, the bus or train has driven off, it may be getting late in the day and the light failing.  That is n

Paris Transport Authoity RATP and train builder Alstom earlier this year created a joint venture Metrolab with the aim of developing the ‘automatic metro of the future’. As well as new systems, the partners are hoping to offer a proven approach to upgrading existing metro lines to driverless. Pierre Mongin, CEO of RATP and Philippe Mellier, President of Alstom Transport announced the project at the 59th UITP World Congress and Exhibition in Dubai. They said their combined expertise

New Transit strives to feature the cutting edge of passenger transport provision, both in thinking, design and operations. This summer has seen two major projects come to fruition in the UK, representing what could be important steps forward. We are pleased to feature both in this issue, alongside a major overview of some of the other developments that are re-shaping the quality, cost-effectiveness and sustainability of passenger transport services. The opening of the Cambridgeshire guided bus

Chairman of Chiltern Railways Adrian Shooter has announced he will retire at the end of the year. He will have lead Chiltern for nearly 18 years, and be 63. “I have enjoyed every part of my 41 years in the rail industry, but especially the opportunity to lead the teams who built Chiltern Railways. It is always difficult to decide when to move on but, having for the last three years also been acting MD of Chiltern, I have now handed that role to Rob Brighouse who I appointed earlier in the

Merseytravel transport chief Mark Dowd has been elected to chair the Integrated Transport Authorities Special Interest Group for the Local Government Association. The ITA SIG brings together all six Integrated Transport Authorities (ITAs) in England. Dowd, who is chair of Merseytravel, said: “It is the responsibility of the ITAs to work together to ensure the best possible public transport service for the travelling public.” Bootle councillor  Dowd has worked in transport sinc

Andrew Wolstenholme takes over as the new chief executive of Crossrail at the end of August. He was previously director of innovation and strategic capability with Balfour Beatty, prior to which he was project director for the construction of Heathrow Terminal 5, and also acted as construction director on the Heathrow Express Rail Link and was BAA’s director of capital projects. He will oversee the construction of the £16bn Crossrail project opening at the end of the decade, which w

Mike Hodson, managing director of London Midland, part of the Go-Ahead Group, is to retire in December. A 37-year rail industry veteran, he joined British Rail through a graduate entry scheme. In July 2009 he became managing director of London Midland. David Brown, Go-Ahead Group’s chief executive, said: “Mike has had an extraordinary career in the railways industry, working his way to the top of his profession. Particular highlights include the development and introduction of the h

The Institution of Railway Operators (IRO) has appointed Fiona Tordoff as its new chief executive officer. For the last decade she has headed the Whitebridge Consultancy, which includes Network Rail, and National Express Group among its clients. A fellow of the Chartered Institute of Professional Development with 20 years experience in the field of organisational change management, she takes over from Chris Daughton who is stepping down after leading the IRO for more than a decade. Tordoff said

Nework Rail has appointed Patrick Hallgate as its new route-managing director to lead its devolved business unit on the Western route.  Hallgate will be responsible for the development and operation of about 1,000 miles of railway covering London Paddington, Thames Valley, and the South West of England. His duties will include asset management, planning, maintenance and enhancement work. Hallgate is currently Network Rail’s programme director signalling and electrification, and was o

Gareth Llewllyn has been appointed director of safety and sustainable development at Network Rail. He previously had senior safety roles with National Grid, Anglo American, and the Renewable Fuels Agency. Network Rail’s chief executive David Higgins said Llewllyn was joining at a time of great change “when we need to make a further significant improvement to the safety culture of the business. His enormous experience across sectors and across the globe will be invaluable in deliver

French international transport operator Keolis has appointed David Franks as managing director for new franchises. In the newly-created post, Franks will be based in Keolis UK’s London office and will report to Alistair Gordon, Keolis UK chief executive. Keolis UK has prequalified for the InterCity West Coast Franchise, for which bidding starts in early 2012. Keolis is majority owned by French rail operator SNCF. Franks is the current chair of the Institution of Rail Operators (IRO) and

O­ne function of design I mentioned in my first column is to make things work better. In the realm of public transport, encouraging people to want to make repeat journeys (ie repeat purchases) means making sure their first journey makes a good impression and leaves a feeling of calmness and comfort rather than stress. Something they are doing for virtually all their time on board the vehicle is sitting down, so this area is surely worth a significant level of attention. Which brings me to co

Architects Foster & Partners and infrastructure consultants Halcrow are collaborating on a £100,000 self-funded study to produce a detailed multi-modal transport vision for The Thames Hub. This will bring together rail freight connections between the UK’s main sea ports. The proposals include plans to replace Heathrow Airport with a four-runway airport in the Thames Estuary. A tidal energy barrage and a new flood protection for the capital will also feature in the study. The lo

Oyster cards can now be bought from ticket machines at almost every station on the London Underground network. The machines, fitted with a new dispensing mechanism , can issue Oysters cards as quickly as paper tickets, said a Transport for London spokeswoman. Some 400 Oyster dispensing machines, upgraded by Cubic Transportation Systems, are in operation across the Tube network, with at least one machine at every station expect Roding Valley. Each of the upgraded machines can hold 400 Oyster ca

GreenRoad’s 360 fleet driver performance and safety management system has been enhanced to allow speeding and engine idling analysis as well as extended data integration. The new functions will improve the system’s ability to cut fuel costs and reduce accidents, said Glenn Pereira, director of product marketing at GreenRoad. The speed performance feature means that drivers are made aware in real time if they are speeding. An in-vehicle device monitors the movement of the vehicle to

Nexus has launched an interactive teaching pack to warn children across Tyne & Wear about the dangers of trespassing onto rail lines. Nexus, which owns and manages Metro, will be using the package during visits to more than 200 schools over the coming year. The package — devised by Nexus youth liaison officer Rebecca Ditchburn working with design agency Graphic Ad — allows youths to use a touch screen smart or ‘white board’. “The interactive nature of the software

South West Trains has launched a ‘bike dock’ at Guildford rail station, which passengers can access to hire a folding Brompton cycle. The dock fits into a single car parking space but provides storage for up to 80 bikes. The bikes have no travel restrictions and can be carried out all services. However, all folding cycles must be stowed as luggage. Passengers can gain access to one of the Bromptons in the bike dock by registering with South West Trains online and buying a smartcard

Arriva UK Bus has reported more than a million tickets have been brought via its mobile phone ticketing application. In the first 18 months of operation, 40,000 users have registered to use m-ticketing, booking 1,020,181 journeys across the UK. The free app, designed by Concept Data Technologies and Arriva, can be used on any internet-enabled mobile phone. Once the journey has been booked, an e-ticket is sent to the user’s phone. This is shown to the driver as the start of the journey.&nb

Passengers in Poole, Dorset, can now check bus times by touching their smartphones to tag readers installed in ‘magic bus stops’. The system, developed by AZO Consulting, has been trialled at 10 bus stops since January, and Poole council plans to roll it out to 800 bus stops later this month. Nick Phillips, accessibility team leader at Poole Council, predicts that 100,000 passengers will use the service in the first year. The system is also due to be installed in Weymouth for Dorset

Birmingham’s largest outdoor art installation has been unveiled on a site near to New Street station. Network Rail worked with local art group Regenerated and students from King Edward VI Sheldon Heath Academy to transform a bare wall covered in green mould into a space to showcase local artistic talent. The artists and students were briefed to create work inspired by the redevelopment of Birmingham New Street station and focus on the themes of movement, regeneration and the reflection o

Warrington Central is the 150th UK station to benefit from the National Stations Improvement Programme. Delivered by First TransPennine Express, which manages the station, the improvements at Warrington mean passengers now enjoy a new station entrance and refurbished station interior, including DDA-compliant windows. As well as NSIP funding of more than £400,000, Warrington Borough Council provided £300,000 funding to deliver the improvements.

The designs for a new public square have been unveiled by Network Rail as part of the redevelopment of King’s Cross station. At more than 7,000 square metres, the new King’s Cross Square will be 50% bigger than Leicester Square, opening up the space currently occupied by the 1970s concourse extension and revealing the Grade I listed Victorian station façade. Architects Stanton Williams were chosen to work on the new square after international competition, and the designs aim

Marple station near Stockport, Greater Manchester, is on course for accessibility improvements under the Access for All scheme. Work is due to start this winter. When finished, the old footbridge will have been removed and new lifts installed on both platforms, linked by a new single span footbridge. The ticket office building will be extended to accommodate new accessible toilet facilities. This follows completion of Access for All work at nearby Cheadle Hulme, where all four platforms are n

Spanish transport engineering consultantcy Ineco has designed a range of modular steel structures for Adif, the Spanish administrator of railway infrastructures. This includes a shelter, made from tubular galvanised steel, suited for stations handling less than 1,500 passengers a day. The shelters can be easily joined together or multiplied according to the needs of each station, says Ineco. The first shelter was installed at Las Zorreras commuter train station near El Escorial, a province of

­T­­he writings of Chopra admittedly don’t figure strongly in any university transport planning syllabus. He is a leading writer on spirituality, interpreting the Vedic tradition for modern-day life. He has a lot to say about the meaning of ‘co-incidence’, and my argument is that you can always find meaning and resonances if you look for them. It’s good to think out of our usual boxes, or carriages, and let destiny take control and ‘co-incidence’ m

This autumn Apple – now reportedly the world’s most valuable company – will launch its online service strategy called ‘iCloud’, which since its June unveiling has helped drive the California firm’s stock skyward. In computing terms ‘the cloud’ typically refers to a migration from application and data storage on local devices to hosting on a vast network on online servers that can be accessed through the Internet from any device, anywhere you need.

The concept of vehicles drawing their energy supply from electric power as they move is not new. Trains, trams and trolley buses have done it for decades. But for road vehicles to be able to pick up their fuel without a physical connection would be a radical step. It is one which Bombardier believe is possible by inductive power transfer. With thinking initially developed to give trams and buses a wire-free energy source, the concept is now being promoted as a potential energy source for all r

Despite the prevailing economic conditions, Daventry, in Northamptonshire in England, is  still hoping to find funding to become the first local authority in Europe to implement an urban-scale automated group rapid transit (GRT) public transport service. The £20 million scheme would see ‘turn-up-and go’ driverless electric minibuses running on specially segregated paths around the town centre. In an application that could be replicated in hundreds of towns around the worl

In what was at one time a close race to deliver a world showpiece new generation Personal Rapid Transit System, Heathrow airport in London lost out by a matter of months to Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, where a public system developed by Dutch company 2getthere opened last autumn. It forms the transport core of the first phase of this US$22bn eco-metropolis, designed by UK architects Foster Associates to be the world’s first carbon-neutral city, with no fossil fuel-powered vehicles allowed in.

The first true public transport, and well before the buses, came the railways- short stretches of steam powered ‘iron horses’. They quickly changed the nature of communications, and the shape of cities, introducing ‘commuting’ and the separation of where people lived and worked. In the late 19th century, electric motors started to do the work in urban areas, where steam and soot were less welcome than in the countryside or around industrial areas. Eventually stretches of

National Express has reported a 26% rise in its first-half year profits. The British transport group, which operates coach, bus and rail services, said that underlying profit for the six months to the end of June rose to £95.5m, which is at the top end of the profits forecasts. National Express’s chief executive Dean Finch said: “There is more to come in terms of margin growth, we should see the margins continue to grow in the second half. The summer is important to us, but it

Direct rail services from London to cities in Germany and Holland could be in operation by 2013 if a formal application by Deutsche Bahn (DB) to run trains through the Channel Tunnel is approved. The German train operator is the first continental rail company to express an interest in competing with Eurostar on the line since it was opened up to other operators in January 2010. If the application is approved, London’s St Pancras International will be able to serve passengers to Rotterdam

The long-term strategy for developing the rail network in London and the south-east has been published. With the number of passengers travelling into London, especially at peak times, set to grow significantly by 2031, Network Rail’s London and South East Route Utilisation Strategy identifies ways to boost capacity, improve journeys and increase connectivity across the region. Produced in partnership with the rail industry, the Department for Transport and Transport for London, the strate

After years of neglect, it seems that it is finally being acknowledged in the UK that taxis are an important part of the public transport system and the framework for their operation needs revision. In the past few weeks the Transport Select Committee of the House of Commons has reported positively on the role of taxis and now the Law Commission has added a review of taxi legislation to its current programme of work. As explored in the last issue of New Transit, taxis and taxi-related services

Blackpool, home of the oldest running tram system in the UK dating back to 1885, has long been famous for its heritage, including double deck, open top and illuminated art-deco style 1930’s tramcars, rather than its futurism. Now it is leap frogging forward to become the world launch customer for the latest Bombardier Flexity 2 tram. As part of a major programme to upgrade the entire 18km tram operation, Bombardier will next month hand over the first of 16 new Flexity 2 trams to Blackpool

The fallout from the decision to name Siemens rather than Bombardier  as preferred bidder for the £1.6bn contract to supply and finance new rolling stock for Thameslink cross-London services shows no sign of abating. On the face of it, the selection of German conglomerate Siemens rather than Canadian conglomerate Bombardier was just another element of the global market at work. However, the fact that Bombardier’s Derby factory has lost out and faces a major reduction in its wor

In March, the merger of French groups Transdev and Veolia brought another new player from Continental Europe onto the UK transport scene. State-owned, Paris-based  RATP received the London United and Bournemouth Yellow Buses businesses as part payment for its stake in Transdev, and chief executive Pierre Mongin immediately announced an aggressive UK expansion policy. This month, Mongin showed that RATP’s ambitions should indeed be taken seriously, with the acquisition of the remainin

The Department for Transport (DfT) has extended First Group’s TransPennine Express rail franchise. The train operator sees its eight– year franchise, which was due to end on 31 January 2012, now continuing until 1 April 2015. First TransPennine’s managing director, Vernon Barker, said: “This agreement to extend the length of the franchise provides certainty for our plans to continue to improve services for our passengers and reassurance to our staff that the franchise wi

National Express has reported a 26% rise in its first-half year profits. The British transport group, which operates coach, bus and rail services, said that underlying profit for the six months to the end of June rose to £95.5m, which is at the top end of the profits forecasts. National Express’s chief executive Dean Finch said: “There is more to come in terms of margin growth, we should see the margins continue to grow in the second half. The summer is important to us, but it

Direct rail services from London to cities in Germany and Holland could be in operation by 2013 if a formal application by Deutsche Bahn (DB) to run trains through the Channel Tunnel is approved. The German train operator is the first continental rail company to express an interest in competing with Eurostar on the line since it was opened up to other operators in January 2010. If the application is approved, London’s St Pancras International will be able to serve passengers to Rotterdam

Two months ago, Volo TV became the first company in the world to offer rail passengers on train movies, using its seat-backed screens installed on First Great Western’s long distance fleet running between London, South Wales and the West Country. The company has secured a deal to show premium quality Hollywood films to supplement its existing world-first offer of TV favourite comedies, cartoons and dramas. The initial service of information and TV favourites was trialled in 2009 before

When Paul Thrustle joined the rail industry in 2002 as head of projects and IT at London-Edinburgh-Aberdeen inter-city train operator GNER, one of his first thoughts was “what have I done”. The route of the “flying Scotsman” was known in the rail industry as a flagship for customer service. Yet Thrustle, who had spent 17 years developing customer service and mobile technology in several other industries including the water and legal sectors, was incredulous that on a th

New approaches to passenger transport provision and use are emerging in a variety of ways and a range of situations. Some are coming from an institutional level through the initiatives of large public authorities (mainly cities) or corporations (like transport vehicle makers). Others are more local projects to “join up” pieces of the jigsaw or add helpful new elements to the offer. 1. Transport for London Transport for London has promoted a widening definition of collective transpo

There is a potential revolution on the cards in how customers are offered their choices of how to travel. Rather than be faced with a myriad of options by different operators, each one of which offers an individual journey and requires separate research for information and a purchase transaction, the alternative could be a single source for the right combination to meet a traveller’s personal needs. Information is already being presented in multi-modal integrated forms with journey plann

Car-sharing Car sharing and car clubs are a system that enables people to make collective use of a fleet of different cars. It is a membership based service where no separate written agreement is required each time a member reserves and uses a vehicle, unlike car hire or rental. Car-sharing organisations offer members access to a network of shared vehicles 24 hours a day and 7 days a week at unattended self-service locations with affordable ‘pay-as-you-drive’ rates that include fu

The International Union of Public Transport has just produced a position paper challenging it 3,000-plus member authorities in 92 countries, to consider becoming “real mobility providers,” and promoting the joint mobility of public transport in combination with other modes like car-sharing, taxis and cycling. It is a significant moment for traditional public transport companies, as they decide where their future business prospects lie. If they do not rise to this challenge, there i

Why aren’t taxis treated as a serious part of the public transport mix? It’s surprising that this question hasn’t been answered because taxis, and derivatives from them, bridging the gap between conventional public transport and the private car, offer a unique contribution to efficient and sustainable mobility. In 1999 a conference was held in Birmingham entitled “Taxis: the Cinderella method of transport” at which speakers including Steven Norris, then the Minister

Why are the terms ‘innovative procurement’ and ‘strategic alignment’ ringing in the ears of transport scheme promoters and project managers?  Perhaps it’s because funding bodies have identified procurement processes and delivery arrangements as a significant opportunity for efficiency gains, cost savings and effective risk management based on emerging new understanding and experience of how effective relationships and working arrangements deliver the best outco

In my last piece, I mused on the way in which governmental approaches to regulation of passenger transport can have some unintended consequences; specifically, the difficulty in providing incentives for transport operators to innovate and even – in the name of competition management –how ‘steering’ an open market hobbles their ability to drive efficiency. It was rather apposite that since I wrote about that subject, the UK Competition Commission Report on the UK bus marke

Starting a ride, the public transport customer needs to get to the place where he/she can access the transport vehicle – if the idea is not to walk all the way to the destination. A greater part of all mobility trips form a transport chain: Walking – motorized transport – walking transfer – more motorized transport – final walk. The walking parts may be short – but they invariably exist. With no consideration towards these parts of the trips, the user will fe

Throughout rural areas of the UK, many local councils have been responding to budget cuts by announcing their intention to drastically reduce tendered bus networks. However, in Dorset a different mood is prevailing, based on a pioneering approach to contracting, the significance of which could spread beyond this country. As in other rural UK counties, contracted transport services in Dorset make up the majority of the network and account for spending worth many millions of pounds/a year. It mea

Consumers in the US are now spending more time on mobile phone apps than on the web, according to a study by mobile application development analysts, Flurry. Confirmation – if it were needed – that the mobile phone and its derivatives are now the communication device of choice for most people. And those transport operators who ignore this fact in their ticketing plans are likely to be left stranded by an unstoppable technological revolution.  By 2015, according to another study

In 1998, when Virgin Trains was specifying the interiors of its Pendolino trains for the London-Glasgow West Coast inter-city franchise, Sir Richard Branson’s intention was that they should include an on-board, airline-style passenger entertainment system. When the costs were investigated, it was clear that there was no business case. Paul Soor, who was an executive at Angel Trains – the rolling stock leasing company which owns the Pendolinos – recalls that the costs were horr

The theme of the latest issue of New Transit might best be described as ‘The New Mobility’. This magazine has made its special role the exploration of what is the ‘New Transit’ – new approaches to the provision of rail, bus, tram and associated passenger transport services, and addressing a rapidly changing technological and customer service agenda. But there’s also things happening in parallel transport and travel worlds that are equally significant for th

For a network with very few gradients, Ireland’s railways have been on a switchback these last few years, going from famine to feast and back again. For many years railways both north and south of the country were starved of investment. Then things took off in the last ten years. Northern Ireland got new trains and line upgrades, in part through the ‘peace dividend’. In the Republic, the renaissance was led by a highly respected English railwayman, Dick Fearn. Iarnrod Eireann (

Stagecoach Group chief executive Brian Souter has received a knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday honours list. He becomes Sir Brian Souter for his service to transport and the voluntary sector. He co-founded Stagecoach with his sister, Ann Gloag, in 1980 with just two buses and developed the company into a leading international transport group in the UK and North America with 35,000 employees and an annual turnover of more than £2bn. “Having started my career in public tran

Stagecoach chief executive Brian Souter has launched a new intercity express coach business in Poland, through his privately-owned Souter Investments vehicle. PolskiBus.com operates eight express routes, which started on June 18, serving Poland’s biggest cities as well as Berlin, Bratislava, Prague and Vienna from a hub in Warsaw. The air-conditioned coaches feature free Wi-Fi access, charging points for laptops and mobile phones, and leather seats. In a strategy reminiscent of Stagecoac

Transport consultant Steer Davies Gleave is working with the West of England Partnership office — comprising Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Councils — to seek funding from the Department of Transport for rapid transit routes. Funding is available for major transport schemes across the country. The new routes would provide services that link residential areas, shopping, work, leisure and district centres, as well as helping to t

A fleet of Stagecoach buses that run on household rubbish and animal waste has taken to the road. The recycled waste is converted into biomethane, which will cut emissions by 40% and help reduce landfill, said the operator. The project has been launched in Lincoln in partnership with Lincolnshire County Council and the East Midlands Development Agency. Stagecoach has converted 11 Optare Solo buses from its Lincoln fleet to run on the low carbon fuel. Funding for the £260,000 conversion pr

Automatic ticket gates are being installed at five Glasgow stations in a bid to combat fare evasion and anti-social behaviour. ScotRail estimate that the gates will save around £2m a year in lost revenue. The gates are being supplied by Cubic Transportation Systems. “Cubic was the successful supplier — they met all criteria in terms of functionality, design, price and programme,” said ScotRail’s project manager Kirsty Watson. The gates have been installed at Charin

Connex Transport Jersey is using a computerised fleet maintenance system is enabling to efficiently run its 84-bus myBus fleet and closely manage stock. The operator said that the Freeway software allows it to develop vehicle maintenance histories for each bus, so that the management team can see precisely how much each one costs to run? over its working life. “Each vehicle is logged within the system,” said Nigel Taylor, engineering manager, Connex Transport Jersey. “Work do

People moving to Greater Manchester can find out the journey time between new workplaces and homes by checking an online interactive map. Mapnificent, by IT developer Stefan Wehrmeyer, will allow users to check how well-connected their workplace is to public transport services. The free online tool will offer useful guidance to BBC staff relocating from London to the new Mediacity in Salford Quays. The map shows that Sale, Timperley, Irlam and Swinton or all within a 30-minute journey by public

Yellow Buses has launched a smartphone app for its journey planner. The system uses GPS navigation tracking to enable both iPhone and Android users to plan a journey in Yellow Buses’ coverage area including Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch and East Dorset. The app follows the launch in January of the journey planner, which was developed in partnership with Bournemouth firm Base Creative Agency. “The journey planner has already received many compliments for its simplicity and ease

Richard Jeffrey, chief executive of Edinburgh’s tram project, has resigned after two years in the post. He had taken over at Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (TIE) after the resignation of Willie Gallagher in 2009, who also quit after two years in the role. Jeffrey’s departure followed a report to Edinburgh City Council, which said that work so far had cost £440m out of a total budget of £545m. The report also confirmed that up to 10 of Edinburgh’s unused tram veh

Network Rail has appointed Jo Kaye as its new route-managing director. She will be responsible for the day-to-day operation of over 2,000 miles of railway on the London North Western route. Kaye is currently the route’s director, but in an expanded role that takes effect from October, she will assume responsibility for maintenance and asset management as well as operating matters. The route covers the west coast main line from London Euston to the Scottish border north of Carlisle and th

DB Schenker Rail (UK) has appointed Dr Carsten Hinne as managing director logistics to head a strategic expansion of its intermodal and rail logistics division. Hinne will be responsible for expanding  existing services from UK seaports and inland terminals, with final onward road delivery as required. He will also help develop opportunities for UK customers with European and International supply chains, with particular emphasis on securing continental sized freight trains on the High Spee

Mark Langman is to lead Network Rail’s devolved business unit in Wales. He will lead a 1,400 strong team, and will oversee the management and operation of the railway throughout Wales and the English border counties from headquarters in Cardiff. The move forms part of the company’s recent devolution drive to increase its responsiveness to customers at a local level by creating the first independent Wales route in railway history. Langman said: “We have worked hard over the l

As this issue of New Transit demonstrates, the pace of change affecting passenger transport provision shows no sign of slackening. Our focus on the topic of mobile communications and potential of Near Field Communications for transport is just one area where there is a major discussion to be had, and new ideas to be exchanged. The year’s key forum for this exploration of an exciting future will again be the Travel 2020 Show taking place in London in November. Last year’s inaugural e

Smart cards have been very popular with retailers, service-providers and users: the range of applications is constantly increasing and expanding for the debit, credit and loyalty cards that have been progressively replacing cash and cheques for the past couple of decades. As a result, we all carry wallets bulging with cards – for season tickets, banking, shops, libraries, clubs, work access....That can be annoying – especially if they are lost or forgotten. The dream solution wou

Most of us adore gadgets – and the one we love most is our mobile. I say ‘mobile’ in the singular, but according to the latest (2009) figures from the International Telecommunication Union, the UK has over 80 million mobile subscribers – that’s well over one per person. Mobile technology has swept through the world, connecting everyone, rich or poor, from Africa to Antarctica, sometimes (in China and Finland, for example) replacing fixed lines or creating new facili

Stations are as much a part of our nation’s history as they are the shop windows of the railway. They feature in films and in novels and are often focal points within our towns and cities. As these towns and cities grow and change, so must their stations. But the changes needed to cope with the growing popularity of the railway are rarely the same. Britain relies on rail, and the railway is nearly full. Major programmes like Crossrail and Thameslink are increasing capacity in London an

A benchmarking study carried out for the McNulty review by German consultancy Civity demonstrated the scale of the efficiency gap between the UK rail industry and railways in four European countries – France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. The headline results showed that overall costs per passenger kilometre in the UK are 40% greater than in Europe, with infrastructure costs up to four times higher, depending on the level and efficiency of activity. Train operating costs per pa

The Department for Transport’s review into reducing the costs of the UK railways led by Sir Roy McNulty (pictured)  has involved a research programme that moved far beyond the often insular perspective of the UK rail industry. It took in comparisons with similar systems in France, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland Denmark, the USA, Hong Kong and Australia. It also examined lessons that could be learned from other sectors including energy, air, water, automotive and defence

Mobile phones have changed our lives - not least how we communicate whilst travelling. Now they are set to change the whole of the passenger transport business and its relationship with its customers. Near Field Communication (NFC) is the technology that everyone is talking about, but mobiles play a part in every aspect of travel: the phone has become much more than a means of communication. It is a universal ticket-wallet, travel document, timetable, work tool,  source of distraction and

When Reading Buses chief executive James Freeman began his career  on the bottom rung of the industry in the late 1970s, in the then National Bus Company the most interaction he recalls having with his depot superintendent was being barked at for a minor breach of rules. In many ways, working in the UK bus industry at that time was akin to joining the military, with the culture dominated by discipline, regimented procedure and remote command and control management.  Three decades on

HS1 has appointed Rob Holden as chairman and Nicola Shaw as its new chief executive. Holden was previously the chief executive at Crossrail, and before that he had been chief executive officer of London & Continental Railways. Shaw (right) was on the board of FirstGroup PLC and led the company’s European bus division. Before FirstGroup, she was managing director, operations at the Office of the Rail Regulator. HS1’s outgoing managing director, Paul Chapman, declared his intenti

The Competition Commission’s 17-month inquiry into local bus markets has found that competition between operators is highly limited throughout most of the country and on individual routes in towns and cities where more than one bus company operates. In its provisional findings, the commission concluded that passengers in these areas could expect less frequent services and in some cases higher fares than in places where there is more competition. But the most draconian measures for promot

An independent report commissioned by Network Rail has cleared former chief executive Iain Coucher of allegations claiming he had taken illicit payments and rejected claims that the company had used offshore accounts and cash payments to discourage departing employees from talking publicly about the reasons for leaving or taking legal action. The report also said: “It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the TSSA (Transport and Salaried Staff Association) introduced a series of increasing

Design – a word that makes accountants purse their lips and lock the money away, and engineers stiffen their sinews and furrow their brow at this ‘interference’ in what they have carefully constructed. For these fellow professionals perceive that this dark art can have no place in their worlds of logic, order and symmetry. Design doesn’t have hard, defined boundaries like engineering or accountancy, nor does it conform to immutable and predictable rules. It evolves and ch

Like the bus industry, the rail industry has traditionally been associated with ‘command and control’ management. Arguably the most radical step any train operator has taken in an attempt to create a new culture has been implemented at Merseyrail, the 75 mile  conurbation train operation run by Serco with Abellio, where the Fast Lane project has moved beyond empowering staff to a philosophy of customer service standards and initiatives being staff-led. Effectively, staff now def

One of the great achievements of UK Government transport policy in the late 1960s was the creation of the passenger transport executives (PTEs) in metropolitan areas outside London. Well-funded and politically accountable, they achieved great things in developing integrated passenger networks from previously fragmented elements. The last few years have seen some of that momentum slipping away in Britain, whilst their European equivalents have flourished. It’s a long time since the PTEs ow

Mott MacDonald has been working with Transport for London (TfL) to develop the cable car that will run across the River Thames connecting Greenwich and the Royal Victoria Docks. The consultancy’s role involved specialist engineering support on route options, building services, utilities and design coordination. It also managed ground investigations, carried out an environmental impact assessment and acted as TfL’s technical advisor during procurement of the design and build contrac

21st Century has been awarded two contracts, totalling £7.2m, by Keolis Sverige AB to supply CCTV systems, related maintenance and depot infrastructure for 1,475 buses. The Swedish firm operates under the ‘Busslink’ trading name in Stockholm. The first contract is for the installation of CCTV on 507 buses and related infrastructure, which will be installed this year, is worth more than £2.4m. This includes on-going maintenance revenue of around £100,000 a year for

The Handheld Group has won the contract to supply the Netherlands Railways with more than 10,000 Nautiz handhelds for ticket control, travel information and support of workflow processes. The order includes 6,000 Nautiz eTicket Pro units, containing an Arcontia RFID module. The contract was won by a consortium, HS Mobility, formed by Sweden-based Handheld Group together with the Dutch software partner company Sigmax B.V. The contract to supply the PDAs runs for five years, with most being depl

Bus operator Go North East has launched The Key smartcard, offering passengers a quick and alternative to paper tickets. Those using the smartcard will be eligible to a range of discount offers. To switch to the smartcard passengers have to visit www.simplygo.com/thekey After they register their details a smartcard will be sent to them the same day, free of charge. Passengers will be able to switch their weekly ticket or monthly pass to the Key. When travelling, passengers put their Key on the

User-unfriendly ticket vending machines (TVMs) can deny convenient access to public transport for passengers with disabilities. Currently available accessibility features require disabled users to remember special activation codes in order to enter the system. Overcoming these problems is the aim of two new research projects, one European and the other based in the UK. In April APSIS4all (Accessible Personalised Services In public digital terminal (PDT) Services for all) started to receive fun

Network Rail and train operator Northern are working to deliver accessibility improvements at Cheadle Hulme station by the end of July. Funded by the Department for Transport’s Access for All programme, the station will get three passenger lifts and a footbridge linking all platforms from the car park and drop-off area. Lee Wasnidge, area director for Northern Rail, comments: “We are delighted to work with our partners to make these fantastic improvements allowing passengers, who

Network Rail has revealed how Manchester Victoria station could look in less than five years time. A brand new, state of the art roof will flood the station with natural light and encapsulate the historic building. It is likely to be made of ETFE – the material used at Piccadilly station and the Eden Project. The £20m cost is to be split between Network Rail (£16m) and Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) (£4m). The improvements will also future-proof the station, a

The first steps to transform the south side of Birmingham city centre have been taken with the submission of the planning application for a new John Lewis department store at Birmingham New Street station. Network Rail has submitted a detailed planning application to Birmingham City Council for a 250,000sq ft John Lewis department store to be located on the south side of the redeveloped station. The plans will also see the upgrade of the Pallasades Shopping Centre above the station. The plann

Plans to transform London Bridge into a bigger and better station have been published by Network Rail. The station’s concourse, which will be bigger than the pitch at Wembley Stadium, will sit underneath the tracks. Two new entrances will be constructed on Tooley Street and St Thomas Street, which will improve links between the areas around the station. Coupled with changes and improvements to the rail infrastructure around the station, the investment in the area will mark the final phas

The tens of thousands of passengers using Clapham Junction every day are benefitting from improved access, less congestion and improved facilities following the official opening of the new entrance and nine new lifts at the station on 19 May. The upgrade — funded by Department for Transport, South West Trains, Wandsworth council, Transport for London, Network Rail and the Railway Heritage Trust — also includes new ticketing facilities, travel information screens and toilets in a fu

Smart phones now have many features that are relevant to the public transport user, and those in the business can apply these features to address user needs. We should not overlook the screen. A few years ago it was just a text display for the telephone number. Now it has an amazingly fine resolution, in colour, brightly lit and large enough to display graphics and photos. Most phones now have a better screen than the public monitors and electronic signs at the roadside or in stations which are

Chiltern Railways has launched a pioneering new approach to mobile phone ticketing with an integrated system that enables passengers to buy, instantly receive and validate tickets by barcode through an app on their mobile phone. Introduced ahead of an NFC capability, it is ready to embrace that element too Passengers who have bought mTickets with Chiltern through their mobiles are able to get through barriers equipped with optical barcode readers within seconds, without needing to queue at tick

At the end of last year, the board of German national transport operator Deutsche Bahn quietly made a major commitment to roll out its ‘Touch & Travel’ mobile phone based payment and ticketing project. The NFC based system was early piloted in 2008, with 200 users on the Hanover to Berlin line and in the city of Potsdam. It was then extended to cover travel between the cities of Cologne, Frankfurt, Hanover and Berlin in 2010. Alongside this, the Berlin regional transport agency B

One of the key findings of the McNulty review was that the effectiveness of research, development, testing and innovation in the UK rail industry lags behind other railways and industries. A research project by consultancy Atkins carried out for the review developed an Innovation Index to identify trends over the last 20 years and assess where the UK rail industry sits in comparison with other organisations. The conclusion was that innovation in has improved over the last 10 years, but still la

The UK railway revolution begun by the privatisation legislation in 1993 has been an almost permanent one. The pioneering approach, now increasingly being applied elsewhere, has not been the smoothest journey. Over the past year, the government has been keen to promote the McNulty review of costs and efficiencies as an exercise in evolution not revolution. It has not quite turned out that way. Its conclusions are radical and far reaching and likely to lead to a further major change in industry s

The British government prompted Competition Commission inquiry into local bus services may not have been billed as a means of creating a new framework for the bus industry to better meet public policy objectives. But there is no doubt this was its subtext. After 16 months of investigations, the Commission’s provisional findings have come no closer to success  than the politicians who have been berating ‘profiteering’ operators for the past two decades since de-regulation a

Go-Ahead Group has bought Wallingford-based Thames Travel in a deal which will complement its existing Oxford operations. Thames operates in South Oxfordshire and West Berkshire, with a fleet of 34 vehicles. It currently carries 1.25 million passengers per year and employs 75 staff.  “Thames Travel is a strong business with a proud tradition of providing high quality services to the local community,” David Brown, Deputy Chief Executive, of Go-Ahead said. “With the resour

Virgin Trains and the Department for Transport have reached an agreement for the first of the new West Coast Pendolino trains to enter service this summer. Previously, the inability to agree commercial terms for the introduction of the new train had seen the DfT threaten to use it on the East Coast Main Line, where its Directly Operated Railways subsidiary operates, prior to the new West Coast contract starting. The new contract had been scheduled to start in May 2012 but has been put back to Ja

First Group has announced that it will be handing back the keys to its Great Western (FGW) franchise in 2013 rather than taking up its option to extend the contract for a further three years until 2016. The decision reflects FGW’s failure to meet revenue growth targets of 8-10%/year factored into its successful bid for the franchise which it retained in 2006.  First  acknowledged that the impact of the recession meant there was no chance of FGW re-emerging as a financially worth

FirstGroup’s new bus division chief executive, Giles Fearnley, has announced a major restructure designed to make the company more responsive to customers’ requirements and refocus it on growth rather than cost cutting. The changes build on the regional model, put in place last June, and the five regional managing directors have been retained in their current roles. However, new senior management posts have been created to strengthen the group’s local businesses. Fearnley was

National Express East Anglia’s fleet of Bombardier 379 fleet trains on its London Stanstead Express service now offers onboard broadband internet access. The system from Icomera provides internet access for passengers and gives staff access to staff and onboard systems including CCTV, passenger information and Bombardier's train management system. National Express’s Class 379 fleet contract manager Mike Watkins said: “The on-board broadband uses Icomera patented SureWANT techn

Professional. Positive. Innovative. Ambitious. Those are some of the words that would best describe the atmosphere that was experienced by the 2000 delegates at this month’s UITP global gathering of the public transport industry in Dubai. And a true gathering it was, involving  those at the sharp end of provision in 80 countries. If for no other reason, those attending had the substantial benefit of sharing the feelings and approaches of fellow professionals addressing similar chall

There was a distinct air of confidence about the future of public transport at the 59th UITP World Congress and Exhibition held in Dubai at the beginning of April. Whilst the 2000 delegates from 80 countries were hearing presentations relating to the Congress theme of ‘PT x 2’- the aim of doubling the public transport market share worldwide by 2025- there were many examples of innovation and imagination in vehicles, equipment and operational and marketing support systems to be seen

When I began my career in transport back in the 1980’s, with an Economics degree, my first posting after completing the Senior Management Training Scheme with the UK’s then state-owned National Bus Company was in its Planning Department, developing computer models to forecast demand for the group’s bus services.  We used these not only to give strategic information to government about the business, but also to assist local bus company managers in planning their services.&n

Bicester, in North Oxfordshire, is the latest town in England to implement the growing ‘kitchen as travel centre’ concept for new-build houses. This will equip each of them with a small, wall-mounted home portal featuring a conveniently-located, always-on, interactive colour touchscreen.  Family members can use it at mealtimes for journey planning, accessing real-time transport information on local bus and related services before going out. The aim is to woo new arrivals away

Tesco, now the third largest retailer in the world, has built the concept of customer loyalty into the core of its business. Terry Leahy, who has just stood down as chief executive, is credited with seeing the opportunity of a loyalty card system in the early 1990’s and pushing for its adoption. He recalls spotting another smaller company using the system , and preparing a report for the Tesco board on how it could help the supermarket chain. In some trepidation, he waited for a response

Customer data gathered through loyalty card schemes is a crucial part of business planning in the retail industry and other consumer sectors like holidays and entertainment. It allows companies such as supermarkets, department stores, hotels and venues to hold precise records of what each customer buys, when they shop and how their preferences change over time. Individual customers are targeted with special offers which prompt changes in  their behaviour, leading to them trying new products

Will Twitter’s contribution to the information revolution do away with the need for journalists? Probably not. And in a similar way, allowing “the crowd” to contribute an immediate  commentary on the transport system could open up new opportunities for transport professionals.  They will be vital intermediaries in making sense of a much richer stream of information than we have today. As someone directly concerned with the passenger transport information revolution, I