UNITED KINGDOM: Laser-guided travel pods that work without drivers or timetables have started ferrying passengers around London's Heathrow airport

Record ID: 861126

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Laser-guided travel pods that work without drivers or timetables have started ferrying passengers around London's Heathrow airport
  • Date: 27th September 2011
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) STEFAN LINTON, PASSENGER SAYING: "It's a bit like a ski lift, those 'egg lifts', but much more modern. I think they're brilliant. Very good."
  • Embargoed: 12th October 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • City:
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Science / Technology,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVA6683VSTGD4TYSHDQ0WJV4S6FM
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Laser-guided travel pods that work without drivers or timetables have been officially unveiled at London's Heathrow airport.
    The system's developers say it will reducing the time it takes business passengers to move from terminal to car park by 60 percent.
    Travelling at speeds up to 40 km/hour (25 mph), after an average wait of just 34 seconds, the system looks like something straight from a science fiction film.
    "It's a bit like a ski lift, those 'egg lifts', but much more modern," said one air passenger flying from T5.
    The pods, which run along tracks and allow passengers to select their destinations, use laser sensors to ferry business passengers and their luggage along a 3.8 km route.
    The journey is on demand and non-stop from start to destination at the touch of a computer screen, with no timetables and no waiting, as a central computer ensures that pods are distributed at each station according to passenger demand.
    When waiting for a passenger, the pods recharge themselves at battery points, so are always ready to go.
    According to ULTra, the company behind the technology, the 30 million pound development could transport up to 500,000 passengers each year and replace 50,000 shuttle bus journeys.
    The British invention, which has been on trial at Heathrow since April, is the culmination of over 60 years of development, according to Fraser Brown, managing director of podcar maker, ULTra PRT.
    "So the difference with PRT, the 'P' is personal and the 'R' being rapid, is that you get a personal experience of maybe 4 or 5 people in a vehicle and you get to go point to point, you get to go where you want to go rather than where the bus or the train takes you."
    The company, now part owned by Ferrovial's (FER.MC) British airports division BAA, is confident that the technology will prove a hit in densely populated areas around the world.
    Feasibility studies are currently underway in the U.S and India.
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