"BAA considers two-second monorail taxis for Heathrow"

Friday, July 23, 2004

BAA considers two-second monorail taxis for Heathrow
Airport operator weighs up smart mass transit system that can deliver
passengers to exact departure terminal
Building Source


Airport operator BAA is in talks to build an innovative monorail system
that will link all five terminals at Heathrow Airport. BAA is
considering a proposal by Advanced Transport Systems, a Bristol firm, to
produce a raised monorail route on which four-person cars run at
two-second intervals in a continuous loop around the airport

The system, which is called Ultra, has been designed by Martin Lowson,
an academic at Bristol University and ATS chief executive. It has been
presented to BAA, which is looking for a mass-transit system for
Heathrow

BAA has to go through a competitive tendering process, but if its
selects Ultra the system could be in place at Heathrow by 2006

Richard Teychenne, ATS business development manager, said the key
difference between Ultra and its competitors would be its flexibility,
as it was for small groups of people

He said: "We have in this country the idea that public transport has to
move people in big vehicles. But 90% of journeys are made in cars. Our
system is like a network of automatic taxis or an elevator: you punch in
where you want to go." The system could eventually see passengers
punching in the reference code of their flight and being taken to the
correct terminal. Ultra is being considered by 20 councils in the UK,
including Swindon in Wiltshire, Corby in Northampton and Cardiff, as
well as authorities abroad, with a possible view to delivering
passengers from park-and-ride facilities directly to individual shops.
Teychenne also met Greater London Authority officials this week to look
at how the system could be adapted to the Olympic village

ATS would not be drawn on the exact cost of the system, but said it
could be about GBP2m/km, which would be between 20% and 35% of the cost
of installing a tram line. All of the 2 m wide cars would be battery
powered and sustainable

A BAA spokesperson said it was looking for a solution to congestion
problems at its sites

He said: "Ultra is an interesting concept and one of a number of
mass-transit solutions that we are open to considering. "We are in early
discussions with the company that is developing Ultra, with a view to
seeing if there is any potential for use in an airport." Teychenne said
that Ultra, which was invented in 1995, differs from other monorail
systems such as the shuttle at Stansted Airport because it involved no
waiting

He said: "Most monorails make you wait about 10 minutes. We plan that
95% of passengers wouldn't have to wait at all and the rest would wait
less than a minute."


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