Date: 28 Sep 2009

Beamways AB info@beamways.com Westmansgatan 29 www.beamways.com

SE-582 16 Linköping T. +46 (0)13-465 10 85 Sweden

News letter, September 2009

A few months have passed since the previous news letter. The interest for PRT is growing

rapidly, with new interest sprouting in many places. Below the most important events during

the period are summarized.

For more information please visit www.beamways.com

Beamways’ Podcar study for Uppsala is finalized

Beamways has together with TriVector Traffic studied two possible future transit systems for

the City of Uppsala which is Sweden’s fifth with about 250 000 inhabitants. In the project we

have designed a Podcar network for the entire city and simulated how it can cope with rush

hour loads including the great rise in transit ridership predicted by the City. In this scenario 17

000 people utilize the system in the rush hour, out of which 6000 board or debark at the railway

station, commuting to or from nearby Stockholm and other surrounding areas.

Compared to the alternative system which consists of four tram lines and six bus lines the

Podcar system measures up well, with a mean travel time door to door of 17 minutes compared

to 23 minutes for the competing system. The total cost for the City is estimated to be about the

same, with operating cost higher for the tram/bus system and the investment amortization

higher for the PRT system. The reason that the investment for the tram system is lower than for

PRT is that TriVector has calculated with a rather low cost of about 50 million SEK per km,

($10 million per mile). This cost can be compared to the first two parts of the Stockholm tram

system built around 2000, at 200 million SEK per km and the new part being built now at over

400 million per km.

Now Uppsala has also procured two additional studies, one to calculate the possible ridership

attraction and the other a cost-benefit analysis of the two contrasted systems.

Our complete report (in Swedish, illustrated) is available here:

http://beamways.com/file/Rapport_Framtida_kollektivtrafiksystem_i_Uppsala_skickad_090911

.pdf

Date: 28 Sep 2009

Beamways AB info@beamways.com Westmansgatan 29 www.beamways.com

SE-582 16 Linköping T. +46 (0)13-465 10 85 Sweden

A brief summary in English is available here:

http://beamways.com/file/uppsala%20report%20translated%20brief.pdf

Two new master theses started

Beamways has started two pairs of master thesis workers off this fall. The first ones work with

dynamic simulation of a suspended PRT system using computer tools, while the other ones

perform a market oriented study including a survey. Some of you may be contacted by Robin

and Erik for an interview.

See you at Podcar City 3 in Malmö

Beamways will of course participate in the third annual Podcar City conference in Malmö,

Sweden. Please register as soon as possible, if you haven’t already:

http://www.podcar.org/cop15

The Swedish government’s Podcar Study finished

The investigation about Podcars and the possibility to install pioneering tracks is finished. The

conclusions are that there are several possible vendors and several interesting cities where

planning has commenced sufficiently. The suggestion from the investigator is for the

government to appoint Swedish Rail (Banverket, the state-owned entity that develops and

maintains all Swedish railroad tracks) to be responsible for the continued project and that the

the next logical step is to perform pre-planning at the four most interested areas, which are

Uppsala, Södertälje, Umeå and “via Academica” a part of Stockholm which has most of the

higher education but lacks adequate public transit between the parts.

The main report is the second link in the web page below, an English summary starts on page

25. According to the press conference a complete English translation will be published later on.

http://banportalen.banverket.se/banportalen/templates/bvSubPage.aspx?id=2302&epslanguage=

SV

Several of the mainstream media in Sweden reported about the study on the day of its release,

including the main news cast of the major TV channel . The most important daily papers like

“Dagens Nyhterer”, “Svenska Dagbladet” and “Expressen” also ran stories about the study, as

well as, of course, most of the local papers in the concerned cities.

Date: 28 Sep 2009

Beamways AB info@beamways.com Westmansgatan 29 www.beamways.com

SE-582 16 Linköping T. +46 (0)13-465 10 85 Sweden

At least three of the newspapers had on line polls. The results of these were generally positive

to 2/3, except for a 50/50 stake in Södertälje’s local poll.

The report is now out to all affected government agencies and other stakeholder on a

commenting round which continues until December 18. The compilation of these comments

will be revealed at transport forum in Linköping, January 2010.

San Jose looks for consultants

San Jose has issued a RFP for a FFRDC to help them keep track of the ATN (Automatic Transit

Network) project throughout its lifetime. A second RFP for a consultant or consortium of

consultants for designing a pilot network and preparing the final RFP for the actual system will

be issued soon.

More cities in California show interest in PRT

The Cities of Mountain View and Milpitas, both close to San Jose in the southern end of Silicon

Valley show interest in Podcar systems. The Silicon Valley area has a severe traffic situation

and of course has made a name for itself for innovation. Maybe it is here that PRT first takes

hold as a city wide network?

Vectus signs agreement about PRT system in Korea

According to a news clip Vectus has signed a memorandum of understanding to create a PRT

system in a city Suncheon in the south of Korea. According to the article the track system is 5

km and will be serviced by 40 vehicles running at 60 km/h (38 mph). The track is to take

visitors to an international gardening fair and is to open in 2013.

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2910573