The German regional centre of Heilbronn, neighbouring towns and townships, are increasingly adversely affected by car traffic. The city of Heilbronn and the surrounding district have therefore decided to jointly establish an urban transport system based on the 'Karlsruhe Model'. Barbara Wagner reports. Laser technology diversifies the area of application of special machinery. A good example of this is the laser based measurement system developed for the tamping machines and measurement coaches. Since 1998 work has been in progress on a new, 28-km long tram network (1435mm gauge) with 38 stops in the south London borough of Croydon. The service started passenger operation in May 2000 with 24 trams and is proving very popular. Ridership was 13.3 million in the first year of operation. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is in regular use as a method of mapping defects in track ballast and sub-grade. The efficiency of GPR has recently increased dramatically because new equipment makes it possible to mount it on survey trains that travel up to 100mph. The Transrapid transport system is gaining ground globally. Plans for the system are already drawn up of use in Europe, China, the US and Australia. The need of very high accuracy for track surveying methods on the one hand and the use of transparent software combined with light modular equipment on the other one had induced the Rhomberg Bahntechnik in the past few years to develop in-house surveying systems to support its adjustment and concreting methods by involving the track survey in each step of track construction from the beginning on. With the new rail link between Alice Springs and Darwin reaching the halfway mark recently, Australia's Legendary Ghan is one step closer to running. Eric Russell reports. Many cities throughout the world have planned or are planning major investments in tram transport in order to cut down car congestion. Eric Russell reports.