Land-Transport

The Changtai Bridge - The World’s Longest Cable-Stayed Bridge A magnificent feat of engineering opened in China: The Changtai bridge. It is more than 10kms long and connects the cities of Changzhou and Taizhou across the Yangtze river. It combines both road traffic and railway lines, and it shortens the travel time between the two cities from 80 minutes to just 20. Once again, China shows its prowess in civil engineering. Maglev in Augsburg? The SWA, the utility and mobility provider in Augsburg, Germany, is reportedly looking into the construction of a maglev. The idea is to build the maglev instead of the planned tramway line 5 from the central station to the new university hospital. If these plans were to come true, it would be the first ever line implementing the Transport System Bögl (TSB). This topic might be driven by political interest, as the original plans to erect a TSB in the city of Nuremberg have faltered, but Bavaria’s Minister President Markus Söder would like to see this technology of Bavarian origin in his home state. evtol News Last but not least another web tip for all fans of electric planes, aerotaxis and eVTOL in general. This homepage collects all relevant information regarding this interesting technology in one place. The only drawback is that its RSS feed seems to be broken, so I won’t see their latest updates in my inbox. Title image by China Communications Construction

Every second year, the IAA becomes the Mekka of the automotive world. Since the IAA moved from Frankfurt to Munich in 2021, it also showcases other mobility solutions, not just cars. Much has been written in the last days about the cars, and here I want to give an overview about the other mobility options that were on show.

Helsinki Achieves Vision Zero 0 people died in traffic in Finland’s capital in the last 12 month. An amazing achievement for this city of 690,000 inhabitants. Compare this with other cities of this size, e.g. Nuremberg, Germany, where the death toll was 11. Wouldn’t it be worth to make some changes to the planning rules to save these lives? Helsinki did just that, by setting a speed limit of 30 kph in many streets, especially around schools. The decision where to limit the speed was based on data where most of the crashes occurred. In addition, they added bike lanes and improved p ublic transportation, reducing overall traffic and thus decreased the likelihood of accidents. Other European cities are following suit and are also setting up similar measures. Vision Zero - the European Union’s plan to have 0 traffic related deaths by 2050 - it has come a little closer. Virtual Train Coupling Imagine individual trains could be coupled without any mechanical connection. If it were possible, multiple trains could occupy the same blog segment at the same time while they could also part their ways any time. Right now, this is not possible. To connect trains, they have to be coupled mechanically, a maneuver which has to be done while both trains are standing, and often also requires manual intervention. The German research institute DLR has now shown in a prototype how virtual coupling could work. In this prototype, two trains communicate with each other via Ultra-Wideband (UWB). This is a radio technology that allows an exact distance measurement between the communication partners. One of its applications is to find out where a smartphone is relative to a car, which is the basis of the BMW Digital Key technology. In addition to UWB, also lasers are used to measure the position of the trains very precisely. The researches have shown that with this technology, trains can travel in a distance of a few dozen meters from each other. Once this technology is ready for series production, it would allow both more automation of railroads and a higher track capacity. A similar approach is also being evaluated for virtual coupling of busses, as I reported back in 2023. I am looking forward that this 21st century technology will make the railway system fit for the future. Berlin open for a new maglev line Ute Bonde, the senator for transport of Berlin, said she is open to add maglevs in the transport mix in Berlin. She sees them as an alternative to conventional tramway lines, but also for freight traffic into the city. Even though she did not mention any provider, there is only one company that could deliver such a system in Germany: The Transport System Bögl, which I had the chance to visit last year. It would be the first city to build such a system and thus a trailblazer for maglevs in public transportation. Ms Bonde wants to present her whitepaper for the future of mobility in Berlin in the fall of this year. I am looking forward to it, maybe it will really make maglevs a reality after so many years of discussions. Tokyo Metro - 100 Cameras If you have already watched the documentary “Metrocosmos” (see here), here is another must-watch documentary for subway aficionados. It shows the complex activities that keep the Tokyo Metro running by dispersing a hundred cameras everywhere - in trains, on platforms and in the control center. You see in real time how this organization detects problems, finds solutions and constantly adapts. It is almost like a living organism, which is fascinating to watch. No wonder that London wanted them to operate their Elizabeth Line. The video will be available until Dec. 13th 2025, so hurry up to watch it. Title image by DLR, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

Bridge to Sicily - Construction scheduled to start this year A ride from mainland Italy to Sicily takes hours, as you have to take a ferry across the Medina Strait. But this is about to change: The world’s longest suspension bridge shall connect Sicily to the rest of Italy. The bridge shall span a record of 3.3km. As a suspension bridge, it shall be especially resistant against earthquakes. Construction is supposed to start in 2026. Once finished, it can carry 6,000 cars per hour and additionally 200 trains per day. Autonomous eVTOL supplies offshore oil rig in China Chinese company Autoflight tested their fully electric eVTOL that can carry up to 400kg of load. The purpose of this autonomous drone is to support offshore oil rigs. Current ways of supplying them are either via ship, which can take up to ten hours or more, or via helicopter, which is very expensive. Thus a fully electric and autonomous drone could save lots of time and money. The drone fills a similar niche as the MightlyFly about which I wrote in July. As soon as these drone types become reliable and economical, they are goint to reshape many industries. Metrocosmos - a fascinating look into the underground This week I watched the documentary Metrocosmos by Filmmaker Timo Novotny. In this five-part documentary, Timo takes us on a journey into the underground of Paris, Prague, Berlin, Vienna and Naples. We learn about the fact that the metro in Naples is one of the metros with the steepest gradiants. Or that the length of the Paris metro, which is already one of the largest in the world, is currently in the progress of being extended to twice the track length! On this journey we also meet all kind of people in the underground, from the construction workers who built the tunnels, over designers who create the visual communication concept, to the urban explorers who find abandoned places all over the networks. All of this is presented in a captivating visual style, combined with a hypnotic soundtrack. This is a must-watch for all subway afficinados. The videos are currently available (in German) on the ARD Mediathek. Title Image by the Messina Strait Bridge Company.

Swiss company Cargo Sous Terrain plans to reform freight transport by going underground on a large scale. In the shadow of more flashy developments like the Teslas zipping under Las Vegas, they follow a more down-to-earth (literally) approach. Learn more about this new concept for freight transport in this article.

An American startup is on a mission to change rail freight forever. They want to introduce self-driving, autonomous freight cars. The idea is to make rail freight more flexible and cost-effective, and to get more freight on the rails. Let’s take a look at what the future of freight could look like.

Well, just about everything needs energy. But there are a few transportation systems that use energy that is already available and not used for anything else. In this article, I want to show you three solutions that require no oil to be pumped, no coal to be burned, and no electricity to be generated.

The transport sector is responsible for a large proportion of global greenhouse gas emissions. It is essential that it be converted to renewable energy. For cars, the transition to mainly battery-electric vehicles has begun. But for trucks, the technology of choice is not yet clear. Because they are much heavier than cars, they will also need larger batteries. Right now, there is a race between battery electric trucks, hydrogen trucks, and overhead catenary trucks. Yes, you read that right: Trucks with a catenary, like an electric train! How do they work and what are their chances in this competition? Read on to find out more.

Owning a car is still a dream for many people around the world. Increasing car ownership brings many problems to cities and their inhabitants - noise, pollution, congestion, accidents and more. Communities and governments around the world are trying to find solutions to reduce these negative effects by reducing the number of cars or getting rid of them altogether. However, this goal seems to be elusive - for example, carsharing schemes have increased traffic instead of reducing the total number of cars in a city. In this article, I point out the fundamental problem that I believe lies at the heart of the failure to get rid of cars.

A few years ago, a great idea made the rounds: The sharing economy. Why own something if you could share the ownership - and the costs - with others? The idea permeated the auto industry. Many even saw the end of traditional car ownership. Fast forward to 2023, and that vision has yet to manifest. Car sales are booming around the world. There seems to be no trend towards sharing your car with others. What happened to the great idea of carsharing?