Latest News

Princeton Study

For the past 5 years Princeton University, the Boro of Princeton and Princeton Township have been engaged in discussions related to the University’s expansion plans.  One of the outcomes has been an agreement to form a joint transportation task force and to fund a transportation study of Princeton’s next generation transit options.  The RFP has now been released and innovative transportation is in the mix and that energy efficiency will be considered. Joint proposals are encouraged;  therefore smaller players on the cutting edge might partner up with  bigger rail oriented firms to respond.

The intent of the project is to determine if the existing commuter transit service can be extended to Nassau Street and perhaps beyond.  The respondent shall consider a series of options including a conversion of this service to a light rail system reaching Nassau St. as well as other suitable transit options including those based on emerging new transportation technologies which have the potential to meet our needs.

To receive the complete RFP please contact:

Lee Solow PP
Princeton Regional Planning Board
400 Witherspoon St.
Princeton, NJ 08540
609 924 5366
lsolow at princeton-township.nj.us

WorkShop Cancelled

The one-day workshop on mobility markets and opportunities at airport landside development, organized by ATRA for March 22 has been cancelled.

World’s largest urban PRT system announced

The Punjab Government has awarded a contract for the world’s first urban Personal Rapid Transport (PRT) system in Amritsar, India to Ultra Fairwood.

At peak capacity the PRT system can carry up to 100,000 passengers a day on a 3.3km elevated guideway in over 200 specialist vehicles between seven stations, making it the world’s largest PRT system to date.

Financed entirely by private funding on a build, own, operate transfer (BOOT) basis, the passenger services will go live in 2014.

Read more here

ULTra Perfomance Report

The Ultra system at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 opened on the 18th April 2011 and at the end of November had operated for a total of 4,595 hours, carrying over 200,000 passengers, with high availability, reliability and minimal waiting times. Usage of the car park served by the pods has grown steadily since the service was introduced, and we recently recorded our busiest day so far (1020 occupied vehicle journeys on Monday 28th November).

Read more here.

Masdar Year 1

On November 27th the first year of Operations and Maintenance of the PRT system at Masdar City was concluded. Over the year the system carried over 230.000 passengers, including VIPs such as His Highness General Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi), Mr. Ban Ki Moon (Secretary-General United Nations), Queen Noor (Jordan), Prince Albert (Monaco) and Prinses Victoria (Sweden).

For the full data, link to the 2getthere website.

Morgantown Tour

Morgantown won a PRT design contest in 1968 and received a large federal grant to complete the project. Despite being very popular with the students of the town, who depend on it to get to classes, the Morgantown PRT has been virtually ignored by the media in recent years, explaining why it is completely absent from the public discussion of how to create more mass transit to relieve our congested roadways.

The above is quoted from the video posted on youtube showing off the Morgantown application.

Allan Gregory

Interview with Allan Gregory, Surface Access Director at Heathrow Airport. “Many people are often surprised that BAA is a supporter of rail, we see air and rail as being complementary to each other and over the last ten years BAA invested over £715 million in Heathrow Express and other rail developments.” Watch the video to see which rail links are coming to Heathrow Airport and why BAA took part in the pioneering personal rapid transit scheme.

Masdar Analysis

Simulation-based analysis of Personal Rapid Transit System in Masdar City. For this thesis an interim but critical stage of the network phasing was chosen for simulation, as it includes the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, a 4 star hotel, residential areas with community centers, a Convention Center and the Masdar Initiative Headquarters.

Read the abstract here.

The Jetson Jetset

The Jetson jetset: Heathrow’s Personal Rapid Transit pods. Jumbo jets pass narrowly overhead and there’s gridlock on the road below as my white, plastic pod progresses along a narrow viaduct through the knotted infrastructure around Heathrow airport. This is the future we were supposed to have had…

Read the full article here.