How the Persian Gulf Is Quietly Building a Railroad Empire

How the Persian Gulf Is Quietly Building a Railroad Empire

Here in the U.S., the arrival of a new tunnel boring machine is huge news, warranting naming ceremonies and Twitter accounts. Meanwhile, in Doha, officials have quietly signed a contract to buy fifteen boring machines to build a sprawling new subway system. And that’s nothing compared to the massive transit network being built to connect the rest of the Gulf states.

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How the Railroad Wiped Out Passenger Pigeons (and Nearly Bison, Too)

How the Railroad Wiped Out Passenger Pigeons (and Nearly Bison, Too)

The advent of the railroad collapsed our notions of time and space, and it carved out entire industries whole—we of the 21st century have only the internet for comparison. It also swallowed entire species: The story of how railroads drove the passenger pigeon to extinction—and bison to the brink of it—is a story of how a technological system can radically transform an entire landscape in just a few years.

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Indian Railways launches RailRadar, lets you track trains via Google Maps

Indian Railways launches RailRadar, lets you track trains via Google Maps

Indian Railways has just made it a little easier for rail travelers with a new web app called RailRadar, which uses Google Maps to track trains on a real-time basis. This is certainly welcome on one of the largest rail networks in the world — it operates more than 10,000 trains everyday — though the service is only available on 6,500 trains for now. To find out where your train is, simply search for its name or number and RailRadar will spot it for you. You can also find trains by entering the name of the station. Blue highlights indicate trains that are on time while red means it’s behind schedule. If you click on a train, it’ll show its entire route from start to finish. The logical next step would be for this to be on smartphones like how it is in Japan, though we’re not sure if that’s in the cards just yet.

[Thanks, dil]

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Indian Railways launches RailRadar, lets you track trains via Google Maps originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 02:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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