THE SUPPLY OF APMs

APMs help create “places” where retail flourishes in modern districts.
– courtesy of DCC-Doppelmayr

Fully automated trains are not only feasible; they are well proven to be safer and more economic than manually operated transit. The benefits and advantages are many. This section describes the companies that make up this APM industry -- core system suppliers and their partners.

The key to it all is integral automation in which central computers and a small control staff replace on-boards drivers or conductors. It is mobility at the flip of a switch, so to speak. It functions with modern communication and control technologies appropriate to the 21st century. It is mobility 24/7. For more on APM installations, click Count.

There are three broad types of APMs:

driverless metros
district circulators
emergent podcars (PRT).

A fourth group comprises a smattering of electro-mechanical specialists, offering unique but not necessarily automated monorails, maglevs and the like.

APMs are costly investments in the future. As with all infrastructure, APM options should be considered against alternatives in terms of life-cycle costs, environmental impacts and the various benefits they will bring and induce. Professional design, planning and analysis are valuable here. Find an informed consultant to take concepts through design and engineering to permitting and construction and ultimately into passenger service.

For this growing international APM industry, technical safety standards have been published by the American Society of Civil Engineers. There are specialized professional organizations. Most companies are presented below.

Collectively, they are currently working on over $11-billion worth of APM supply projects. See the detailed listing, which does not include O&M services, by clicking pipeline.

Companies involved in the supply of APMs are presented below in four sections –

Circulators (shuttles and short lines or loops with modest line capacity)

PRT – well developed technologies that have been demonstrated at full scale

Driverless metros with integral automation performing as mass transit

Others with a focus on unique propulsion or suspension, not automation.

Information on design parameters was supplied for your use and convenience by some, but not all of these companies. Website and contact information is provided for your convenience.


Driverless Metros		PRT
Circulators		Others

At the start of 2010, there were 142 APMs in service around the world, serving millions of passengers every day. Click Count for the list. Forty-seven are in airports. Forty-nine are in leisure and institutional settings where they serve a variety of roles. These circulators may be designed simply to move people, but they interconnect parking resources, safe staff time, or provide utility conduits in the guideways to simplify frequent need to install new wiring, cable and tubes. Four of them entail PRT functionality.

Twenty-one are fully driverless metros operating with high levels of safe service and reliability. Is there a better example than Vancouver – where two Bombardier lines form the backbone of a well evolved transit service? A third line by Thales-Rotem serves the airport and helped handle Olympic crowds last winter. Fully automated metros operate in Ankara and Taipei, Kuala Lumpur and Dubai. This year ten more are scheduled to go into service all over the world (none in the US) – Brescia (Italy), Seoul, Shanghai, Sao Paulo, Budapest, etc. Another twenty-one APMs are local transit more akin to circulators, but owned and operated by transit agencies.

Bombardier trains like this are destined to become the backbone of Phoenix’s active airfront.

There is an Atlantic Divide at play. US transit pays no significant attention to driverless operation. European professionals consider it standard to be modern. Several metro authorities have begun retrofitting “classic metros”. This is the transit scene in Europe and much of Asia. For France and Germany, transit is a major export industry. In sharp contrast, US transit equipment is largely imported. For international suppliers, US markets have no special appeal. The volume of metro sales is neither high nor stability. Witness the wobbling of Honolulu’s decades-old metro plans – wasting hundreds of millions of dollars in planning and engineering studies.

The cost of the APM system itself is typically a minor part of a larger project. These are large, complex undertakings. For example, the system is only 17% of the cost of the current 3.5km elevated Phoenix Airport installation. It was 25% of the largely tunneled driverless metro in Copenhagen. Civil work for guideways, bridges, tunnels, stations and a maintenance and control facility (MCF) is usually much more costly than vehicles, controls and electrification. Beyond that are costs for site preparation, utility relocation, landscaping, right-of-way purchase, project management and legal entanglements.

The dominance of civil costs is, of course, also the case for LRT, BRT and other urban infrastructure projects.

Beyond cost and cost-effectiveness, the major question for moving an APM project forward is whether to pursue a turnkey operation or to hire and manage separate companies for system and civil work. Should private investors be part of a public-private partnership? How does one handle technological risk? How quickly will industry experience and confidence with large networks of PRT accumulate? What technology is the most important for your project?

Below are listings of companied experience the supply of hardware, software and – most importantly – a creative attitude towards you and your future mobility.

An APM has opened at a seaside district of Incheon, Korea.

Circulators

Bombardier-Innovia

Headquarters
Saatwinkler Damm 43
D-13627 Berlin, Germany 1501
Phone: +49-30-3832-0

Lebanon Church Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15236, USA
Phone: +1 (412) 655-5700

Salient Features: The current product is a much-improved version of the Westinghouse APM of the 1970/80s. Rubber-tired vehicles accommodate 60-100 passengers. It operates in 30 installations worldwide, often in simple back-and-forth shuttle mode. There are more elaborate corridors and loops with spurs as well. Bombardier APMs, first introduced at Tampa Airport in 1971, continue to demonstrate high reliability, consistently delivering availability above 99 per cent, on dedicated guideways - at grade, in tunnels, elevated or in any combination - to satisfy a variety of applications. The technology permits single-vehicle configuration or trains up to four cars, and easily accommodates peak periods with exceptional route flexibility. *Trademark(s) of Bombardier Inc. or its subsidiaries.

Status: First introduced in 1971, there are now over:

30 Innovia installations worldwide, with 300 vehicles in passenger service.
3 billion passengers carried, 100 million-vehicle miles accumulated.
No current PRT developmental work is in place

Urban Design Parameters

Guideway Envelope - About 3 meters wide per direction, but there is variation from application to application. Please contact a Bombardier Representative to discuss the specifics of your particular application.
Typical Footprint Requirement for a Guideway Column Foundation - No data provided.
Recommended Spacing Between Columns - No data provided.
Maximum Spacing Between Columns - No data provided.
Minimum Radius of Curvature - 22m.
Maximum Recommended Slope - Up to 10 percent.
Minimum Station Footprint - No data provided.
Noise Level (decibels) of a Vehicle Passing - The vehicle-guideway interface combined with new suspension and guidance elements, results in low noise impact.
Level of vibration at 40 and 80 km/hr - No data provided.
Ease in Which Guideways Can Attach To (and Penetrate Through) Building Walls - No data provided.

Coaster, Gmbh

Illweg 10
6714 Nuziders, Austria
Phone: +43-5552-32277
Email: r.perprunner@coaster.at
Website: www.coaster.at

Salient Features: 6-8 passenger vehicles with their own intelligence and energy (advanced batteries, recharging at stations) travel on lattice-like guideways at speeds to 54 km/hr and headways of 7.5 seconds, yielding line capacity to 2880 pphpd. Reversible. System cost is estimated to be $3m/km.

Status: TThe company was established in 2001. A certified test track has operated in western Austria since 2003. The first installation opened in 2007 at a ski resort in western Switzerland. A passive switch for off-line station operation is in development.

Urban Design Parameters

Guideway Envelope – 1.1m wide x 1.3m high.
Typical Footprint Requirement for a Guideway Column Foundation: 1.5 x 1.5m for a permanent column, or 1m x 1m for a temporary one.
Recommended Spacing Between Columns – 24m.
Maximum Spacing Between Columns – 36m.
Minimum Radius of Curvature – 6m (Downhillercoaster) or 7m (Citycoaster); 120m at 40km/hr.
Maximum Recommended Slope – 55percent.
Minimum Station Footprint – 5m x 4m for a one-way station; 5m x 6.5m for a two-way station.
Noise Level (decibels) of a Vehicle Passing – No data provided.
Level of vibration at 40 and 80 km/hr – No data provided.
Ease in Which Guideways Can Attach To (and Penetrate Through) Building Walls - No particular problem.

DCC: Doppelmayr Cable Car

Sales & Marketing
Holzriedstrasse 29
PO Box 6
6961 Wolfurt, Austria
Phone: +43-5574-604-649
Fax: +43-5574-604-648
Email: dcc@doppelmayr.com
Website: www.dcc.at

In the U.S.
1255 Crescent Green Drive, Suite 100
Cary, NC 27518
Phone: +1 (919) 854-4696
Email: dcc@doppelmayr.com
Website: www.dcc.at

Salient Features: DCC’s Cable Propelled Transit (CPT) systems offer many potential solutions to a wide array of transportation challenges. The functionality is simple. Each train grips a haul rope, which is propelled by a stationary electronic drive system and controlled by an operator. Typical feeder/connector applications include airports, city centers, amusement parks, inter-modal connections, railway/light rail/metro feeder systems, campuses, resorts, and small downtown network solutions.

DCC’s CPT technologies are energy efficient, ecologically sound and extremely reliable. DCC is well-known for providing the most cost-effective transportation solution within the project constraints (e. g. customer requirements, budgetary constraints, physical constraints). They are characterized by three major qualities: Safety, Flexibility and Simplicity.

DCC prides itself on building lasting customer relationships by meeting and exceeding customer expectations. Earning the trust and respect of our clients and partners is the most important aspect of our corporate vision.

Safety: System safety is paramount and all DCC systems shall be of a fail-safe design.

Flexibility: Design a cost-effective, tailor-made transport solution for each and every project to meet and/or exceed the customer’s requirements.

Simplicity: Reduce system complexity to offer the highest level of reliability.

Status: Systems in Operation: Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, USA (1999); Birmingham Airport, UK (2003 with 20 year O&M); Toronto Airport, Canada (2006 with 8 years O&M); Mexico City Airport (2007); CityCenter Las Vegas (2009), and Venice, Italy (2010). Under construction Caracas(2012) and New Doha Airport, Qatar (2013)

More detailed, technical information is available by downloading Urban Design Parameters and Guideway Information

IHI Ltd.

Yuki Matsuoaka, Manager Urban Transit Systems or Masaaki Kuwabar
Shin-Ohtemachi, Building 2-1
Ohtemachi 2-Chome, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo, 100-8182, Japan
Phone: +81-3-3244-5111
Email: koji_noguchi@ihi.co.jp, Masaaki_kuwabara@ihi.co.jp
Website: www.ihi.co.jp

Salient Features: A classic rubber-tired APM originally developed by Niigata Engineering based on the Airtrans installed at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport in the 1970s. This was purchased by Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI) several years ago. Vehicles accommodate 50-80 passengers and run with rotary motors using side-wall guidance at 65 km/hr.

Status: The first Niigata installation opened in 1981 in Osaka as Newtran. Niigata was involved in seven projects. Shuttles operate at Taipei and Kansai (Osaka) and more recently at Hong Kong airports. Tokyo’s 10km Toneri Line opened in 2007.

Urban Design Parameters: Beyond information below, no data were provided.

Minimum Radius of Curvature – 30m.
Maximum Recommended Slope – 7 percent.

Leitner

Ermenegildo Zordan, Sales Manager
Giuseppe Conte, Technical Manager
Via Pacinotti, 3
39100 Bolzano, Italy
Phone: +39-04-7156-7811
Email: zordan.ermenegildo@leitner-lifts.com, conte.giuseppe@leitner-lifts.com
Website: www.leitner-lifts.com

In the U.S.: Jeremy, jyc@leitner-poma.com

Salient Features: The MiniMetro is rope-propelled. Fifty-passenger, rubber-tired cars travel along a dedicated dual-line track. At stations, cars detach and attach to a continuously moving rope loop.

Status: Leitner’s own experience in Alpine installations now includes those of Pomagalski. A test track was built in 1993 in Vipiteno (Italy). The first commercial installation moved into public service in January of 2008 in the city of Perugia.

Urban Design Parameters

Guideway Envelope - Approximately 5.4m x 2m (dual track).
Typical Footprint Requirement for a Guideway Column Foundation -Depends on the specific project.
Recommended Spacing Between Columns - About 24m – 28m.
Maximum Spacing Between Columns – Project specific.
Minimum Radius of Curvature – 50m – 70m (depending on the operating speed).
Maximum Recommended Slope – 12 percent – 13 percent (due to passenger comfort).
Minimum Station Footprint – The system uses small vehicles 5.7m length x 2.1m width. The minimum station footprint depends on the specific country rules in relation with the capacity of the system and architectural design.
Noise Level (decibels) of a Vehicle Passing – The level of noise depends essentially on the super-structure nature, shape (concrete, steel) and on the track geometry. Generally at a 10m distance the level of noise is less than 55-60dB.
Level of vibration at 40 and 80 km/hr - Depends on the specific project.

Ease in Which Guideways Can Attach To (and Penetrate Through) Building Walls - The Guideways can be easily integrated in the existing urban infrastructure, and surely can be attached to building walls and penetrate through too.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.

Yukinori Go, Int’l Operations, Transportation Systems Dept.
16-5, Konan 2-Chome
Minato-ku Tokyo 108-8215, Japan
Phone: +81-3-6716-3797
Email: hiroaki_eto@mhi.co.jp
Website: www.mhi.co.jp

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Inc.
Darin Friedmann, Transportation Systems Division
630 Fifth Avenue, Suite 3155
New York, NY 10111, USA
Phone: +1 (212) 397-6144
Email: darin_friedmann@mhiahq.com
Website: www.mitsubishitoday.com

Salient Features: Dubbed “Crystal Mover”, this is a classic APM with rubber-tired vehicles that accommodate up to 100 passengers. AC induction motors propel them. Capacities up to 20,000 pphpd are claimed.

Status: Over a dozen installations have been installed or are underway. Part of the 70km, 385-vehicle two-line metro project in Dubai began service in the fall of 2009. Airport shuttles operate at Atlanta, Dulles and Incheon (Korea).

Urban Design Parameters: No data provided.

Note: MHI is now integrated with the HSST engineering team. MHI provides a suspended monorail, but has not done so as a fully automated system. MHI has also installed an automated, inclined, cable-drawn “Skyrail” with suspended vehicles to feed a metro station in Hiroshima, and has developed accelerating walkways.

Schwager Davis Inc. (SDI)

Guido A. Schwager, P.E.
198 Hillsdale Avenue
San Jose, CA 95136, USA
Phone: +1 (408) 281-9300
Email: guido@schwagerdavis.com
Website: www.schwagerdavis.com

Salient Features: SDI is a diversified design-build engineering and construction firm. Modest cable-drawn shuttles and a three-station installation with self-propelled three-car trains. SDI brings a flexible, innovative, can-do design and management approach based on proven engineering safety and accomplishment. It does clever bridge structures. SDI services include rehab and upgrade work, and O&M services in Indianapolis and the Minneapolis-St Paul airport.

Status: Several shuttles operate at casino complexes and a park and the 2.4km three-station installation is owned and operated by a large medical service provider in Indianapolis.

Urbanaut

The Urbanaut Company
Contact: John Svensson
North Bend, WA 98045
Email: jsvensson@urbanaut.com
Website: www.urbanaut.com

Salient Features: Fully automated modern monorail with vehicles as small as 6 seats (10 total with standees), and in-wheel motors turning rubber tires. Vehicles can be “easily switched”. Stations can be off-line. Speeds up to 70km/hr with real-time scheduling of trips and “automatic sensing of passenger demand”.

Status: A 10-station, 6km barbell-shaped installation is going into service at Wilmido Island near Incheon, South Korea. Vehicles were built by Rowin.

Driverless Metros

Three firms have experience with fully automated and driverless metros. Typically advanced control software is applied to steel-wheeled or rubber-tired cars with fairly conventional electric rotary propulsion, but there are variations. These projects are typically large enough that suppliers can adapt their designs to meet most radial corridor capacity, speed, and comfort requirements. Likewise, rapid transit parameters for slope (less than 5 percent and the less, the better) and curvature (large radius of over 100m, the higher the better although this can be mitigated with banking) can easily be met. Station size depends on capacity requirements (train consist).

Ansaldo STS

Pierfranco Romano, Commercial Manager
via P. Mantovani, 3 / 5
I -16151 Genova, Italy
Email: Pierfranco.Romano@atsf.it
Website: www.tsf.it

Jack Wall, Sales, Union Switch & Signal, Inc.
1000 Technology Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15219-3120, USA
Phone +1 (412) 688-2261
Email: jnwall@switch.com

Salient Features: Steel wheels on steel rails from a mainstream rail manufacturer. Ansaldo STS products range from traditional signaling systems to complete turnkey systems performing unattended train operation. Ansaldo STS also performs O&M.

Status: In service in Copenhagen since 2002 and Brescia is to open this year. Other projects underway in Milan, Rome, Thessaloniki and Taipei. CBTC systems have been installed in Paris and China. Ansaldo was recently selected to supply an APM at a university in Riyadh.

Bombardier Transportation - ART

Headquarters
Saatwinkler Damm 43
D-13627 Berlin 1501, Germany
Phone: +49-30-3832-0

Total Transit Systems Headquarters
PO Box 220 Station A
Kingston, ON K7M 6R2, Canada
Phone: +1 (613) 384-3100

Salient Features: Steel wheels on steel rail, but unlike most metros ART is powered by linear induction motors.

Status: The first ART was Vancouver’s SkyTrain that opened in 1986. It has been expanded and a second line added. As a one-way loop, it opened in Detroit in 1987. A line in Kuala Lumpur started service in 1998, followed by the AirTrain at New York’s JFK Airport in 2003.

Note: Bombardier also supplied a privately funded automated monorail in Las Vegas. It is designed to urban transit standards.

Siemens Transportation Systems

Marc Zuber
50 rue Barbes
92542 Montrouge Cedex, France
Phone: +33-1-4965-7698
Email: marc.zuber@siemens.com
Website: www.siemens-ts.fr

Hermann Deneke
Berlin, Germany
Phone: +49 (531) 226-2809
Email: hermann.deneke@siemens.com

Salient Features: Since 1986, there has been a competent yet curious mixture of French and German expertise supplying driverless metros that run on either rubber tires (the VAL developed by France’s Matra Transport) or on steel wheels (from major German rail division of giant Siemens as the 3rd line of Nuremberg’s metro).

Status: The first VAL opened in 1983, and many have been supplied in France as well as U.S, Taiwan, Italy, etc. A next-generation

version dubbed NeoVAL has been developed. The steel-wheeled Nuremburg line is now in service.

Note: Siemens-Germany also has installed two H-Bahns – automated suspended-vehicle monorails. Siemens-France operated an advanced APM with PRT-like qualities in the 1980s. Neither product is actively promoted.

In addition to the above, four other firms supply controls or vehicles but generally not both. For example, Thales has projects in which vehicles with advanced electronic intelligence are manufactured by Korea's Rotem and China's CNR.

Alstom Transport

Jean-Marc Pagliero, VP Systems Metro
33, rue des Bateliers
93400 St. Ouen Cedex, France
Phone: +33-1-4166-8125
Email: jean-marc.pagliero@transport.alstom.com
Website: www.transport.alstom.com

Chuck Wochele, VP Business Development
1 Transit Drive
Hornel, NY 14843, USA
Phone: +1 (607) 281-2573
Email: chuck.wochele@transport.alstom.com
Website: www.transport.alstom.com

Salient Features: Steel wheels on steel rails from a mainstream rail manufacturer, focused on vehicle manufacture.

Status: Driverless metros by Alstom operate in Singapore and Lausanne, Switzerland. More are underway in Singapore, Shanghai and Sao Paulo.

Areva TA

Jean-Yves Beon, Technical Director
Centre d’Etude de Sacley
Gif-sur-Yvette, Ile de France 91192 France
Telephone: +33-1 6933-8000

In the US contact Robert Isbister in Quebec at (450) 659-8921 x223 or Paul Naski in Philadelphia at customer.care@areva-td.com.

Salient Features: Reliable technological solutions for nuclear power generation and power transmission and distribution. Areva TA designs, manufactures, operates and maintains energy systems for naval propulsion and rail safety systems.

Status: Areva is providing technical assistance to the Paris metro authority RATP and has been selected by Lyon’s authority SYTRAL to upgrade Lines A and B with a new CBTC to increase capacity, eventually to driverless mode as is current on Line D.

Invensys

Invensys Dimetronic Signals
Avda. De Castilla, 2 Apdo. De Correos 6
Parque Empresarial (Edif. Grecia)
28830 San Fernando de Henares, Madrid, Spain
Phone: +34-91 617-0716
Email: Oscar.martinez@dimetronic.com

Salient Features: Formerly the UK’s Westinghouse Rail Systems, Invensys is a mainstream rail control suppliers, with recent experience in driverless operations, such as on a section of the Hong Kong metro.

Status: Invensys Rail and several Brazilian and Spanish firms have a $400m project to controls of Sao Paulo’s Lines 8, 10 and 11. In the US, Invensys does only railroad controls based out of an office in Louisville (502) 618-8800

Thales Group

45 rue de Villiers
92526 Neuilly-sur-Seine Cedex, France
Phone: +33-15-777-8000
Website: www.thalesgroup.com
In the US: Bob Sudo 412-366-8814 bob.sudo@thalesgroup.com

Salient Features: Advanced signaling control and data communications technologies based on technologies developed by Alcatel of Canada. This includes driverless metro operation and SCADA (data handling) and communications backbone work.

Status: After collaboration with Bombardier on several projects in the 1980s and 1990s, Alcatel –Canada has been absorbed into the Paris-based Thales Group. Recent projects are the smooth opening of the Canada Line inVancouver with Rotem vehicles and part of the Dubai Red Line with MHI and KinkoSharyo. Current projects include the Dubai Green Line, Wuham metro in China, Paris Line 13 upgrades, the airport-seving Busan-Gimhae PPP in Korea with Hyundai-Rotem vehicles, expansion of the London DLR with Bombardier vehicles, and the Mekkah Hajj line with Chinese vehicles.

Demonstrated PRT

(including robotic vehicles)

There are now several PRT suppliers with engineered and demonstrated products that can be considered market ready, at least for modest installations that do not require speeds above 50km/hr.

2getthere

Robbert Lohmann, Carel van Helsdingen
Proostwetering 26
3543 AP Utrecht, The Netherlands
Phone: +31-30-238-7203
Email: info@2getthere.eu
Website: www.2getthere.eu

Salient Features: 2getthere markets and develops electronically guided vehicular systems. The lack of physical guidance ensures the capital and operational costs are minimized. The distributed architecture of the network controls ensures the system is flexible, robust and easy to extend.

Status: 2getthere’s network and vehicle controls have a 24+ year development history in various demanding environments. The group transit system (GRT) has been realized at three locations, with the 2nd generation operational at an office park outside Rotterdam. The engineering of a personal transit system (PRT) has been completed.

Urban Design Parameters

Guideway Envelope - Width: 1.7m (PRT) or 2.4m (GRT).
Minimum Radius of Curvature –
- At 40km/hr and an accepted sideways acceleration of 1,5m/s2, the required radius is 80 meters.
- At 40km/hr and an accepted sideways acceleration of 1,0m/s2, the required radius is 120 meters.
- At 40km/hr and an accepted sideways acceleration of 0,6m/s2, the required radius is 200 meters.
Maximum Recommended Slope – 10 percent.
Minimum Station Footprint – A custom design will be made based on the required capacity, number of berths and space available.
Noise Level (decibels) of a Vehicle Passing – @ 40km/hr and 10 meters, < 65dba

Robosoft

Vincent Dupourque, CEO
Technopole d’Izarbel
64210 Bidart, France
Phone: +33-5-5941-5360
Email: Vincent.dupourque@robosoft.fr
Website: www.robosoft.fr

Salient Features: Optically self-guiding vehicles (CyberCars) operate at low speeds without need for an exclusive guideway. Vehicle sizes range from 4 to 30 seats on simple circuits from several hundred meters to a few kilometers.

Status: Robosoft has furnished numerous systems for cleaning, surveillance, health, factory and warehouse settings. It is an outgrowth of the public-private Praxitele project guided by INRIA, with participation in EU R&D programs. Three services are in place in Antibes (so. France), a science theme park in Clemont-Ferrard (central France) and Fort du Simserhof on the Maginot Line. A pilot service is to be put into place this year in La Rochelle.

Urban Design Parameters - No data provided.

Taxi 2000

Morris Anderson, President & CEO
8050 University Ave. N.
Fridley, MN 55432, USA
Phone: +1 (763) 717-4310
Email: info@taxi2000.com
Website: www.skywebexpress.com

Salient Features: Classic PRT with 4-passenger vehicles running in a slender beam at 70km/h at one-second headways. Propulsion is by linear induction motor. Sophisticated simulation and planning software has been developed. Taxi2000 provides control systems and related software.

Status: Established by Dr. Ed Anderson in the early 1980s, Taxi 2000 is a privately held company. There was intense R&D with Raytheon and the Chicago RTA with test facility using rotary motors outside Boston in the 1990s, but that program was stopped. Taxi 2000 has a prototype vehicle and guideway section, and a tabletop network.

Urban Design Parameters

Guideway Envelope – Including guideway covers the envelope is 0.9m wide and 1m high.

Typical Footprint Requirement for a Guideway Column Foundation – Typical post is 25cm in diameter and 56cm in the ground. The type of soil and the seismic activity in the area installed will determine the depth of footing and final diameter.
Recommended Spacing Between Columns – 28 meters.

Maximum Spacing Between Columns – A maximum spacing has not been determined. Engineering studies have indicated that a span of 55m would not collapse. So that if a post were removed due to an accident, there would not be a catastrophic failure of the guideway in that area.
Minimum Radius of Curvature – 12.2m at 16km/hr; 64m at 56km/hr; 134m at 80km/hr.
Maximum Recommended Slope – The slope limitations are restricted only to those related to ride comfort. Because of the nature of the propulsion system slopes well outside passenger comfort can be safely achieved either in an uphill or downhill mode. Recommend a 10 percent slope based on passenger comfort.
Minimum Station Footprint – Vehicle length is 2.9 meters, and minimum berth is 3.05m in length. Station ramps require 11-50 length.
Noise Level (decibels) of a Vehicle Passing – Actual testing of vehicles at speed have not been accomplished, but we estimate that noise level will be comparable to other electric PRT systems or electric cars.
Level of vibration at 40 and 80 km/hr – Actual testing at speed has not been accomplished, but vibration levels should be low.
Ease in Which Guideways Can Attach To (and Penetrate Through) Building Walls - Because of the guideways small profile and light weight it can easily enter into a building or attach to a building.

Ultra PRT

Unit 5 Brunel Way
Thornbury, Bristol 3UR, UK
Phone: +011 (44-14) 5441-4700
Email: office@atsltd.co.uk
Web: www.alstd.co.uk

Salient Features: ULTra uses numerous battery-driven, four-seat vehicles running over (not locked into) low-cost, low-impact guideway networks with off-line stations providing PRT service. Maximum speed is 40km/hr. Controls are sensor-based. Two-second headways are envisioned in initial operations.

Status: A test track has operated in Cardiff since 2001. The first commercial deployment opens this year at London Heathrow (T5). The British Airports Authority (now owned by Spanish Ferrovial) has a 25 percent share of ATS. Exciting design work has been accomplished. Plans for several installations are advancing.

Urban Design Parameters:

Guideway Envelope - For a vehicle sitting atop guideway with no column, the envelope is: 2.3m high and 2.1m wide.
Typical Footprint Requirement for a Guideway Column Foundation – No data provided.
Recommended Spacing Between Columns – 18m. The vehicle payload is 500kg.
Maximum Spacing Between Columns – There is a standard 36.6m (120’) spacing as well, without much overall cost penalty.
Minimum Radius of Curvature – 12.5m.
Maximum Recommended Slope - For passenger comfort, 10-degree rise, 6-degree fall.
Minimum Station Footprint – Vehicle length is 3.75m.
Noise Level (decibels) of a Vehicle Passing – Less noise than a car.
Level of vibration at 40 and 80 km/hr - No data provided.
Ease in Which Guideways Can Attach To (and Penetrate Through) Building Walls - Readily.

Vectus

Sunwook Lee
#301 Shinan Building
89-8 Munjeong-dong Songpa-gu
138-200 Seoul, Korea
Phone: +82-2-431-6128
Email: sunwook.lee@vectusprt.com
Website: www.vectusprt.com

Salient Features: Classic PRT with passive 4/6-passenger vehicles powered by reversible in-guideway linear induction motors by Force Engineering and WGH of the U.K. Current work aims at 2.5 second headways and 45km/h commercial speed (60km/h maximum).

Status: Korean steel conglomerate Posco started Vectus in 2002 and established partnerships with European companies in 2003. A ~$40-million, 400-meter full-scale test facility in Uppsala, Sweden opened in 2007 under supervision of Swedish rail authorities. Safety acceptance came in 2008. Controls are by Swedish software firm Noventus. Civil work is in cooperation with Skanska. A demo in Suncheon, Korea is to open in 2014.

Urban Design Parameters:

Guideway Envelope – No answer.
Typical Footprint Requirement for a Guideway Column Foundation – No answer.
Recommended Spacing Between Columns – Empty vehicle weight of 800kg.
Maximum Spacing Between Columns – No answer.
Minimum Radius of Curvature – 5m at half-speed.
Maximum Recommended Slope – 10 percent.
Minimum Station Footprint – Vehicle size is 3.5m long x 1.5m wide x 2m high.
Noise Level (decibels) of a Vehicle Passing – No answer.
Level of Vibration at 40 and 80 km/hr – No answer.
Ease in Which Guideways Can Attach to (and Penetrate Through) Building Walls - No answer.

The Vectus test track in Uppsala has gained safety approvals from Swedish rail authorities.

WGH, Ltd.

Andrew Howarth
Linden House, 34 Moorgate Road
Rotherham, South Yorkshire S60 2AG, U.K.
Phone: +44-17-0977-0760
Email: sales@wgh.ltd.uk
In the USA: Gscelzoprt@ameritech.net

Salient Features: Small (2-seat), suspended, open vehicles that are powered by linear induction motors at low speeds, mostly for indoor viewing purposes (dark rides). Very tight turns are possible. More robust designs at higher speeds are feasible.

Status: This small English company has installed several projects in the U.K., Finland, and Abu Dhabi. It is part of the team developing the Vectus PRT. WGH currently has two small projects in the U.K., more in negotiation.

Urban Design Parameters: No data provided.

Monorail, Maglev & Others

Aeromovel Global Corporation

Steven Ivins, Project Manager
7575 Dr. Phillips Blvd. #260
Orlando, FL 32819, USA
Phone: +1 (407) 363-7883
Email: sivins@xenturycity.com
Website: www.aeromovel.com

Salient Features: Metro-scale trains provide line-haul service with a unique air propulsion element.

Status: A test track has operated in Porto Allegre, Brazil since the 1980s, and an installation has operated in a cultural park in Jakarta for several decades. In the 1990s Saudi investors bought a controlling share.

Hitachi

Y. Ueoka, General Manager
18-13, Soto-Kanda 1 Chome
Chiyoda-ku Tokyo, 101-8068, Japan
Phone: +81-3-4564-9853
Email: ??
Website: www.hitachi-rail.com

Salient Features: A large straddling, rubber-tired monorail system with claims to full automation and line capacity up to 20,000 pphpd and speed up to 80km/hr. Walk-through vehicles allow internal circulation over the length of the train.

Status: Over ten installation, but some are manually driven and others are driverless but with on-board attendants. A project in Chongqing, China opened in 2005.

Urban Design Parameters:

Guideway Envelope – Small monorail: 4.5m wide x 1.5m high; Large monorail: 5.15m wide x 1.5m high.

Typical Footprint Requirement for a Guideway Column Foundation – No data provided.
Recommended Spacing Between Columns – 20m.

Maximum Spacing Between Columns – No data provided.
Minimum Radius of Curvature – 40-50m.
Maximum Recommended Slope – 6 percent.
Minimum Station Footprint – Small monorail: 12.7m wide (one way) and minimum 30m length; Large monorail: 15m wide (one way) and length dependent on train length.
Noise Level (decibels) of a Vehicle Passing – No data provided.
Level of vibration at 40 and 80 km/hr – No data provided.
Ease in Which Guideways Can Attach To (and Penetrate Through) Building Walls - No data provided.

HSST

Michio Takahashi,Vice President
2-6-15 Shibakoen
Minato-ku Tokyo 1050011, Japan
Phone: +81-3-5403-1430
Email: home@hsst.com
Website: www.hsst.com

Salient Features: The HSST is levitated by electromagnets and propelled by linear motors, providing the best solutions for urban transportation as a cost effective, reliable, and environmentally sound transit option.

Status: The HSST development began in the 1980s with support from Japan Air Lines and Nagoya Railroad. A test track for urban applications was built in the 1990s. The first revenue operation materialized in March 2005 with the 8.9km Tobu Kyuryo Line with 8 trains in Nagoya, Japan. There is a joint marketing agreement with MHI.

Urban Design Parameters

Guideway Envelope - Guideway envelope: width: 3.3m high x 4.6m wide.
Typical Footprint Requirement for a Guideway Column Foundation - 4.5m x 4.5m; Cross-section of a column is 1.5m x 1.5m.
Recommended Spacing Between Columns - 20～25m.
Maximum Spacing Between Columns – There is no standard for longer spans, however, this can be extended with bridge building methods.
Minimum Radius of Curvature –

At 40km/h: 90m with 3.5 degree of super-elevation. 168m without
At 80km/h: 233m with 8 degree of super-elevation. 672m without
Maximum Recommended Slope – 7 percent.
Minimum Station Footprint – No standard footprint for stations.
Noise Level (decibels) of a Vehicle Passing –

At 12.5m distance: 60 dB (cruising at 40km/h), 63 dB (Accelerating at 40-50km/h).
At 7.0m distance: 69 dB (accelerating at 70-72km/h). 69 dB (decelerating).
Level of vibration at 40 and 80 km/hr - At 12.5m distance: 49.5 dB (accelerating at 47.3km/h); At 7.0m distance: 55.1 dB (cruising at 72.8km/h)
Ease in Which Guideways Can Attach To (and Penetrate Through) Building Walls - The HSST can be integrated directly into building structures without transmitting train vibrations to the surrounding structures. The HSST is very quiet, eliminating need for special isolation foundations or noise insulation.

Intamin

Franz Zurcher
Landstrasse 126
PO Bo 644
FL-9494 Schaan, Liechtenstein
Phone: +42-3237-0363
Email: info@intamintransportation.com
Website: www.intamintransportation.com

Salient Features: Automated monorails of modest size and capacity that can be tailored to customer needs and preferences. A metro-scaled version capable of carrying over 10,000 pphpd in severe winter conditions is also available.

Status: A dozen or so modest monorails have been built. Many of them have been dismantled. Many still operate. Intamin engineers, builds and operates amusement and viewing rides in addition to its monorails. The urban version in cooperation with Moscow transit officials has been cancelled. There is no recent news on the website.

Otis (Division of United Technologies)

Frank Bares
Phone: +1 (860) 286-1617
Email: frank.bares@otis.com

Salient Features: An air-cushioned APM with 30-40 passenger vehicles, typically with cable propulsion. An early installation still operating at Duke University Hospital (Raleigh NC) used linear induction motors. Japan’s Otis company has studied LIM propulsion extensively.

Status: Abandoned as a commercial product in 2002 despite successful implementations are several airports and at Huntsville (AL) Hospital. O&M services are currently provided.