It looks more like 1970’s sci-fi or an extract from the Roger Moore era of James Bond than the sort of project that the once doyen of safe stocks BAA would consider branching into. The ‘new’ Spanish owned BAA clearly hopes to add more of a fiesta experience but less Fords to its airport experience. Provided by a company called ULTRA the pods will be world’s first PRT into customer service. John Holland Kaye, Commercial Director of BAA opened the conference and talked about the ‘ups and downs in testing’.

The legacy of the adverse press coverage of the T5 opening appears to constrain any ambitious announcements. Opening dates are not on the table, though early next year seems to be the most likely time, once ‘reliability is proven’. At the end of day one the conference delegates were treated to a demonstration of the pods in the car park area only, as the guideway, which runs from the business car park to terminal 5, was closed because of a hairline crack found on a routine safety inspection.

Frazer Brown of BAA also addressed the conference. He looks after ground transport for the average 181,000 passengers per day and the 76,000 staff that work there. He said that the complexity of travel around airport needs smart solutions to meet passenger needs which are predictability, no waiting and speed. With the battery powered pods, the environmental benefit of reduced CO2 emissions and low noise is also added. He stated that this is a pilot scheme to test passenger acceptability, reliability and costs. Each pod can seat 4 passengers comfortably. BAA has taken a majority stake in ULTRA and sees value in proving the system, expanding it around Heathrow and exporting it globally.

This emerging technology can operate at six second headways, although the conference saw a virtual reality concept of a system around the city of Delhi operating at three second headways. Progress with the Heathrow pod is steady and is currently certified to transport staff. It was originally mocked-up and trialled with user groups to influence the design. A BAA staff trial took place in March to test it on site including luggage. It revealed issues with audio messages, door timings and buttons needed to be made more explicit. They have even done an emergency exercise featuring protestor on the line hit by a pod and killed. We are unsure if the scenario covered the rationale for the protest: perhaps because it is so utterly environmentally friendly?

Mark Griffiths also addressed the conference. As ULTRA’s operations manager he described how the objectives are safety and the passenger experience but also to prove and showcase for the world, perhaps alluding to BAA’s strategic stake in the business. The system operates with 24 staff consisting controllers and technicians mainly.

All the BAA speakers put on customer satisfaction as a key priority of the pilot scheme.

The conference also heard presentations from other examples around the world. They are not as well advanced as the Heathrow pilot scheme but some are significantly more complex

Whilst not air-rail, Abu Dhabi Masdar City, a carbon neutral city has plans for stations every 115m and a complex PRT network. It operates in just below ground level in an undercroft. The conference heard that the economic crisis may mean that it is scaled back with more standard electric cars being the prime means of transport.

Another project has been conceived in San Jose, linking the airport to light rail and Caltran/BART systems. A previous study on a people mover had been rejected on cost grounds, but PRT comes at a fraction of the price and feasibility is underway now that the powers in the Silicon Valley consider PRT to be ‘commercially ready’. Other ideas for city style PRT exist in Delhi, small cities in Sweden and La Rochelle in France

Like most passenger transit systems nomenclature and lateness feature. Terms such as Pods, Podcars, Cybercars, Group Rapid Transit and Beamways (which are hung from a guideway) all pervade to describe this emerging concept. However, speakers found common ground because all their projects are running later than intended. Anyone wanting to join this moving train will need to move fast. Some presenters ducked the credit for progress as much of the work was done prior to them taking up their current positions. Furthermore people were carrying business cards saying PRT consulting, PRT manager and the conference heard a heated debate amongst transport planners on the basis of ridership forecasts for this cutting edge transport mode. Is it akin to a bus, a taxi or a private car by comparison? Discuss ad nauseam...

We are supportive of this emerging technology and consider that its careful implementation in bespoke and niche environments can provide a great solution to the last mile of travel. The customer interface needs careful thought; even the transport aficionados on the demonstration runs around the car park were getting confused with the button sequences, leading to customer friendly interventions by the controllers. As for the complex solutions proposed for transportation in cities; it still seems a bit ‘Buck Rogers in the 25th century’ to us.

Note: you can find more about PRT’s in our next issue of the printed airrail NEWS, scheduled for the end of November 2010.

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