Tag Archive for transportation

| August 5, 2016
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SkyTran futuristic transport pods have hit setback with Tel Aviv plans

 

The futuristic space pod transport that could solve Israel’s housing crisis now has plans set for Netanya and Herzliya, promising to upend the way people get from place to place.

By NIV ELIS

 

In a retro-futuristic vision of the 21st century, people might zip from place to place in sleek pods, as a robotic assistant prepared a home-cooked meal and an electric dog wagged its tail in anticipation of its owner arriving home.

‘THERE’S NO MORE room for surface solutions,’ says SkyTran CEO and chairman Jerry Sanders. - Photo: Courtesy

‘THERE’S NO MORE room for surface solutions,’ says SkyTran CEO and chairman Jerry Sanders. – Photo: Courtesy

As the technological revolution of the 21st century makes artificial intelligence and personal assistants more of a reality, they may not be taking the form of Rosie the robot from The Jetsons.
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Category: Innovations & Discoveries, Israel News | Tags: , ,
| July 6, 2015
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Waze in Israel Launches Pilot Carpooling Program

A test program running in Tel Aviv using a new Waze application called RideWith, uses the navigation system to learn routes drivers most frequently take to school or work & matches them up with people looking for rides in the same direction.

By Reuters & Israel Hayom Staff

 

Google-owned traffic navigation app Waze is launching a carpooling pilot program in Israel in which commuters pay fellow drivers a small fee for a ride to and from work.

The new application, called RideWith, will use Waze’s mapping system to learn the routes drivers most frequently take to work and match them up with people looking for rides in the same direction.

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Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| July 2, 2015
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Canadian railway giant unconcerned with boycott politics against Israel

Canadian transportation giant  has no problem with Israeli trains going beyond the Green Line, does not support the int’l boycott against Israel.

By Ofer Petersburg

 

Dr. Lutz Bertling, the president and chief operating officer of Canadian company Bombardier’s transportation division, told Mamon that his company does not support the international boycott against Israel.

Double-deck coaches have been a success at Israel Railways – Photo: Roee Zukerman

For over a decade now, Canadian multinational aerospace and transportation company Bombardier has been the leading foreign investor in Israeli transportation. Now, however, Chinese companies are threatening to eat into its activities in the railway field in Israel.  Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| May 3, 2015
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Israel Shipyards to Transport Goods to Arab World Via Jordan

Israel’s largest privately owned port seeks to replace Syrian port, closed due to the civil war, as a Mediterranean port for goods bound for Jordan, Syria & Iraq.

By Linda Gradstein, The Media Line

 

The captain peered over the side of the Turkish-flagged ship at his cargo of long metal rods that have come from Turkey and are headed to an unspecified Middle East country. The crew piled into a van at the Israel Shipyards, bound for the duty-free shop at the nearby Haifa port. On a recent afternoon, ships from all over the world were docked at this Mediterranean port, carrying goods bound for Jordan, Iraq and Syria. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| May 1, 2015
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Buses to run in Jerusalem on Shabbat

The “Shabus” bus line will begin operating with 3 mini-buses from an east Jerusalem transportation company from 8 pm Friday night to 2 am on Saturdays.

By Yori Yalon

 

The Cooperative Transportation Association of Jerusalem will begin operating its new “Shabus” program next weekend, introducing buses that will run between Jerusalem neighborhoods and the city’s nightlife destinations on Friday night.

Members of the Cooperative Transportation Association of Jerusalem holding signs for the new bus line that will run on Shabbat, called “Shabus” – Photo: Ori Katzman

Public transportation in the vast majority of Israeli cities does not operate on Shabbat. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , , , ,
| October 6, 2013
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Israel’s controversial rail route to Eilat gets approval in gov’t committee

 

New rail-line draws fire from social activists, environmentalists, and Ephraim Halevy, an ex-Mossad chief warned that Chinese involvement might harm Israeli interests.

By  

‘The fast track to approve the train to Eilat is liable to turn into a fast track to destroying nature in the Negev and damaging the Gulf of Eilat,’ said the Enviornment Protection Ministry.

Eilat train

A ministerial committee approved on Sunday a train route between Tel Aviv and Eilat, the most expensive transportation project Israel has ever undertaken. – Photo: Dov Greenblatt – Simulation: Tomer Harari

Environmental Protection Minister Amir Peretz was the only one who opposed the rail line. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| August 11, 2013
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After drivers’ strike, trains expected to operate on schedule

Disruptions started last Wednesday as 42 engine drivers, about 20% of the country’s drivers, announced their sudden ‘illness’ just as a new schedule went into effect with more trains to make traveling more accommodating for the passengers.

By Daniel Schmil

 

 

The trains are expected to run on schedule Sunday, despite the ongoing tension between Israel Railways management and the train drivers, which led to the cancellation of 40 trains last Thursday.

Passengers boarding an Israel Railways train in Tel Aviv, Sept. 21, 2012.

Passengers boarding an Israel Railways train in Tel Aviv, (illustrative) – Photo: Daniel Bar-On

Sanctions started last Wednesday when 42 engine drivers, about 20 percent of all the drivers, announced their sudden illness just as a new schedule went into effect with more trains, including direct lines from Ashdod and Ashkelon to Tel Aviv. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| March 14, 2013
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NASA’s Pod Transports Are Getting Closer to Tel Aviv

If all goes as planned, within the next 2 years Israel will be the first country to adapt this futuristic NASA transport pod, into a suburban public rapid transit system.

By

 

Transport pods that look like silvery fish could soon be whizzing above the streets of Tel Aviv. The Israeli city is looking to become the world’s first to get a mass-transit system co-developed at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai said during a Monday visit to Bloomberg News.

Courtesy Skytran

The SkyTran system, which Huldai said could help relieve the traffic congestion that plagues his Mediterranean city, consists of two-person vehicles that hang from rails above street level. Continue Reading »

Category: Innovations & Discoveries | Tags: , ,
| March 8, 2013
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More NEW Palestinian bus lines planed by Transportation Ministry

Transportation Ministry director-general Uzi Itzhaki says that purpose of the additional lines is to aid those Palestinians who live in Judea & Samaria commute to their jobs inside Israel and rejects as ridiculous all claims that these new lines are some form of apartheid.

Israel Hayom Staff

 

Israel’s Transportation Ministry plans to expand public bus services for Palestinian residents of Judea and Samaria, a ministry official told Army Radio on Thursday.

Palestinian workers board a bus en route to Judea and Samaria from the Tel Aviv area. – Photo: AP

Uzi Itzhaki, the Transportation Ministry’s director-general, rejected claims that new bus lines, which are meant mainly for use by Palestinians, are a form of apartheid.

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Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| March 7, 2013
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Terra incognita: Separating Facts from Fiction on ‘Palestinian bus line’

Every published story about the ‘segregated Palestinian only’ bus line was a spin, based on ignorance or meanness, of the true situation.

 

The Twainist witticism of the “lie traveling halfway round the world while the truth puts on its socks” was never more true than with regard to this week’s story about Israel inaugurating “segregated bus lines.”
התור לאוטובוסים ביום הראשון להפעלתם (צילום: גור דותן)

Commotion on the bus lines – Photo: Gur Dotan

is story began with Israeli media reporting Sunday: “Israel introduces ‘Palestinian only’ bus lines, following complaints from Jewish settlers” (Chaim Levinson, Haaretz). The mainstream newspaper Yediot Aharonot reported on “Separate but equal bus lines?”

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Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| March 5, 2013
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ARSON: 2 Buses operating ‘Palestinian’ lines torched

Police suspect arson  after 2 buses belonging to Afikim Bus Company catch fire in Kfar Qassem.

Afikim removes their buses from town after riots erupt over newly added ‘Palestinian-only’ lines

By Raanan Ben-Zur

 

Following the uproar against its ‘Palestinian-only’ West Bank bus lines, two Afikim company buses caught fire on Monday night in Kfar Qassem.

התור לאוטובוסים ביום הראשון להפעלתם (צילום: גור דותן)

Commotion on the bus lines – Photo: Gur Dotan

There were no reports of injury, and the police are investigating suspicions of arson.

Due to the incident, the company’s drivers were asked to remove all buses from the Arab town, fearing similar occurrences in light of the protest against the new bus lines. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| March 3, 2013
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Ministry launches ‘Palestinian bus routes’ in West Bank

Transportation Ministry sets up new bus lines for Arab passengers in West Bank towns & insists the additional lines are for general public, even though only Palestinian villages have been advised of their schedules.

By Itamar Fleishman

 

Racial segregation or transportation mitigation? The Transportation Ministry announced that starting Sunday it will begin operating designated lines for Palestinians in the West Bank.

Afikim busThe bus lines in question are meant, according to the ministry, to transport Palestinian workers from the West Bank to central Israel. The ministry alleges that the move is meant to ease the congestion felt on bus lines used by Jews in the same areas, but several bus drivers told Ynet that Palestinians who will choose to travel on the so-called “mixed” lines, will be asked to leave them. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| February 20, 2013
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Red Sea – Mediterranean Sea railway path approved

New train tracks planned for Eilat will go through desert & wildlife reservations despite environmental groups objections. Tracks planed to become operational in 2019

Amir Ben-David

 

The Southern Zoning Committee approved a bid by the Israel National Roads Company to build new train tracks in the country’s south, despite an environmental impact report that deemed the project harmful, Yedioth Aharonoth reported.

Illustration - Photo by Index OpenThe train track are expected to run though plant and wildlife reservations, as well as known hiking trails, but unlike similar projects that aimed to minimize their environmental impact, the new project will not make use of the usual solution of tunnels, as suggested by the Environmental Protection Ministry Israel Nature and National Parks Service. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| December 31, 2012
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50 Year Low in Road-Deaths Despite Increase in Road Vehicles

Yisrael Katz, the Transportation and Road Safety Minister says the number of road deaths in Israel in 2012 dropped 25% from 2011

According to the Transportation Minister, Israel is now 10th in the world in terms of fewest road accidents per kilometers driven.

By Dan Lavie

 

 

The number of deaths in road accidents in Israel in 2012 was the lowest in 50 years, Transportation and Road Safety Minister Yisrael Katz announced on Sunday.

Moving in the right direction: Road deaths are down 25 percent, said Transportation and Road Safety Minister Yisrael Katz. – Photo: Yossi Zeliger

Since the start of the year, there were 287 deaths in road accidents in Israel, a 25 percent drop from 2011.

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Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| November 12, 2012
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NASA futuristic rapid transit to debut in Tel Aviv

 

Israel chosen by developer of NASA-designed skyTran as the perfect place to pilot the software-guided personal space-age transport pods that glide on a cushion of air.

 

If all goes as planned, within two years Israelis will be the first people to try out a futuristic rapid transport system designed by NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California.

Magnets pull skyTran vehicles off the ground.

Magnets pull skyTran vehicles off the ground.

The skyTran uses two-person modules that drive along a guide rail suspended from existing power lines. Magnets in the vehicle create a magnetic field around the metal coil inside the rail, causing the vehicle to lift up and glide 60 miles per hour on a cushion of air. Continue Reading »

Category: Innovations & Discoveries | Tags: ,