Editing Automated guideway transit

{{short description|Fully automated transit system}}{{More citations needed|date=January 2024}}[[File:KNT2000 2106p0809.jpg|thumb|''[[Port Island Line]]'' AGT, [[Kobe]], [[Japan]] (the world's first mass transit AGT)]]
{{Automated track-bound traffic}}
[[File:Lille VAL 208.jpg|thumb|[[Véhicule Automatique Léger|VAL]]-208 type train in the [[Lille Metro]]]]
[[File:Skytrain Mark II-300.jpg|thumb|A [[SkyTrain (Vancouver) rolling stock#Bombardier ART Mark II train fleet|Mark II]] train in [[Vancouver]], Canada. The [[SkyTrain (Vancouver)|SkyTrain]] is the longest driverless transit system in the Americas.]]
An '''automated guideway transit''' ('''AGT''') or '''automated fixed-guideway transit'''<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Juster |first1=Reuben Morris |title=A Trip Time Comparison of Automated Guideway Transit |date=2013 |hdl=1903/14304 |url=http://hdl.handle.net/1903/14304 |access-date=6 May 2022 |type=Thesis |language=en}}</ref> or '''automatic guideway transit'''<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ko |first1=Hee-Young |last2=Shin |first2=Kwang-Bok |last3=Cho |first3=Se-Hyun |last4=Kim |first4=Dea-Hwan |title=An Evaluation of Structural Integrity and Crashworthiness of Automatic Guideway Transit(AGT) Vehicle made of Sandwich Composites |journal=Composites Research |date=2008 |volume=21 |issue=5 |pages=15–22 |url=https://www.koreascience.or.kr/article/JAKO200801440609792.page |access-date=6 May 2022 |issn=2288-2103}}</ref> 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.<ref name="TCQSM">{{Cite book |url=https://www.nap.edu/read/24766/chapter/1 |title=Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual. Transit Cooperative Highway Research Program (TCRP) Report 165 |edition=Third |author=Kittelson & Assoc |author2=Parsons Brinckerhoff |author3=KFH Group |author4=Texas A&M Transportation Institute |author5=Arup |date=2013 |publisher=Transportation Research Board |place=Washington |isbn=978-0-309-28344-1 |page=11-52 |chapter=Chapter 11: Glossary and Symbols|doi=10.17226/24766 }}</ref> The vehicles are often rubber tired or steel wheeled, but other traction systems including air cushion, [[suspended monorail]] and [[maglev (transport)|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.<ref name="Moccia">{{cite web |last1=Moccia |first1=Luigi |last2=Allen |first2=Duncan W. |last3=Laporte |first3=Gilbert |last4=Spinosa |first4=Andrea |title=Mode boundaries of automated metro and semi-rapid rail in urban transit |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12469-021-00287-9 |website=Public Transport |access-date=8 May 2024 |pages=739–802 |language=en |doi=10.1007/s12469-021-00287-9 |date=1 October 2022}}</ref>

AGT covers a wide variety of systems, from limited [[people mover]] systems commonly found at airports,<ref name="TCQSM"/> to more complex [[List of automated train systems|automated train]] systems like the [[Vancouver SkyTrain]]. In the people mover role the term "automated people mover" (APM) is sometimes used, although this distinction is relatively rare because most people movers are automated. Larger systems span a variety of conceptual designs, from subway-like advanced rapid transit (ART) systems to smaller (typically two to six passengers) vehicles known as [[personal rapid transit]] (PRT) which offer direct point-to-point travel along a switched network.<ref name="TCQSM"/>

==Origins in mass transit==

AGT was originally developed as a means of providing mass transit services aimed at serving rider loads higher than those that could be served by buses or trams, but smaller than those served by conventional [[rapid transit|subways]]. Subways were too expensive to build in areas of lower density, such as smaller cities or the suburbs of larger ones, which often suffer the same [[gridlock]] problems as larger cities. Buses could be easily introduced in these areas, but did not offer the capacities or speeds that made them an attractive alternative to car ownership. Cars drive directly from origin to destination, while buses generally work on a hub-and-spoke model that can increase trip times.

AGT offered a solution that fit between these extremes. Much of the cost of a subway system is due to the large vehicle sizes, which demand large tunnels, large stations and considerable infrastructure throughout the system. The large vehicles are a side-effect of the need to have considerable space between the vehicles, known as "[[headway]]", for safety reasons due to the limited sightlines in tunnels. Given large headways and limited average speed due to stops, the only way to increase passenger capacity is to increase the size of the vehicle. Capital costs can be reduced by elevating the tracks instead of burying them, but the large tracks needed present a major visual barrier, and the steel-wheels-on-steel-rails are very noisy rounding bends.

Headway can be reduced via automation, a technique that was becoming feasible in the 1960s. As the headway is decreased, the size of vehicle needed to transport a given number of passengers per hour also decreases, which, in turn, decreases the infrastructure needed to support these smaller vehicles. Everything from track supports to station size can be reduced, with similar reductions in capital costs. Additionally, the lighter vehicles allow for a wider variety of suspension methods, from conventional steel wheels, to rubber tires, [[air cushion vehicle]]s and [[maglev (transport)|maglev]]s. Since the system has to be automated in order to reduce the headways enough to be worthwhile, by automating the steering as well the operational costs can also be reduced compared to crewed vehicles.

One key problem in an automated system is the steering system's negotiation of turns in the right-of-way. The simplest solution is to use a rigid guideway, like conventional rails or steel [[rollercoaster]]s. For lighter AGTs, these solutions were over-specified given the size of the vehicle, so the guideway was often separate from the running surface. Typical solutions used a single light rail embedded in the ground or attached to the guideway wall, with a wheel or slider that was pressed against the guideway rail and steered the running wheels through a linkage. A suspension-like system is needed to smooth out the imperfections in the guideway and provide a comfortable ride. More modern systems can eliminate the rail and replace it with a "virtual" one that is read by sensors on the vehicle without the need for any mechanical connection.

AGT systems, and the [[personal rapid transit]] concept (or "dial-a-cab"), became a major area of research after the publication of the [[HUD reports]] in 1968, and subsequent funding by the [[US Department of Transportation]]. Political support was particularity strong in states with large concentrations of [[aerospace]] companies; with the ending of [[Project Apollo]] and the winding down of the [[Vietnam War]], there was concern that these companies would be left with few projects in the 1970s and 80s. Expecting widespread deployment of PRT systems through the late 1970s and 80s, many of the major US aerospace companies entered the AGT market, including [[Boeing]], [[Ling-Temco-Vought|LTV]] and [[Rohr, Inc.|Rohr]]. Car companies followed suit, including [[General Motors]] and [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]]. This, in turn, sparked off a wave of similar developments around the world.

However, the market for these systems proved to be overestimated, and only one of these US-designed small AGT's was constructed as a mass transit system, the [[Morgantown PRT]].

==Small systems==
{{See also|People mover}}
[[File:TPA 2018 - Airside E People Movers.jpg|thumb|left |The [[Tampa International Airport People Movers]]]]
[[Image:DFW Skylink from plane.jpg|thumb|right|[[DFW Skylink]] at [[Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport]]]]
Small scaled AGT systems are also known as people movers. Although the mass transit world showed a lack of interest, AGT systems quickly found a number of niche roles that they have continued to fill to this day. [[Tampa International Airport]] was the world's first to incorporate an AGT system as an inter-terminal connector in 1971. Its landside/airside set up allows the airport to increase capacity without spreading out. The [[LTV Airtrans]] was another early AGT systems which was installed at the [[Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport]] and went into operation in January 1975 (later replaced by the [[DFW Skylink]] system in 2005). Similar systems followed at airports around the world, and today they are relatively universal at larger airports, often connecting terminals with distant long-term parking lots. Similar systems were also a fixture of a number of amusement parks, notably the [[Walt Disney World Monorail System]] and the [[Toronto Zoo Domain Ride]]. The [[Getty Center]] in [[Los Angeles]] uses a unique vertically oriented AGT to bring visitors from a parking lot off [[Interstate 405 (California)|Interstate 405]] to the Center at the top of a hill in [[Brentwood, Los Angeles, California|Brentwood]]; this system places the motor outside the vehicle at the top of the guideway to reduce the weight lifted up the hill and thus improve efficiency.<ref name="cement">Portland Cement Association. [http://www.cement.org/transit/tr_cs_gettycenter.asp Getty Center tram guideway.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007004438/http://www.cement.org/transit/tr_cs_gettycenter.asp |date=October 7, 2008 }} Retrieved August 27, 2008.</ref> Small AGT systems are also used as circulator or feeder systems within urban centers. The city of Miami installed its [[Metromover]] system in 1986 and later extended it by 4.4 miles and added 12 new stations it in 1994. Similar [[Bombardier Innovia APM|INNOVIA APM 100]] systems operate in Singapore's [[Bukit Panjang LRT Line|Bukit Panjang]] district and in [[Zhujiang New Town Automated People Mover System|Guangzhou]], China.

Over time, the aerospace firms that had initially designed most of these systems left the industry and sold off the AGT divisions to other companies. Most of these were picked up by existing transportation conglomerates, and through additional mergers and buyouts, many of these are today owned by either [[Siemens]] or [[Bombardier Transportation|Bombardier]]. During the same period, a number of new companies entered the field with systems designed solely for these smaller installations. [[Poma]], [[DCC Doppelmayr Cable Car|Doppelmayr]] and the Leitner Group, better known for their [[ski lift]] systems, provide AGT systems for the airport market.

==Large systems==
{{See also|Medium-capacity rail system}}
[[File:TRTC VAL256 IN Wenhu Line.jpg|left|thumb|[[Taipei Metro VAL256]] train on the [[Wenhu line]] ]]
[[Image:LasVegasMonorailCC.JPG|thumb|right|[[Las Vegas Monorail]]]]
Although the smaller vehicle systems were not successful in the marketplace, larger AGT were simpler to integrate into existing mass transit systems. Many higher capacity AGT systems that looked and operated in a fashion similar to a [[Medium-capacity rail system|small subway]] have since become a common fixture of many existing metro systems, often as a way to serve outlying areas or as feeders to a metro system. [[Kobe]]'s [[Port Liner]] is the world's first mass transit AGT, which began operating in 1981. It connects Kobe's main rail station, [[Sannomiya Station]], with the dockyard areas and [[Kobe Airport]] to the south. Many similar systems have been built elsewhere in Japan. The ''[[Véhicule Automatique Léger]]'' (VAL) system in [[Lille]], [[France]], opened in 1983, is often cited as the first AGT installed to serve an existing urban area. Larger scale [[Bombardier Innovia Metro|INNOVIA advanced rapid transit]] (ART) systems in [[Scarborough RT|Toronto]], and [[Vancouver SkyTrain|Vancouver]] followed in the next few years, and then the [[Docklands Light Railway]] in [[London]]. VAL and ART systems have seen continued installations around the world such as in [[Airport Express (Beijing Subway)|Airport Express]] in Beijing and have been joined by a variety of new systems with similar features, like the [[AnsaldoBreda Driverless Metro]]. Automated monorail systems, such as the [[Bombardier Innovia|Innovia Monorail]] 200 system in [[Las Vegas Monorail|Las Vegas]], are becoming more common AGT systems. Monorails are less obtrusive because they only require a single, narrow guidebeam.

==AGT renaissance==
Once limited to larger airports and a small number of metro systems, AGT have undergone something of a renaissance since the late 1990s. Lower capital costs compared to conventional metros have allowed AGT systems to expand quickly, and many of these "small" systems now rival their larger counterparts in any measure. For instance, the [[Vancouver SkyTrain]] started operations in 1986, but has expanded so rapidly that its track length roughly matches the [[Toronto subway]] which pre-dates it by 30 years.

Although the original introduction of PRT systems did not result in the widespread adoption as expected, [[Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit]] in West Virginia's success, along with a renewed interest in new forms of transit, has led to several new PRT projects since 2000. [[London Heathrow Airport]] has installed a PRT system, known as [[ULTra]], to connect Terminal 5 with the long-term carpark; its full operation began in September 2011.

== See also ==
{{Div col}}
* [[Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit]]
* [[Automatic train operation]]
* [[Guided bus]]
* [[Medium-capacity rail system]]
* [[Roll way]]
* [[Rubber-tyred metro]]
* [[Rubber-tyred tram]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Automated trains and fixed-guideway transit}}
{{Self-driving cars and enabling technologies}}

[[Category:Automated guideway transit| ]]