Hiring Our Heroes
A veteran’s job fair hosted by the American Public Transportation Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was held on June 4, 2013 in conjunction with the APTA Rail Conference.
APTA President & CEO Michael Melaniphy said, “The U.S. Chamber has held over 400 of these job fairs in the last two years and we’re proud to join with them for this offer today. In Washington, D.C., we’ve been working with our industry partners, such as our federal partners at the Department of Transportation and other federal agencies in a proactive initiative approach of hiring veterans.”
http://apta.com/veterans
Alstom Unveils Citadis Spirit
Alstom recently unveiled its Citadis Spirit light-rail vehicle for the North American market. Features include a 100 percent low-floor design and the ability to operate at speeds up to 65 mph. The vehicle is modular in length and can be expanded as a city’s transportation needs grow over time.
The Citadis Spirit can be paired with one of Alstom’s off-wire power supply systems to preserve historic cityscapes and minimize the impacts on the environment.
www.MassTransitmag.com/10963237
Sun Metro Breaks Ground on Brio
Brio will have uniquely branded 60-foot articulated buses in mixed traffic; free Wi-Fi at the stations and on the buses; a frequency of 10 minutes (peak service) to 15 minutes (off-peak service); stations that are about a mile apart; branded and landscaped stations with improved pedestrian amenities and signal prioritization (lengthen green traffic signals), to name a few system amenities.
Construction along the Mesa corridor — the first of four corridors — begins this month and is expected to last about 12 months. The construction consists of the installment of 22 Brio stations.
The total project cost for the Brio Mesa corridor is $27.1 million, of which $13.5 million is funded by the Federal Transit Administration.
www.MassTransitmag.com/10960860
Attaining an Accurate Count
At the APTA Rail Conference highlighted its automatic passenger counting system Mobile-APC and the IRMA Matrix sensor, based on a matrix of 500 pixels with which it measures the distance to the object and detects it three-dimensionally. The presence and movement of persons or objects can be determined with very high accuracy, irrespective of the environmental conditions.
Init’s Andreas Rakebrandt, director business development, North America automatic passenger counting said, “It can separate between passengers, wheelchairs, bikes which is very important for engineer reporting for accurate data. People are switching over to the matrix technology for really accurate data.”
www.MassTransitmag.com/10821274
Foothill Transit Transitions to In-House Management
Foothill Transit’s Executive Board voted 5-0 in favor of establishing the agency’s first ever in-house management team and voting to amend the agency’s contract with Veolia Transportation to transition most of the current management team to Foothill Transit’s employ.
The agency’s first employee will be Doran J. Barnes, the current executive director under the Veolia Transportation contract who has served in that role for the past decade.
“Foothill Transit reaches its 25th year of service in December,” said Doug Tessitor, Foothill Transit’s board chair. “We’ve grown up and we’re ready. We have our own culture, our own values and our own mission. This evolution cements our reputation as an innovative and flexible agency that is in charge of its own future with our communities’ needs in the forefront.”
www.MassTransitmag.com/10951093
Global Ticketing Technology With a Personal Touch
NextAgent from Cubic Transportation Systems utilizes high-speed video links to let passengers interact with ticketing staff in real time, any time. Cubic Transportation Systems Product Manager Jason Kenward said, “It was developed really in response to two things: operators telling us they would like to move staff out of the ticket window and on to the station platform where they can help passengers and also from passengers saying they sometimes feel uncomfortable using a normal [ticket vending machine] for high-value transactions or difficult journeys.”
Ticketing staff can be located in a centralized location to which all passengers have access whenever they are traveling because instead of normal ticket office window, NextAgent features a high-definition glass screen on which it displays a live video of the ticket agent from that central location. Passengers speak with the agent throughout the process, just as they would at a traditional ticket window.
www.MassTransitmag.com/10951122
New Design Functions for Intelligent Rail Systems
Transoft Solutions recently launched its new AutoTURN Rail 3D passenger rail design software. The design functions include recreating various vehicle configurations from manufacturer’s specifications to be used to check design, generating preliminary information for station and platform design, anticipating maintenance yard impacts with other vehicles and structures, and refining design for pedestrian walkways.
www.MassTransitmag.com/10963121
