A report from Dubai notes that the waiting list for driving lessons has now disappeared - it was 4-8 weeks in the past.

The two main causes are thought to be the financial situation and the much-improved public transport system.

The report is on the web-site of the Dubai Metro. This notes that the pass rate for driving tests in the country was low - so perhaps the improved public transport will save people the time and expense ofhaving to take multiple tests.

Bus services are improving, with modern air-conditioned waiting areas on streets and equally modern air-conditioned buses in service. In addition, the excellent Dubai Metro is opening in phases - the main part of the Red Line opened last year (on 09-09-09), with more stations opening at the end of April and on 15 May. The Green Line is to open in August 2011.

The station serving Terminal 3 at the airport opened last September: the one serving Terminal 1 was among those opening on 30 April.

For more information about rail connections to Dubai Airport, look at IARO's website, the airportrailwaysoftheworld website.

There are a few tram systems around the world where, in some streets, overhead wires are not used in order to preserve the historic street-scape.

These systems tend to use either underground current collection systems (and since this was developed in France, it is referred to by the French term, alimentation par sol) or some kind of battery.

The T2 line being built in the suburbs of Paris uses ultracapacitors as a storage system. They are charged when the tram brakes: this is just like the regenerative braking system used on a number of electrified railways. The project is part of a major test by Alstom and Paris transit operator RATP.

The really novel thing about this particular installation is that pantographs are lowered automatically, without driver intervention: they are activated by the on-board GPS system.