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People mover

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Singapore's LRT system is considered a people mover system.

A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a fully automated, grade-separated transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks, but is sometimes applied to considerably more complex automated systems.

The term does not imply any particular technology, and a people mover may use technologies such as monorail, duorail, automated guideway transit or maglev. Propulsion may involve conventional on-board electric motors, linear motors or cable traction.

Some complex APMs deploy fleets of small vehicles over a track network with off-line stations, and supply near non-stop service to passengers. These taxi-like systems are more usually referred to as personal rapid transit (PRT). Other complex APMs have similar characteristics to mass transit systems, and there is no clear cut distinction between a complex APM of this type and an automated mass transit system.

History

One of the first people movers was the Never Stop Railway, constructed for the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, London in 1924. This railway consisted of 88 unmanned carriages circling the exhibition. The carriages ran on narrow gauge track, and were propelled by a gripping a revolving screw thread running between the tracks; by adjusting the pitch of this thread at different points in the track the carriages could be speeded up, or slowed down to a slow walking pace in stations to allow passengers to join and leave. The railway ran for the two years of the exhibition and was then dismantled.[1]

The term 'people mover' was coined somewhat later by Walt Disney, when he and his Imagineers were working on the new 1967 Tomorrowland at Disneyland. The name was used as a working title for a new attraction, the PeopleMover. According to Imagineer Bob Gurr, "the name got stuck," and it was no longer a working title.

The world's first airport people mover was installed in 1971 at Tampa International Airport in the United States. APMs have now become common at large airports and progressive hospitals in the United States.

Driverless metros have become common in Europe and parts of Asia. The economics of automated trains tend to reduce the scale so tied to "mass" transit, so that small-scale installations are feasible. Thus cities normally thought of as too small to build a metro (e.g. Rennes, Lausanne, Brescia, etc.) are now doing so.

On September 30, 2006, the Peachliner in Komaki, Aichi Prefecture, Japan became that nation's first people mover to cease operations.

Examples

File:MiamiMetromover.jpg
Metromover trams in Downtown Miami, Florida
Rokko Liner, Kobe, Japan
New-Tram, Osaka, Japan

Urban transit

Airport

Air-Rail Link at Birmingham International Airport, UK
An underground people mover station at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport

Many people movers operate at airports and some also connect with other public transport systems. Airport examples include:

Other

Different meanings

The term people mover is sometimes used to refer to moving sidewalks. The name People Mover is also used by:

See also

References

  1. ^ "Exhibiting the Empire". The Tribune, Chandigarh. Retrieved November 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
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