Thursday, November 19, 2009

Delay in ULTra System in Healthrow

I visited Terminal 5 to look at the ULTra system. This is an automated transport system to bring passengers from the car park to the terminal.

I asked the staff at the Information desk. She said that many passengers had asked the same question, but she did not hear about the ULTra system being ready yet. She thought that it had been delayed.

I asked a French transport expert who was monitoring the development. He told me that the planned starting date is December, i.e. next month. There were some technical hitches that needed to be sorted out.

The first phase of the ULTra system involved less than 100 vehicles. When fully operational in 3 years time, it would involve a few hundred vehicles and would cover the entire Heathrow Airport and the nearby areas.

Many people look forward to this new development, but there had been a few delays. I hope that the technical problem will be cleared up and that the ULTra system can encourage other countries to adopt similar systems.

1 comment:

  1. This is a very nice system and I hope they get it built as I think this kind of system is the real answer to transportation problems much more so that self driving cars that would use our current infrastructure. Although, it seems to me the pods would do better if they were on a track.

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