The first public demonstration of “the hyperloop,” a new propulsion system for high-speed transit, occurred on May 11 in the desert north of Las Vegas. Days later, a team of researchers unveiled a hyperloop test pod.
In the wake of infrastructure-related service disruptions on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s Metrorail system—and a highly critical National Transportation Safety Board report on a fatal 2015 electrical-system incident—the agency plans to launch next month an intensive, system-wide rehabilitation program, aimed at restoring safety and reliability by mid 2017.
A mobile maintenance backhoe struck by an Amtrak train near Chester, Pa., on April 3 was authorized to operate on the rail tracks within a scheduled 55-hour maintenance window, according to a preliminary report of the incident by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
Just weeks after opening the new Gold Line Foothill Extension, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) hopes to expand that light-rail system again, along with many other projects.
Washington, D.C.’s Metrorail was once a model for public transit in the U.S. On the eve of its 40th birthday, the system is rife with safety, operational and management problems.
Regenerative braking is widely used in electric and hybrid cars, but its first commercial use in an urban transit system is only now being built in the Philadelphia area.
Confronting a spaghetti bowl of roads in and out of SeaTac International Airport, south of Seattle, owner Sound Transit opted for its first-ever turnkey design-build contract to better integrate civil, structural, station and system components of a new light-rail system extension that will serve the airport.
Days after two Wisconsin oil and ethanol train derailments in early November, a national environmental watchdog group released a scathing critique of the decaying state of freight rail infrastructure—especially bridges—and the dangers they pose to wildlife habitats and waterways as heavier volumes of hazardous materials put pressure on aging track.
