Global News
From the Jettsons on down to future car blogs and the emergence of Smart cars, our concepts of future transportation have always had a very pod-like quality to them. Well, for travellers at London’s Heathrow airport, the future is now.
This summer, a new system of 21 driverless pod cars began regular service, ferrying passengers 1.2 miles from Terminal 5 to two stations in the airport’s parking lot. ULTra-PRT (Urban Light Transport, Personal Rapid Transit), the company who developed the system, says the low capital, low operational costs and low energy use make the ULTra-PRT pods more beneficial than traditional transit systems.
BAA, the company that owns Heathrow airport, says ULTra-PRT can improve travel times by 60 percent and provide 40 percent in savings on operating costs.
“[ULTra-PRT’s system] offers a completely new form of public transport — one that will deliver a fast, efficient service to passengers and bring considerable environmental benefits, saving more than half of the fuel used by existing forms of public or private transport,” David Holdcraft, project manager, said in a news release.
Passengers board the computer-controlled, zero-emission pods at the terminal. At the station, pods stop “off-line”, meaning they pull-off to the side, allowing other pods to pass. With a capacity for six people, the pods then whisk passengers away on a two-lane, fixed track.
Pod transport technology is even starting gain some stateside attention. The City of San Jose has already committed $2 million to study the potential of a similar system for the San Jose Airport and surrounding area.
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By: Nic Halverson
Source: Discovery, Aug. 22, 2011
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