If you are interested in more information on this concept, you can visit the website for the company developing this.

http://www.atsltd.co.uk/

Those of us who follow these companies use the name ULTra for this one.

Go to their Q&A link.  Here are some of the comments made there. Very impressive.:

What is the average waiting time?

4 out of 5 of users will have no waiting time.

19 in 20 ULTra passengers will wait less than 1 minute, even at peak times. This compares with average bus waiting times, which are 6 minutes. Due to the stations being off line, the journey is non-stop, which reduces waiting time and therefore reduces overall journey time.

What is the average journey time?

For a typical 1 mile journey, the time taken is approximately 3 minutes. The vehicles travel at 25 mph; typically, cars in cities average 12 mph taking five minutes to travel a mile. So ULTra is nearly twice as fast as a car and about three times as quick as a bus.

How does the typical energy usage of ULTra compare to that of other forms of public transport?

ULTra utilises 0.55 MJ/passenger km

Other forms of public transport use between 1.2 and 1.4 MJ/passenger km.

Why is PRT preferable over a bus or train in this instance?

A bus or train is only available at a predetermined time and for a predetermined route. ULTra is available when you want it, going directly to where you want it to, non-stop. However we see ULTra as working best in combination with existing forms of transport

"19 in 20 ULTra passengers will wait less than 1 minute, even at peak times. This compares with average bus waiting times, which are 6 minutes."

What is the average wait time for Metro buses?

"For a typical 1 mile journey, the time taken is approximately 3 minutes. The vehicles travel at 25 mph; typically, cars in cities average 12 mph taking five minutes to travel a mile. So ULTra is nearly twice as fast as a car and about three times as quick as a bus."

If this were installed along the Red Line, it would take approximately 22 minutes with no stops in between.  The trams take 30 minutes and are affected by red lights and traffic and require an high priced operator and higher power useage.  The Ultra vehicles only move empty when a computer anticipated need is found at other stations so powere use is low.

Well, texting and CW drives are basicly driverless autos......

Now, such a peoplemover could be used to connect at TC or station go get people to places where there could be multiple activity centers, like:

Downtown

Greenway Plaza

TMC

Galleria

Memorial City Mall/Katy and BW-8 area.

PODS?  That term may not fly here, because it is used to discribe something you find in a toilet.....

DominicMazoch said:

"PODS?  That term may not fly here, because it is used to discribe something you find in a toilet....."

LOL.  ULTra does not use the word pod.  his term was used by British reporters for several articles.  

ULTra refers to them as vehicles or cars.

"business parking lot to Terminal 5...on their own narrow road system"  It sounds just like the people movers that have been around for ages at airports.   Am I missing something?  

Lunk said:

"business parking lot to Terminal 5...on their own narrow road system"  It sounds just like the people movers that have been around for ages at airports.   Am I missing something?

It is totally different than conventional people movers(PM) you have seen at airports.

The vehicles are individual and seat up to four.  There are only three stations now but they have plans for expansion after they see how this performs.

The biggest difference is that if you have 6 stations on a typical PM, you have to stop at every station while this system takes you directly to your stop with no stops in-between.

Go to this story link and it has a picture of a station.  Notice the bypass and that the vehicles are not on tracks:

http://www.atsltd.co.uk/news/36/32/Heathrow-Topping-Out-Ceremony/d,News%20Display/

You could set this up with rails:  bypass tracks could be placed  at stations, so the car could go direct to the station you want.  However, as a start up, rubber tired concpts might just be the Q card, er, thicket.

Rails, eith bypasses would entail switching which is not necessary with rubber tyred units.

Plus, these are far quieter and less prone to problems with icing, slipping, etc.

The GRT ( some of us refer to it as group over personal since the vehicles handle 8 plus standees) used at West Virginia Unversity has been operating since 1975.

A good source of info on it can be had at:

http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/morg.htm

That system is an old design and the vehicles pick up power from the side rails.

A significant point, as compared to our LR lines as designed (in-the-street) is this comment written on the GRT after it was expanded:

"Operations were resumed in 1979 and have been continuous since then with a 99% reliability factor."

Here is another quote and link to the story (worth reading):

"To date, the PRT has transported more than 61 million passengers without accident or injury. Its 71 cars carry 15,000 passengers a day over 8.7 miles of guideway, with stations at Beechurst Avenue, Walnut Street, Evansdale (engineering and Towers) and Health Sciences."

http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/news/page/4104/

How many accidents has the trolley Red Line had?

Don G said:

"For a typical 1 mile journey, the time taken is approximately 3 minutes. The vehicles travel at 25 mph; typically, cars in cities average 12 mph taking five minutes to travel a mile. So ULTra is nearly twice as fast as a car and about three times as quick as a bus."

What a ridiculous comparison. These vehicles aren't moving through cities -- they're going from a terminal to a parking lot. You can't compare cars driving around downtown London and shuttles between a terminal and a parking lot.

No kidding it's faster than driving in the city -- it's faster because there aren't as many people aching to drive to the airport parking lot as there are trying to get to work.

Robert said:

"What a ridiculous comparison. These vehicles aren't moving through cities -- they're going from a terminal to a parking lot. You can't compare cars driving around downtown London and shuttles between a terminal and a parking lot."

Robert,

You took one quote I used but did not add in the most important point:

"If this were installed along the Red Line, it would take approximately 22 minutes with no stops in between.  The trams take 30 minutes and are affected by red lights and traffic and require an high priced operator and higher power useage."

The entire concept of PRT or GRT is that one travels DIRECTLY from point A to point B with no interim stops.

Also, if you had read the articles, they plan to extend the guideways to the hotels and other destinations.

This is simple a starting point for something that comes the closest to replacing the auto (also a PRT).

When the original METRO plans of 1991 were being developed.  Bombardier won and was going to build a 23 mile long monorail from UH Downtown out onto Westpark and out to Hwy 6.

With that plan, they also envisioned a PRT similar to the one Ultra that would take people from the station in the Med Center all around to every hospital.

Another important point to express as regarding the differences between PRT and the Red Line is that these Ultra vehicles ONLY use power when they are taking passengers.  The rest of the time, they sit.  

With the trolley cars, they operate continually, stopping at every station from early morning until late night.

Much of the time, they run empty or with very few passengers, using power and requiring operators on each unit.

Does the London system have regenerative braking?