ROMAG
Encyclopedia
ROMAG was a personal rapid transit
(PRT) system produced by the American company Rohr, Inc.
It featured a linear induction motor
that was arranged to provide both traction and suspension in a magnetic levitation system.
ROMAG was developed from a wheeled system known as Monocab, originally designed by Edward Haltom and built to the extent of a test track by Vero Inc. in 1969. Rohr bought the design from Vero and converted it to the ROMAG, opening their own test track at their Chula Vista, California
, plants in 1971. The Vero test system was later used as a display unit at Transpo '72.
ROMAG was considered for use in Toronto
's GO-Urban
project, but lost to the very similar Krauss-Maffei Transurban
. It was then selected for a deployment in Las Vegas
, but funding fell through and planning stopped. Rohr abandoned development after the 1973–1974 stock market crash erased half of their corporate value and they returned to their core aviation interests. Boeing Vertol purchased the design from Rohr in 1978, but no deployments were ever carried out.
systems. Haltom noticed that the time to start and stop a conventional large monorail train, like those of the Wuppertal Schwebebahn, meant that a single line could only support between 20 and 40 vehicles an hour. In order to get reasonable passenger movements on such a system, the trains had to be large enough to carry hundreds of passengers (see headway
for a general discussion). This, in turn, demanded large guideways that could support the weight of these large vehicles, driving up capital costs to the point where he considered them unattractive.
Haltom turned his attention to developing a system that could operate with shorter timings, thereby allowing the individual cars to be smaller while preserving the same overall route capacity. Smaller cars would mean less weight at any given point, which meant smaller and less expensive guideways. To eliminate the backup at stations, the system used "offline" stations that allowed the mainline traffic to bypass the stopped vehicles. He designed the Monocab system using six-passenger cars suspended on wheels from an overhead guideway. Like most suspended systems, it suffered from the problem of difficult switching arrangements; since the car rode on a rail, switching from one path to another required the rail to be moved, a slow process that limited the possible headways.
Vero's test track opened shortly after the publication of the highly influential HUD reports
that gave strong backing to the PRT concept. At the time the Apollo Program was winding down and Richard Nixon
was in the process of extracting the country from the Vietnam War
. There was considerable concern about the health of the aerospace industry, which would be losing two of its major funding sources at the same time.
Many aviation companies attempted to rapidly diversify, and a number started mass transit programs as a way of doing so. One such company was Rohr, Inc.
, who were best known as a sub-contractor to other aviation firms. They had already started work on a high-speed train under a 1970 Urban Mass Transit Administration (UMTA) contract, their Tracked Air-Cushion Vehicle (TACV) was a licensed version of the French Aérotrain
. With the widespread interest in PRT's starting around the same time, Rohr took the opportunity to buy Monocab from Vero in 1971.
" version of the basic concept as the ROMAG. ROMAG used the same basic conceptual design with offline stations and centralized routing, but replaced the wheeled suspension with a magnetic levitation and the conventional electric motors with a linear induction motor
(LIM). These changes eliminated the vast majority of the vehicle's moving parts, leaving only the doors and fans, and thereby offered dramatically increased reliability and reduced maintenance needs.
Two LIMs were used, one on either side of the vehicle, arranged in a unique fashion that acted as both the motors and lift systems. The contact-less suspension would be smooth riding and silent, major considerations for operations close to houses in an urban environment. As the system did not depend on physical contact for traction, it would operate with equal effectiveness when covered with rain or snow, and could climb steeper grades and turn sharper corners.
They developed different versions of the vehicle that could run over or under a single rail, allowing bi-directional travel on a single guideway. This reduces the trackage, otherwise considered an eyesore. The new design first ran on 6 March 1971, and a test track was set up at Rohr's Chula Vista, California
plants, consisting of a loop of bottom-running suspension track and a separate grade-level top-running track and one offline station.
project that envisioned four major PRT lines in the downtown Toronto
area. The Ontario government demanded a high "made in Ontario" content, which led to most of the projects being eliminated with the exception of a design from Hawker Siddeley Canada
of Thunder Bay, Ontario
, and an entry from Krauss-Maffei
who agreed to local production and the stipulation that the local factory would be sole bidder on any North American sales. Krauss-Maffei's Transurban
eventually won the contract, a design that was substantially similar to the ROMAG. A similar project in Las Vegas ended when the federal capital funding dried up.
The ROMAG was one of four major PRT entries demonstrated at the Transpo 72
show at Dulles Airport in Washington, DC, but as the maglev version had only just been set up in California, Rohr used the older wheeled system from Vero instead. In the aftermath of the show, the UMTA started the "Advanced Group Rapid Transit" (AGRT) program to continue development funding for three of the systems, Boeing's, Otis' and Rohr's. Phase I of the AGRT started in February 1974, with the ROMAG receiving less funding that the others. The Phase II program was to originally end in 1979, but was later extended until 1981. Rohr decided to sell the system to Boeing at this point, a sale that went through on 3 February 1978.
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) system produced by the American company Rohr, Inc.
Rohr, Inc.
Goodrich Aerostructures Group, formerly Rohr, Inc., is an aerospace manufacturing company based in Chula Vista, California, south of San Diego...
It featured a linear induction motor
Linear induction motor
A linear induction motor is an AC asynchronous linear motor that works by the same general principles as other induction motors but which has been designed to directly produce motion in a straight line....
that was arranged to provide both traction and suspension in a magnetic levitation system.
ROMAG was developed from a wheeled system known as Monocab, originally designed by Edward Haltom and built to the extent of a test track by Vero Inc. in 1969. Rohr bought the design from Vero and converted it to the ROMAG, opening their own test track at their Chula Vista, California
Chula Vista, California
Chula Vista is the second largest city in the San Diego metropolitan area, the seventh largest city in Southern California, the fourteenth largest city in the State of California, and the seventy seventh largest city in the U.S....
, plants in 1971. The Vero test system was later used as a display unit at Transpo '72.
ROMAG was considered for use in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
's GO-Urban
GO-Urban
GO-Urban was a major mass transit project planned for the Toronto area which would have been run by GO Transit. The system envisioned the use of automated guideway transit vehicles set up in hydro corridors and other unused parcels of land to provide rapid transit services without the expense of...
project, but lost to the very similar Krauss-Maffei Transurban
Krauss-Maffei Transurban
Krauss-Maffei's Transurban was a 12-passenger automated guideway transit mass transit system based on a maglev guideway. Development started in 1970 as one of the many AGT and PRT projects that followed in the wake of the HUD reports of 1968...
. It was then selected for a deployment in Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
, but funding fell through and planning stopped. Rohr abandoned development after the 1973–1974 stock market crash erased half of their corporate value and they returned to their core aviation interests. Boeing Vertol purchased the design from Rohr in 1978, but no deployments were ever carried out.
Monocab
Monocab is one of the earliest PRT designs, dating from 1953. It was originally developed by Edward Haltom who was studying monorailMonorail
A monorail is a rail-based transportation system based on a single rail, which acts as its sole support and its guideway. The term is also used variously to describe the beam of the system, or the vehicles traveling on such a beam or track...
systems. Haltom noticed that the time to start and stop a conventional large monorail train, like those of the Wuppertal Schwebebahn, meant that a single line could only support between 20 and 40 vehicles an hour. In order to get reasonable passenger movements on such a system, the trains had to be large enough to carry hundreds of passengers (see 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 a general discussion). This, in turn, demanded large guideways that could support the weight of these large vehicles, driving up capital costs to the point where he considered them unattractive.
Haltom turned his attention to developing a system that could operate with shorter timings, thereby allowing the individual cars to be smaller while preserving the same overall route capacity. Smaller cars would mean less weight at any given point, which meant smaller and less expensive guideways. To eliminate the backup at stations, the system used "offline" stations that allowed the mainline traffic to bypass the stopped vehicles. He designed the Monocab system using six-passenger cars suspended on wheels from an overhead guideway. Like most suspended systems, it suffered from the problem of difficult switching arrangements; since the car rode on a rail, switching from one path to another required the rail to be moved, a slow process that limited the possible headways.
Vero and Rohr
In the 1960s, Haltom sold his ideas to Vero, Inc. of Garland, Texas. Vero developed a new switching system with no moving parts, and started development of a test track at their headquarters, which opened in 1969.Vero's test track opened shortly after the publication of the highly influential 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...
that gave strong backing to the PRT concept. At the time the Apollo Program was winding down and Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
was in the process of extracting the country from 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 considerable concern about the health of the aerospace industry, which would be losing two of its major funding sources at the same time.
Many aviation companies attempted to rapidly diversify, and a number started mass transit programs as a way of doing so. One such company was Rohr, Inc.
Rohr, Inc.
Goodrich Aerostructures Group, formerly Rohr, Inc., is an aerospace manufacturing company based in Chula Vista, California, south of San Diego...
, who were best known as a sub-contractor to other aviation firms. They had already started work on a high-speed train under a 1970 Urban Mass Transit Administration (UMTA) contract, their Tracked Air-Cushion Vehicle (TACV) was a licensed version of the French Aérotrain
Aérotrain
The Aérotrain was a Hovertrain developed in France from 1965 to 1977. The lead engineer was Jean Bertin.The goal of the Aérotrain was similar to that of the magnetic levitation train: to suspend the train above the tracks so the only resistance is that of air resistance...
. With the widespread interest in PRT's starting around the same time, Rohr took the opportunity to buy Monocab from Vero in 1971.
ROMAG
Unhappy with the original design, Rohr decided to make a decidedly more "space ageSpace Age
The Space Age is a time period encompassing the activities related to the Space Race, space exploration, space technology, and the cultural developments influenced by these events. The Space Age is generally considered to have begun with Sputnik...
" version of the basic concept as the ROMAG. ROMAG used the same basic conceptual design with offline stations and centralized routing, but replaced the wheeled suspension with a magnetic levitation and the conventional electric motors with a linear induction motor
Linear induction motor
A linear induction motor is an AC asynchronous linear motor that works by the same general principles as other induction motors but which has been designed to directly produce motion in a straight line....
(LIM). These changes eliminated the vast majority of the vehicle's moving parts, leaving only the doors and fans, and thereby offered dramatically increased reliability and reduced maintenance needs.
Two LIMs were used, one on either side of the vehicle, arranged in a unique fashion that acted as both the motors and lift systems. The contact-less suspension would be smooth riding and silent, major considerations for operations close to houses in an urban environment. As the system did not depend on physical contact for traction, it would operate with equal effectiveness when covered with rain or snow, and could climb steeper grades and turn sharper corners.
They developed different versions of the vehicle that could run over or under a single rail, allowing bi-directional travel on a single guideway. This reduces the trackage, otherwise considered an eyesore. The new design first ran on 6 March 1971, and a test track was set up at Rohr's Chula Vista, California
Chula Vista, California
Chula Vista is the second largest city in the San Diego metropolitan area, the seventh largest city in Southern California, the fourteenth largest city in the State of California, and the seventy seventh largest city in the U.S....
plants, consisting of a loop of bottom-running suspension track and a separate grade-level top-running track and one offline station.
Sales efforts
Rohr bid on a variety of PRT contracts in the U.S. and Canada. In Canada it was one of over a dozen entries in the GO-UrbanGO-Urban
GO-Urban was a major mass transit project planned for the Toronto area which would have been run by GO Transit. The system envisioned the use of automated guideway transit vehicles set up in hydro corridors and other unused parcels of land to provide rapid transit services without the expense of...
project that envisioned four major PRT lines in the downtown Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
area. The Ontario government demanded a high "made in Ontario" content, which led to most of the projects being eliminated with the exception of a design from Hawker Siddeley Canada
Hawker Siddeley Canada
Hawker Siddeley Canada was the Canadian unit of the Hawker Siddeley Group of the United Kingdom and manufactured railcars, subway cars, streetcars, aircraft engines and ships from the 1960s to 1980s.-History:...
of Thunder Bay, Ontario
Thunder Bay, Ontario
Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario, and the second most populous in Northern Ontario after Greater Sudbury...
, and an entry from Krauss-Maffei
Krauss-Maffei
The Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co KG or simply Krauss-Maffei is an injection molding machine manufacturer and defence company based in Munich, Germany...
who agreed to local production and the stipulation that the local factory would be sole bidder on any North American sales. Krauss-Maffei's Transurban
Krauss-Maffei Transurban
Krauss-Maffei's Transurban was a 12-passenger automated guideway transit mass transit system based on a maglev guideway. Development started in 1970 as one of the many AGT and PRT projects that followed in the wake of the HUD reports of 1968...
eventually won the contract, a design that was substantially similar to the ROMAG. A similar project in Las Vegas ended when the federal capital funding dried up.
The ROMAG was one of four major PRT entries demonstrated at the Transpo 72
Transpo 72
U.S. International Transportation Exposition, better known as Transpo '72, was a trade show held on of land at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. for nine days from May 27 to June 4, 1972. The $10 million event, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, was a showcase...
show at Dulles Airport in Washington, DC, but as the maglev version had only just been set up in California, Rohr used the older wheeled system from Vero instead. In the aftermath of the show, the UMTA started the "Advanced Group Rapid Transit" (AGRT) program to continue development funding for three of the systems, Boeing's, Otis' and Rohr's. Phase I of the AGRT started in February 1974, with the ROMAG receiving less funding that the others. The Phase II program was to originally end in 1979, but was later extended until 1981. Rohr decided to sell the system to Boeing at this point, a sale that went through on 3 February 1978.