Personal Rapid Transit in New Zealand - Future Transit Now!

Railway Gazzette has reported that Ultra PRT has commenced public passenger trials this week at its Heathrow airport installation. The trials follow live testing carried out late last year to date using airport staff. In live testing in Januray of this year Ultra PRT completed a total of 164 vehicle journeys between the car park stations and Terminal 5 using a fleet of 18 vehicles. "This would be the equivalent of moving 656 passengers an hour on the 1.9km journey each way, assuming occupancy of four people in each vehicle" noted an Ultra PRT public statement. All systems performed well and no issues were reported.

As has been pointed out  here, while Ultra PRT's system is the second to get going (Masdar city is the first) this system has a greater real world application than the one at Masdar. The good news is that it is starting to prove real world viability for the PRT paradigm albeit in a limited size track. No doubt Auckland airport should be looking at these developments closely if they are not already doing so. A PRT system would be ideal not only for a loop connecting both National and International airports but creating a link to Manukau City. At the moment the proposed rail link from Manukau station to the airport is expected to cost some $700m and will take a lot of resource consents to achieve. A PRT system could be in for less than half that cost.

The Heathrow system is expected to go fully live in July with the 21 pod vehicles operating 22 hours a day.

Image courtesy of Ultra PRT