Beijing opened two new subway lines on Sunday, delayed from a planned late-June start but just in time to carry passengers banned from their cars as the capital tries to clean up its skies before next month’s Olympics.

Passenger service has yet to start, however, on a third line that will serve the Olympic Green and was the site of an opening ceremony and test ride for the media on Sunday morning.

An official with the Beijing subway operating company said it was not clear when the line would begin regular service.

The three new lines, which cost 22.3 billion yuan ($3.3 billion) to build and are part of massive infrastructure plans to ease transport during the Games, will increase the city’s subway lines to eight and expand their reach by 40 percent to 200 km (125 miles).

Eager crowds rushed through the turnstyles when the airport line formally opened in the afternoon.

Inside subway cars on the Number 10 line, a commuter route, many watched clips of professional basketball games on video screens that are also due to carry live shots of the Olympics.

In addition to shuttling Olympic visitors around town, the new lines will boost transport options for Beijing’s residents, whose rising wealth has triggered a boom in car ownership and severely worsened the city’s chronic smog and traffic jams.

The Beijing authorities, eager to improve air quality before the Games start on August 8, will restrict vehicle use to alternate days for even and odd numbered licence plates starting yesterday.

This will require an additional 4 million people to rely on the public transport system, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

No problems mentioned

While the new lines’ maiden journeys went off with no apparent hitches, Zhou Zhengyu, deputy head of the Beijing Municipal Committee of Communications, sidestepped a question at a Thursday news conference about whether there would be enough time to iron out any kinks before the Games kick off.

Nor did he say if there had been any problems with construction that might have delayed the opening, originally due by late June.

Beijing has largely avoided the problems the last Olympic host, Athens, encountered with delayed infrastructure projects, and has won praise from the International Olympic Committee for finishing venue construction work either on time or ahead of schedule.

Reuters

I came across this while i was taking my blogging vacation and i held it to share with you when i got back.

Improv Everywhere, a new york based improv comedy group, usually does these “missions” or pranks on a national and international scale. This time they give us a bunch of twins doing stuff anbd creating a sort of human mirror effect.

It’s cool, check it out.

Transport workers in Italy have gone on strike, forcing the cancellation of thousands of bus, tram and subway lines and snarling traffic across the country.

Railway workers have been on a 24-hour strike since 9 p.m. Sunday. Local transport workers went on strike at 8:30 a.m. in Rome and 15 minutes later in Milan.

The railway company says some commuter trains will continue running. Labor unions says service will be guaranteed during the morning and evening rush hours.

The unions called the strikes to put pressure on upcoming contract renewal talks.

Four people were injured today when a truck drove through the warning gates at a train crossing and hit the dining car of an Amtrak train headed from San Jose to Sacramento, according to an Amtrak spokeswoman.

The truck hit the Capitol Corridor train, shattering the windows and smashing the door of the dining car, at about 5 p.m. at the crossing at Frye Road in Dixon, said Amtrak spokeswoman Karina Romero.

At least four people on the train - two passengers and two employees - were injured, she said. One employee and one passenger were transported to a hospital for treatment, Romero said. There were no other injuries among the 218 other passengers.

The train had only one more stop, in Davis, before it was due to arrive in Sacramento at 5:23 p.m. Another train was dispatched to pick up the passengers after the accident.

The truck driver was not injured.