Automated guideway transit - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Automated guideway transit (AGT) is a fully automated, driverless, grade-separated

Grade separation

Grade separation is the method of aligning a junction of two or more transport axes at different heights so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other transit routes when they cross each other. The composition of such transport axes does not have to be uniform; it can consist of a...

transit system in which vehicles are automatically guided along a "guideway". The vehicles are often rubber tired, but other systems including steel wheels, air cushion and maglev systems have also been used in experiments. The guideway normally provides both physical support, like a road, as well as the guidance. In the case of fixed-route systems, the two are often the same in the same way that a rail line provides both support and guidance for a train. For systems with multiple routes, most AGT systems use smaller wheels riding on the guideway to steer the vehicle using conventional steering arrangements like those on a car.

AGT covers a wide variety of systems, from limited people mover

People mover

A people mover or automated people mover is a fully automated, grade-separated mass transit system.The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks, but is sometimes applied to considerably more complex automated...

systems, like those commonly found at airports, to more complex mass transit systems like the Vancouver SkyTrain. In the people mover role the term "automated people mover" (APM) is sometimes used, although this distinction is relatively rare because most people movers are automated. Larger systems span a variety of conceptual designs, from traditional subway-like systems to smaller car-like vehicles known as personal rapid transit

Personal rapid transit

Personal rapid transit , also called podcar, is a public transportation mode featuring small automated vehicles operating on a network of specially built guide ways...

(PRT) which offer direct point-to-point travel along a switched network. Between the two are larger vehicles sized for around 20 passengers, sometimes known as group rapid transit (GRT), which blend features of the PRTs and larger systems.

Origins in mass transit

AGT was originally developed as a means of providing mass transit services aimed at serving rider loads higher than those that could be served by busses or trams, but smaller than those served by conventional subways

Rapid transit

A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...

. Subways were too expensive to install in areas of lower density - smaller cities or the suburbs of larger ones - which often suffer the same gridlock

Gridlock

The term gridlock is defined as "A state of severe road congestion arising when continuous queues of vehicles block an entire network of intersecting streets, bringing traffic in all directions to a complete standstill; a traffic jam of this kind." The term originates from a situation possible in...

problems as larger cities. Busses could be easily introduced in these areas, but did not offer the capacities or speeds that made them an attractive alternative to car ownership. Cars drive directly from origin to destination, while buses generally work on a hub-and-spoke model that can up to double trip length. Stops along the route increase this even more.

AGT offered a solution that fit between these extremes. Much of the cost of a subway system is due to the large vehicle sizes, which demand large tunnels, large stations and considerable infrastructure throughout the system. The large vehicles are a side-effect of the need to have considerable space between the vehicles, known as "headway

Headway

Headway is a measurement of the distance/time between vehicles in a transit system. The precise definition varies depending on the application, but it is most commonly measured as the distance from the tip of one vehicle to the tip of the next one behind it, expressed as the time it will take for...

", for safety reasons due to the limited sightlines in tunnels. Given large headways and limited average speed due to stops, the only way to increase passenger capacity is to increase the size of the vehicle. Capital costs can be reduced by elevating the tracks instead of burying them, but the large tracks needed present a major visual barrier, and the steel-wheels-on-steel-rails are very noisy rounding bends.

Headway can be reduced via automation, a technique that was becoming feasible in the 1960s. As the headway is decreased, the size of vehicle needed to transport a given number of passengers per hour also decreases, which, in turn, decreases the infrastructure needed to support these smaller vehicles. Everything from track supports to station size can be reduced, with similar reductions in capital costs. Additionally, the lighter vehicles allow for a wider variety of suspension methods, from conventional steel wheels, to rubber tires, air cushion vehicles and maglevs. Since the system has to be automated in order to reduce the headways enough to be worthwhile, by automating the steering as well the operational costs can also be reduced compared to crewed vehicles.

One key problem in an automated system is the negotiation of turns in the right-of-way - the steering system. The simplest solution is to use a rigid guideway, like conventional rails or steel rollercoasters. For lighter AGTs, these solutions were over-specified given the size of the vehicle, so the guideway was often separate from the running surface. Typical solutions used a single light rail embedded in the ground or attached to the guideway wall, with a wheel or slider that was pressed against the guideway rail and steered the running wheels through a linkage. A suspension-like system is needed to smooth out the imperfections in the guideway and provide a smooth ride. More modern systems can eliminate the rail and replace it with a "virtual" one that is read by sensors on the vehicle without the need for any mechanical connection.

AGT systems, and the personal rapid transit

Personal rapid transit

Personal rapid transit , also called podcar, is a public transportation mode featuring small automated vehicles operating on a network of specially built guide ways...

concept (or "dial-a-cab"), became a major area of research after the publication of the HUD reports

HUD reports

The HUD Reports were a series of studies in mass transit systems, funded by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration department of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development...

in 1968, and subsequent funding by the US Department of Transportation. Political support was particularity strong in states with large concentrations of aerospace

Aerospace

Aerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...

companies; with the ending of Project Apollo

Project Apollo

The Apollo program was the spaceflight effort carried out by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration , that landed the first humans on Earth's Moon. Conceived during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Apollo began in earnest after President John F...

and the winding down of the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

, there was concern that these companies would be left with few projects in the 1970s and 80s. Expecting widespread deployment of PRT systems through the late 1970s and 80s, many of the major US aerospace companies entered the AGT market, including Boeing

Boeing

The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...

, LTV

Ling-Temco-Vought

Ling-Temco-Vought was a large U.S. conglomerate which existed from 1969 to 2000. At its peak, its component parts were involved in the aerospace industry, electronics, steel manufacturing, sporting goods, the airline industry, meat packing, car rentals and pharmaceuticals, among other...

and Rohr

Rohr, Inc.

Goodrich Aerostructures Group, formerly Rohr, Inc., is an aerospace manufacturing company based in Chula Vista, California, south of San Diego...

. Car companies followed suit, including General Motors

General Motors

General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...

and Ford. This, in turn, sparked off a wave of similar developments around the world.

However, the market for these systems proved to be overestimated, and only one of these US-designed small AGT's was constructed as a mass transit system, the Morgantown PRT.

Small systems

Although the mass transit world showed a lack of interest, AGT systems quickly found a number of niche roles that they have continued to fill to this day. One of the earliest AGT systems was the LTV Airtrans which was installed at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is located between the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, and is the busiest airport in the U.S. state of Texas...

and went into operation in January 1975. Similar systems followed at airports around the world, and today they are relatively universal at larger airports, often connecting terminals with distant long-term parking lots. Similar systems were also a fixture of a number of amusement parks, notably the Walt Disney World Monorail System

Walt Disney World Monorail System

The Walt Disney World Monorail System is a public transit system in operation at the Walt Disney World Resort.The Walt Disney World Resort currently operates twelve Mark VI monorail trains on three lines of service. The monorail system opened in 1971 with two routes and with Mark IV monorail trains...

and the Toronto Zoo Domain Ride

Toronto Zoo Domain Ride

The Toronto Zoo Domain Ride was an automated guideway transit service used to carry visitors between sections, or "domains", of the Toronto Zoo...

. The Getty Center

Getty Center

The Getty Center, in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, is a campus for cultural institutions founded by oilman J. Paul Getty. The $1.3 billion center, which opened on December 16, 1997, is also well known for its architecture, gardens, and views overlooking Los Angeles...

in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

uses a unique vertically-oriented AGT to bring visitors from a parking lot off Interstate 405

Interstate 405 (California)

Interstate 405 is a major north–south Interstate Highway in Southern California. It is a bypass of Interstate 5, running along the western areas of the Greater Los Angeles Area from Irvine in the south to near San Fernando in the north...

to the Center at the top of a hill in Brentwood

Brentwood, Los Angeles, California

Brentwood is a district in western Los Angeles, California, United States. The district is located at the base of the Santa Monica Mountains, bounded by the San Diego Freeway on the east, Wilshire Boulevard on the south, the Santa Monica city limits on the southwest, the border of Topanga State...

; this system places the motor outside the vehicle at the top of the guideway to reduce the weight lifted up the hill and thus improve efficiency.

Over time, the aerospace firms that had initially designed most of these systems left the industry and sold off the AGT divisions to other companies. Most of these were picked up by existing transportation conglomerates, and through additional mergers and buyouts, many of these are today owned by either Siemens

Siemens

Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...

or Bombardier

Bombardier Transportation

Bombardier Transportation is the rail equipment division of the Canadian firm, Bombardier Inc. Bombardier Transportation is one of the world's largest companies in the rail-equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. Its headquarters are in Berlin, Germany....

. During the same period, a number of new companies entered the field with systems designed solely for these smaller installations. Poma

Poma

Poma, also known as Pomagalski S.A. is a French company, specialising in construction of cable-driven lift systems, including fixed and detachable chairlifts, gondola lifts, funiculars, aerial tramways, people movers, and surface lifts. Poma has installed more than 7800 devices on five continents,...

, Doppelmayr

DCC Doppelmayr Cable Car

DCC Doppelmayr Cable Car is a supplier of Automated People Movers based in Wolfurt, Austria. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Doppelmayr Garaventa Group...

and the Leitner Group

Leitner Group

Leitner Group is an Italian conglomerate, based in the province of South Tyrol, that owns and runs several industrial and equipment companies....

, better known for their ski lift

Ski lift

The term ski lift generally refers to any transport device that carries skiers up a hill. A ski lift may fall into one of the following three main classes:-Lift systems and networks:...

systems, provide AGT systems for the airport market.

Large systems

Although the smaller vehicle systems were not successful in the marketplace, larger AGT were simpler to understand and integrate into existing mass transit systems. AGT's that looked and operated in a fashion similar to a small subway have since become a common fixture of many existing metro systems, often as a way to serve outlining areas. In this role, AGT systems are sometimes known as group rapid transit (GRT), although this term implies additional features similar to PRT systems.

Kobe

Kobe

, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...

's Port Liner is the world's first mass transit AGT, which began operating in 1981. It connects Kobe's main rail station, Sannomiya Station

Sannomiya Station

is located in the heart of Kobe, Japan. This station is the main railway terminal of Kobe.- Lines :*Hanshin Electric Railway *Hankyu Railway *Kobe Municipal Subway...

, with the dockyard areas and Kobe Airport

Kobe Airport

is an airport on an artificial island just off the coast of Kobe, south of Sannomiya Station Japan. It primarily handles domestic flights, but can also accommodate international charter flights. In the first year of operation the airport handled 2,697,000 passengers with an average load factor of...

to the south. The VAL (Véhicule Automatique Léger) system in Lille

Lille

Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, opened in 1983, is often cited as the first AGT installed to serve an existing urban area. The Scarborough RT, Detroit People Mover

Detroit People Mover

The Detroit People Mover is a automated people mover system which operates on a single set of tracks, and encircles downtown Detroit, Michigan....

and Vancouver SkyTrain followed in the next few years, and then the Docklands Light Railway

Docklands Light Railway

The Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro or light rail system opened on 31 August 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London...

in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. VAL and ART systems have seen continued installations around the world, and have been joined by a variety of new systems with similar features, like the AnsaldoBreda Driverless Metro

AnsaldoBreda Driverless Metro

The AnsaldoBreda Driverless Metro is a class of driverless electric multiple units and corresponding signaling system. Manufactured by AnsaldoBreda of Italy, it is or will be used on the Copenhagen Metro, the Brescia Metrobus, the Thessaloniki Metro, Line 5 of the Milan Metro, Line C of the Rome...

AGT renaissance

Once limited to larger airports and a small number of metro systems, AGT have undergone something of a renaissance since the late 1990s. Lower capital costs compared to conventional metros have allowed AGT systems to expand quickly, and many of these "small" systems now rival their larger counterparts in any measure. For instance, the Vancouver SkyTrain started operations in 1986, but has expanded so rapidly that its track length roughly matches the Toronto subway which pre-dates it by 30 years.

Although the original introduction of PRT systems did not result in the widespread adoption as expected, the test system installed in Morgantown, West Virginia

Morgantown, West Virginia

Morgantown is a city in Monongalia County, West Virginia. It is the county seat of Monongalia County. Placed along the banks of the Monongahela River, Morgantown is the largest city in North-Central West Virginia, and the base of the Morgantown metropolitan area...

continues to operate today. Originally dismissed as a "white elephant

White elephant

A white elephant is an idiom for a valuable but burdensome possession of which its owner cannot dispose and whose cost is out of proportion to its usefulness or worth...

" when it was being built, today it is credited by the mayor for being one of the reasons Morgantown had the lowest unemployment rate in the United States during the recession of the 2000's. Several expansion plans are being studied to roughly double the route length, at capital costs that are even lower than conventional roads.

Morgantown's success, along with a renewed interest in new forms of transit, have led to several new PRT projects since 2000. London Heathrow Airport

London Heathrow Airport

London Heathrow Airport or Heathrow , in the London Borough of Hillingdon, is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the third busiest airport in the world in terms of total passenger traffic, handling more international passengers than any other airport around the globe...

is currently installing a PRT system known as ULTra

ULTra

ULTra is a personal rapid transit system developed by ULTra PRT,...

which is scheduled to begin operations in early 2010.

Origins in mass transit

Small systems

Large systems

AGT renaissance

See also