A cable car is a type of cable railway used for mass transit in which rail cars are hauled by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed. Individual cars stop and start by releasing and gripping this cable as required. Cable cars are distinct from funiculars, where the cars are permanently attached to the cable.
A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks.
Véhicule Automatique Léger or VAL is a type of driverless (automated), rubber-tyred, medium-capacity rail transport system. The technology was developed at the Lille University of Science and Technology, was marketed by Matra, and first used in the early 1980s for the Lille Metro system, one of the world's first fully automated mass-transit rail networks, preceded only by the Port Island Line in Kobe, Japan. The VAL technology is now marketed by Siemens, which acquired Matra in the late 1990s.
An automated guideway transit (AGT) or automated fixed-guideway transit or automatic guideway transit system is a type of fixed guideway transit infrastructure with a riding or suspension track that supports and physically guides one or more driverless vehicles along its length. The vehicles are often rubber tired or steel wheeled, but other traction systems including air cushion, suspended monorail and maglev have been implemented. The guideway provides both physical support, like a road, as well as the guidance. An automated line can be cheaper to run than a conventional line, due to the shorter trains and stations.
The Poma 2000 in Laon, France, was an automated guideway transit, a cable-driven people mover which ran between the railway station and the city hall. The system was 1.5 km (0.93 mi) long with a maximum gradient of 13% and an elevation change of 100 metres (330 ft).
The Aérotrain was an experimental Tracked Air Cushion Vehicle (TACV), or hovertrain, developed in France from 1965 to 1977 under the engineering leadership of Jean Bertin (1917–1975) – and intended to bring the French rail network to the cutting edge of land-based public transportation.
The Narita Airport Terminal 2 Shuttle System was an automated people mover used in Narita International Airport, Narita, Chiba Japan. The system operated between 1992 and 2013.
The ExpressTram is an automated people mover system operating at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, in Romulus, Michigan, USA. The driverless system transports passengers along Concourse A of the airport's Edward H. McNamara Terminal, which is the world's second-longest airport concourse. Detroit Metro Airport serves as the second largest hub for Delta Air Lines, after Atlanta.
The Minneapolis–St. Paul Airport Trams consist of a pair of cable-drawn automated people movers that serve travelers of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. Both were constructed by the Poma-Otis Transit Company of Farmington, Connecticut and are operated under the direction of the Metropolitan Airports Commission.
The Cable Liner is a range of automated people mover products designed by Doppelmayr Cable Car for use at airports, in city centers, intermodal passenger transport connections, park and ride facilities, campuses, resorts and amusement parks.
The Cincinnati Airport People Mover or Underground Train is an automated people mover that serves travelers of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. It opened in 1994 to connect Terminal 3, now the Main Terminal, with Concourses A and B. The system was constructed by and was originally under the operation of Delta Air Lines.
The Zurich Airport Skymetro is an underground airport people mover at Zurich Airport in Switzerland. The 1.1 km (0.68 mi) long system connects the airport's main Airside Center, Gates A, B and D with its mid-field Gates E, passing underneath Runway 10/28. The line opened on 1 September 2003, and was constructed by the Otis Elevator Company.
MiniMetro is a family of cable propelled automated people mover systems built by HTI Group. The vehicles either run on rails or an air cushion and have either a detachable grip or a fixed grip. Leitner has a test track for the vehicles in Vipiteno, Italy. The current maximum capacity of the system is around 8,000 passengers per hour. The latest system installed with the MiniMetro brand was the Miami International Airport eTrain in 2016.
The ACT, acronym for Automatically Controlled Transportation or Activity Center Transit, was a people mover system developed during the 1970s. One feature of the ACT is that it allowed bi-directional travel on a single rail—cars passed each other by switching onto short bypass lanes on the track, distributed where space allowed. ACT was a contender in the Urban Mass Transportation Administration's plan to deploy three or four systems in cities in the United States, as well as the GO-Urban project in Toronto, Canada. One ACT system was installed as a part of a Ford-funded real estate development near their headquarters in Dearborn, MI, and although they proposed to install ACT in several other locations, no additional systems were ever installed and the project was put on indefinite hold.
Duke University Medical Center Patient Rapid Transit or Personnel Rapid Transit (PRT) was an automated people mover system located at the Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, in the United States. The system was in operation from 1979 to 2009. The PRT was notable for having cars propelled by a linear induction motor and suspended on a bed of compressed air similar to a hovercraft. Uniquely, the cars could move sideways, as well as backwards and forwards.
Tracked Hovercraft was an experimental high-speed train developed in the United Kingdom during the 1960s. It combined two British inventions, the hovercraft and linear induction motor, in an effort to produce a train system that would provide 250 mph (400 km/h) inter-city service with lowered capital costs compared to other high-speed solutions. Substantially similar to the French Aérotrain and other hovertrain systems of the 1960s, Tracked Hovercraft suffered a similar fate to these projects when it was cancelled as a part of wide budget cuts in 1973.
The Huntsville Hospital Tram System is an automated people mover system located as part of the Huntsville Hospital System complex in Huntsville, Alabama, United States. Operating on a 1,890-foot (580 m) concrete guideway, the trams serve to connect the Huntsville Hospital with the Huntsville Hospital for Women & Children. At the time of completion, this was the second hospital people mover system in the United States after the Duke University Medical Center Patient Rapid Transit. As of January 2010, this is the only automated people mover system completed in the state of Alabama.
A hovertrain is a type of high-speed train that replaces conventional steel wheels with hovercraft lift pads, and the conventional railway bed with a paved road-like surface, known as the track or guideway. The concept aims to eliminate rolling resistance and allow very high performance, while also simplifying the infrastructure needed to lay new lines. Hovertrain is a generic term, and the vehicles are more commonly referred to by their project names where they were developed. In the UK they are known as tracked hovercraft, in the US they are tracked air-cushion vehicles. The first hovertrain was developed by Jean Bertin in the early 1960s in France, where they were marketed as the Aérotrain before being abandoned by the French government.
The Getty Center Tram is a 0.75-mile (1.21 km) people mover system that serves the Getty Center in Los Angeles. It runs two cable-driven hovertrains each consisting of three Otis Hovair vehicles.
The MIA e Train is one of three automated people mover systems operating at Miami International Airport. The MIA e Train connects the satellite building of Concourse E with the rest of Concourse E which is connected to the main terminal. The system opened in 2016 replacing an earlier system and was built at a cost of $87 million.
