USA: Connecticut’s Hartford rail line exceeds first-year passenger goal
The 62-mile CTrail Hartford Line has outperformed its first-year ridership goal by over 50,000. The service — which runs between New Haven and Springfield, Massachusetts — logged a total of 634,000 passengers during its first year; 8.6 percent more riders than originally projected. [hartfordbusiness.com]
Canada: Prepare for long lines on Kitchener-Waterloo Ion’s first day
The public can hop on board the Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario region’s new Ion light-rail as of noon on Friday. The first four trains will depart the Kitchener station filled with VIPs. The other six Ion trains will be spread out along the route. [therecord.com]
USA: High costs kill Winston-Salem streetcar project
No streetcars will be running in between Wake Forest University and Winston-Salem State University. Projected construction and operations costs have doomed the project. [journalnow.com]
Asia: Jakarta, Indonesia light metro opens
The first section of the new Jakarta light metro has begun trial operation, ahead of the planned Friday launch of the 4.5 km five-station elevated route between Kelapa Gading Mall and Velodrome. A northern 1.3 km one-station extension is also due to open on Friday. [metro-report.com]
