Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) or Personal Automated Transport (PAT) Quicklinks

Note: Some people are beginning to use the term Personal Automated Transport (PAT) instead of PRT which is more commonly used. Both terms refer to the same set of ideas and are used interchangably on this page. It will probably be some time before one or the other of these names becomes the preferred term. 

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This is a collection of links to a variety of Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) technologies. These are all small vehicle technologies, designed to carry four or fewer people on an elevated guideway with off-line stations. Larger automated systems (Group Rapid Transit - GRT) have not been included here.

Only one of these technologies (ULTra) is currently (May, 2007) being built at Heathrow International Airport in the U.K.  Vectus PRT has an operating test track in Uppsala, Sweden (see the movie that shows it in operation). Several others are active and receiving significant attention. Others are more or less dormant, still searching for development funding. Lastly, some PRT system descriptions are included for their historical interest.

Update on ULTra PRT installation at Healthrow Airport, January, 2008

New Jersey PRT Study Final Report released, quite comprehensive, 144 pp, pdf format

Conference: The Pod Car City: Sustainable Transportation, Sept. 14-16, 2008, Ithaca, NY

Large PRT feasibility study released by SkyWeb Express, 44 pp.

New Vectus PRT Brochure now available on-line - quite elegant

Illustration of how PRT could be used to supplement a mass transit service in the Dulles Airport Corridor in Northern Virginia, using a Transit Utility concept, Jan. '08

Overview of Personal Rapid Transit

PRT article available in Wikipedia

Introduction to PRT website features interesting animations, in English and Spanish

Why is PRT a good idea?

What does PRT cost?

Cost Comparisons between Bus, PRT, LRT and Metro/rail

Estimating Capital Costs and Ridership for a PRT Network

Applicability of Tax Increment Financing or Business Improvement Districts to Building Personal Rapid Transit

Advanced Transit Association's PRT report available on-line

Trade-offs to consider when designing a transit system

Could an advanced-taxi car-sharing system assist the deployment of a phased, areawide PRT network? new3.gif (1292 bytes)

Advocacy Lessons Learned for Getting the FIRST PRT System Built new3.gif (1292 bytes)

For details on how a PRT system works, see the Morgantown PRT system at West Virginia University.

Complete list of Books and Published Papers by J. Edward Anderson, 1953-2006, mostly about Personal Rapid Transit, copies available from
him, upon request. Recent Q&A session with Ed Anderson regarding current Personal Rapid Transit issues, March, 2007

Paul Hoffman's PRT presentation at the TRB meeings, "Personal Rapid Transit, Strategies for Advancing the State of the Industry, Washington, D.C., January, 2007 (requires PowerPoint reader), 7 megs

cincy.jpg (19805 bytes) For examples of active proposals to apply the PRT concept, see the descriptions of the Cities21 project in the Silicon Valley of California and the Skyloop project in Cincinnati, Ohio. Another exciting proposal is being considered for the Kangnam area in the southern part of Seoul, Korea. Illustration at left was developed by Bob Brodbeck of SkyLoop for a street in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio.

A demonstration project for the ULTra PRT system was announced for Cardiff, Wales recently (as of 1/28/04, it is on hold awaiting additional funding). An eyewitness report from Steve Raney is available that includes a diagram of the test track, various pictures and a video. An article about ULTra has been published in Urban Transport International, March-April, 2002 issue. Two additional (2003) papers about ULTra are also available - links are provided in the ULTra section below.

Two recently published books about PRT are now available. One is entitled The Transportation Renaissance: The PRT Solution. The other is entitled 21st Century Personal Rapid Transit. Also available is a recent paper (November 2005) entitled Emerging PRT Technologies: Introduction, State of the Art, Applications

Almost Deployable - but didn't quite make it

Raytheon's PRT 2000. See a photo of three vehicles on the test track (Note: Raytheon announced that it was exiting the PRT business on October 12, 1999 - see Press Release for details. Also see the article entitled entitled Status Report on Raytheon's PRT 2000 Development Project and Raytheon's PRT Prospects Dim but not Doomed, by Peter Samuel). As of June, 2000,  PRT 2000 development in the U.S. had been terminated.  Details of the Raytheon technology, its NETSIM simulation software and Automated Vehicle Control software are available as are several photos of its test track facility. A PRT 2000 video of the Raytheon test facility is also available.

First real-world application of PRT

ultra2vehpic.jpg (9994 bytes) A demonstration project for the ULTra PRT system was launched on January 17, 2002, in Cardiff, Wales. Click here to see pictures, a test track diagram and a video of this event. In January, 2003, public funding  for this project was frozen. It will be delayed but has not been cancelled. For a recent paper (January, 2003) about ULTra, click here. In April, 2003, a report on the results from the first passenger trials on ULTra was released and is available on-line. A demonstration line is being built at Heathrow Airport in 2007. See the ULTra website for details on this project. Construction pictures are now available (June, 2007)  New ULTra animation now available (9/07)


Prototypes Built

The Taxi 2000 Corporation completed Phase I of its development program in April, 2003 and has unveiled its Skyweb Express vehicle to the public. See their website for photos and press articles about this event. Efforts to raise several million dollars for Phase II of the development program are progressing. One investment of $2 M was announced in November, 2003 and Phase II work is now underway.

A MicroRail elevated guideway segment and vehicle has been built and static load tests conducted - see Press Release of April 12, 2002 for details and photo. A major update of the MegaRail website that announces a modified marketing strategy and presents a broad range of prospective products was released in July, 2004. An operational full-scale prototype vehicle and new guideway section is expected to be completed in the latter half of 2007, located near Ft. Worth, Texas

Under Active Development (see Technology Comparison Matrix for some details)

 

Searching for Development Funding or Inactive

Of  Historical Interest

New paper on ULTra PRT system being developed in the U.K. (it's a large pdf file - 1.8+ megabytes) and has some excellent photos. A second paper that presents the results of some initial passenger trails on ULTra is also available on-line

Illustration of an areawide, large-scale PRT network designed for the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, showing how its development could be staged over time

Link to a new Dutch PRT website

Link to a paper entitled: PRT - A Potential Urban Transport Solution, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, Joint Research Centre of the EU, Seville, Spain, July, 2001

Get on Board! Personal Rapid Transit - a PRT website based in Seattle

Photos and illustrations of Cabintaxi PRT stations, as built and proposed

Illustrations of an emergency evacuation scheme developed in Germany for the Cabintaxi PRT system

Descriptions of 15 PRT applications ideas can be found under "Deployment Studies" at the Site Index page

Paper that describes some results from a simulation of a large PRT network for Göthenburg, Sweden

An interesting computer-generated simulation of a PRT system in operation is available on-line

Links to a variety of PRT studies, books and articles are also available.

The Advanced Transit Association provides additional detail on PRT and related topics.

Comparisons between the capacity of PRT, a freeway lane and two light rail operating scenarios.

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Last modifed: July 03, 2008