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Transport overview

Transport Overview n° 41

Transport Overview n° 41

24/02/11

 
Transport Overview n°41 by Christine Raynard, Sustainable Development Department

1) The French company will try to Induct La Rochelle an electric vehicle intelligent Cybergo, with a cabin that can accommodate 6-8 persons.
This shuttle will operate autonomously, without driver and without outside control, with four lasers positioned around and to have an angle of perception of 90
degrees each.
Initially, the maximum speed will be 18 km / h.
Cybergo can be equipped with a lithium polymer battery, but this system requires a recharge regular.
Therefore, a second solution is studied consisting of induction charge the vehicle. The shuttle will hide under the floor plate connected to a battery of great ability, such as capacitors. Similar plates connected to a terminal, itself connected to the network, will be placed on the ground. When the shuttle route above, it will automatically feed into electricity, without any contact. This system requires a dedicated infrastructure and, according to studies, equipped with plates every 500 meters, to allow the shuttle to operate day and night without interruption.
The regulations now prohibit the movement of such vehicles on the road classic, but the city of La Rochelle voted to authorize a municipal Cybergo and will construct the physical environment necessary.
The price of basic marketing could be 150 000 euros, but the first global experiment should be conducted in the course of the first half of 2011 will refine these estimates.

2) By 2020, Denmark plans to link Germany with a tunnel or a bridge. But the first solution is preferred.
The Fehmarn Belt is now used by 45,000 ships a year and this figure could reach 90 000 to 100 000 vessels, which raises issues of safety and risk of collision.
The cost of this work, a length of 19 km, is estimated at 37.9 billion crowns (4.9 billion euros). This project will link Roedbyhavn rail and road (150 km south of Copenhagen) and Puttgarten (northern Germany) and commissioning should take place between 2018 and 2020.

3) Colombia is negotiating with China to build a 220 km railway line, linking the Atlantic coast (new town near Cartagena in northern Colombia) and the Pacific coast. This project would provide an alternative to the Panama Canal, now heavily congested.
imported Chinese products would be assembled to Cartagena, before being exported to the Americas and the Colombian commodities could be exported to China.
For China, it is a strategic entry point to all of Latin America.

4) The airline EasyJet will test in eight of its aircraft, a coating intended to reduce the drag coefficient and thus increase the autonomy of flying.
This nano-coating, less than one micron thick, consists of a polymer material being applied to the paint of the device. Thus, the accumulation of debris on the surface of the aircraft is reduced, the air penetration is improved and fuel consumption could be reduced by 1 to 2%.
This new product is applied and distributed in the United TripleO Kingdom by the company.


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Head of Communications
Tel. +33 (0) 1 42 75 61 37
jean-michel.roulle@strategie.gouv.fr

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