Toyota and Japan Rail are testing an innovative new vehicle for public transport. The vehicles are a cross between train and bus - they have rubber tyres for use on roads and steel wheels for travelling on rails. They can swap from one to the other in less that 15 seconds.

Photo: NeiTech (Flickr)

They are perfect for use in areas where the population is not high enough to justify a rail network - people can get picked up by the bus which then drives via road to the rail track to continue its journey.

Wired blog explains more and claims this would also be a perfect transport solution in parts of the USA.

Paddle steamers have been used as river transport in different parts of the United States including the Hudson River in New York State and the Mississippi river in Louisiana.

In 1811 the New Orleans was the first steamboat to travel the entire length of the Lower Mississippi River from Ohio to New Orleans. More recently, although no longer in commercial use, the picturesque boats have been used for tourist trips.

Photo by AP: The Delta Queen, America’s last paddle steamer

The Economist writes about the end of the line for America’s last paddle steamboat, which is due to cease operations later this year.

Australia is campaigning to get more people to use the bicycle for transport. Unlike in many other countries, women and older people in Australia are less likely to cycle, and the government is keen to change this.

The Cycling Promotion Fund encourages Australians to get into cycling as a way to stay healthy and help the environment.

But those aren’t the only benefits - bicycle use in Australian cities rose by an average of 22% between 2001 and 2006 and a new study by the Cycling Promotion Fund has calculated that this saved the government an impressive $227.2m AUD (US$217m) every year in healthcare costs. Via Treehugger

The Chinese government is planning to invest $9bn in infrastructure in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in return for the opportunity to mine copper and cobalt (and reap the profits). Money will be invested in roads, railway, hospitals and universities, and work on the first projects has already started.

This BBC Newsnight documentary which you can watch online explains more about the deal, which looks like it could be an innovative solution to a state with problems typical of many African countries. In particular, DR Congo’s infrastructure is seriously under-developed due to lack of investment. The terms stipulate that for every Chinese worker the venture must employ 4 locals, and that 1% of the investment will be spent on technology transfer and education of Congolese staff.

However some human rights groups are worried that the full details of the agreement have not been published. With the return from the mine estimated at around $72bn, of which two-thirds will go to China, there has also been some criticism that the returns are exploitative compared to the investment. The context is clearly different, but this funding agreement has many similarities with venture capital. In that case, the magnitude of the returns does not look so unusual.

Camels are often called ’ships of the desert’, because they can easily withstand tough conditions to travel through desert country. However they are gradually being replaced by motor vehicles, which can cover the long distances much faster.

Until recently, that is. The rising cost of tractor fuel means that once again the camel is economically viable as a means of transport. This article from the FT explains how in Rajastan camels are making a comeback (free to view but registration may be required).

Could this trend mean good news for the dying trade of the sahara camel train as well? Via Treehugger

A few weeks ago Global Culture blog featured a post about people who are open to new experiences. One of the points of the post was that cities of the USA which have been more open to receiving immigrants are now hubs for creativity and innovation.

In other words, immigrants can have a positive effect on a community because they bring new skills, an open mind and create global connections.

One early and important example of this phenomenon was the town of Huntsville in Alabama. Home to a space programme led by German scientists after World War II, the town supplied the brains behind the launch of the first American satellite in 1958 and put astronauts on the moon in 1969.

So what was the effect of opening up to immigration on this one-time cotton market town? It is now a thriving city of 170,000 people and has one of the highest concentrations of scientists and engineers in the USA.

A very original blog idea by Buenos Aires based food and travel journalist Layne Mosler - every week she gets into a taxi and asks the driver to take her to his favourite place to eat. She writes about what she finds (and eats) there in Go Where the Taxista Takes You.

As to be expected in Argentina, she eats a lot of grilled meat. She also picks up some nice stories from the taxistas along the way…

Now that its high speed track is finished, the Eurostar train travels between London and Paris in only 2 hours 15 minutes.

But that´s not all… the Eurostar claims to be the world´s first carbon neutral train service. According to a study, a passenger who travels from London to Paris on the Eurostar train is responsible for one tenth of the emissions of a traveller who takes the aeroplane. Eurostar offsets those emisssions and plans to keep reducing them by improving efficiency and sourcing responsibly.

The Independent newspaper writes about the Eurostar´s new green image in this account of the inaugural journey.

China’s new 1,200-mile railway crosses some of the harshest terrain on the planet. Plug in your oxygen supply. 47 hours of sceneries from Beijing to Lhasa. All aboard the Tibet express, reading this article of the American magazine ‘Wired’

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/chinarail.html

The Ozbus left London last week on its inaugural overland trip from London to Sydney, which will pass through Turkey, Iran, Indonesia, India, China and Malaysia (probably not in that order) According to Ozbus, this trip has become possible only recently due to improved road conditions in Indonesia. It may be a bit slower than flying, but it is definitely more scenic!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6996233.stm