Last month when heading to the airport to travel to IFA in Berlin I was surprised to find a cool new way of getting from the car park to the terminal – the ULTra pod!
It was a bit like a ride at Disney World – you walk up to a station, a pod arrives, you get in and press the close button, then press the start button and away you go. You are whisked away and in minutes you arrive at the terminal. It was very cool!
Here is how they describe the system:
In summer 2011 the first public ULTra system — which is also the first commercial PRT system anywhere in the world — will open at London’s Heathrow Airport. Commissioned by BAA (formerly the British Airport Authority) the system comprises some 4 kilometers of guideway and will link one station in Terminal 5 to two remote stations in the Business car park.
The first phase of the ULTra network opens in summer 2011. It consists of 21 vehicles, two stations in the N3 Business Car Park and one station at Terminal 5.
An ULTra vehicle at Heathrow.
A single journey in either direction takes about 5-6 minutes and travels along approximately 1.2 miles (1.9km) of one-way guideway. For the majority of the trip to and from Terminal 5, the guideway structure consists of two lanes running in opposite directions separated by a central kerb, as shown on the right. This configuration gives the guideway a very small footprint, allowing ULTra to be installed within the very tight constraints posed by the present airport infrastructure.
And here is a short video I took on it:
Have you been on it yet? Tell us what you think!
