Railroads
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New York speeds up access to its train ticket mobile app
New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority initially promised that smartphone-friendly train ticketing would roll out by the end of 2016, but (unlike some trains) it's ahead of schedule. Governor Cuomo has revealed that the MTA eTix app will be available to all Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad customers by the end of the summer. The rollout will happen in phases. You can already buy tickets for LIRR's Port Washington Branch and the Metro-North Hudson line. By August 22nd, there should be a "full system wide implementation" on both railways -- you usually won't have to worry about carrying physical tickets as long as you have an Android phone or iPhone.
Humble Sid Meier Bundle: Civ 3, 4 and 5, plus Ace Patrol, Railroads
Humble Bundle offers three tiers of entry into Sid Meier's epic, world-building simulation games: The first package offers Civilization 3 Complete, Civilization 4: The Complete Edition, Ace Patrol, Ace Patrol: Pacific Skies and Railroads for any price you want. The second tier adds Civilization 5 and its Gods and Kings DLC if you pay more than the average, and the third tier packs in Civ 5's Brave New World DLC for $15 or more. The Humble Sid Meier Bundle is live for two weeks and benefits the charity Action Against Hunger, a humanitarian organization with the goal of ending world hunger. As always, spend more than $1 to get Steam keys with your Humble Sid Meier Bundle order, and split whatever you pay among Humble, the developer and the charity.
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]
2K's Firaxis trifecta for 2006
2K Games has announced they will publish three new titles this year from Civilization IV developer Firaxis Games. The first Civ4 expansion, Warlords, was revealed last month, but Sid Meier is also planning to return to his roots with Railroads!, an update on his classic Railroad Tycoon series. Lastly, Firaxis will be collaborating with Stronghold developer Firefly Studios on CivCity: Rome, in which you'll be able to simulate ancient Roman life on an unprecedented scale. Warlords and CivCity are due out this summer, while Railroads! is expected in the fall.
