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Company History

ULTra PRT, formerly known as Advanced Transport Systems, was formed as a spin-out company from the University of Bristol in 1995. The objective of the company was to design and develop a form of transport which would be the optimum form of transportation for the present Century, meeting personal transportation needs better than the car. Initial research work was centered within the University, with grants from the Science and Engineering Research Council, the Department of Transport Seedcorn programme and the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund. The work was led by Martin Lowson, Founder and former CEO of ULTra PRT. As the system developed the focus changed to a company base. ULTra PRT led the development of the systems software and simulation work.

This joint work led to the definition of a system which had strong parallels to previous work on PRT (Personal Rapid Transit).  But it also had some key differences.  In particular the system exploited the capabilities of modern IT and computing technology to move from the mechanical systems featured on older PRT designs to more flexible and lower cost electronic systems.  From the start the emphasis was always on providing the best possible transit experience for the passenger.  A second key objective was obtaining the highest possible reliability.  The project was based on the principles of “no more technology than necessary” and “everything of the shelf where possible”.

A major breakthrough for the company came in 2000, when ULTra PRT won the UK government Innovative Transport contract against 15 other competitors, including several major players in the field.  The resulting £2.7m contract funded the design and development of a full prototype ULTra system.  The work included building 4 prototype vehicles, plus two “mules”, the automatic control systems required and the creation of a 1 km test track at Cardiff which included all the features of a practical application.  The work allowed design and development of the whole ULTra system in depth.  For example, long term door and battery test programs were completed and five different vehicle control systems were tested and compared.

By far the most important achievement came in 2003 when ULTra PRT obtained a ‘letter of consent’ from the UK Regulatory Authority (HM Rail Inspectorate) to carry the public on the ULTra system. This required the completion of a complete in depth safety analysis of the system against the UK regulations. This followed earlier work, which resulted in HMRI issuing a ‘letter of no objection’ to the Concept Safety Case in August 2000.

The letter of consent allowed ATS to embark on an extensive series of trials to determine passenger response.  Passengers undertook a fully representative ULTra journey and then completed an extensive questionnaire. The results of these trials were exceptionally positive.  All the passengers (100% of those participating) found the experience either satisfactory or very satisfactory.

This work was expanded in the major EDICT project 2003-2006, which was wholly focused on PRT.  The project was centered on ULTra and involved 16 European partners.  Further passenger trials run independently under this project confirmed the earlier results. A summary of the results from these passenger trials is available.

By the end of 2004 these trials, and other demonstrations, had covered more than 500 people and provided a unanimously positive response.  This demonstrated that ATS had met its basic objective of designing a new form of personal transport which was highly attractive to those who use it. At the same time testing had been completed equivalent to 3000 trips, during which no failure or equipment breakdown was experienced, exceeding ULTra PRT’s initial reliability targets.

Heathrow Application

As a case study under the innovative transport contract, ULTra PRT undertook an in depth evaluation of an ULTra application at Heathrow in 2003.  This showed significant benefits for an application at Heathrow, demonstrating the potential for gains of over bus transit of 60% in total transfer time and 40% in operating cost.  This was shortly after an internal BAA study, which suggested that no existing form of transportation could meet the complex connectivity requirements for BAA in a cost effective way.

BAA reviewed these studies and concluded that PRT was the only practical solution for their need to improve passenger service levels at Heathrow.  The strong environmental benefits of PRT over buses were also very attractive, given the heavy environmental pressures faced by BAA.

As a result of this judgement BAA sought bids in 1995, under the EC procurement rules, for a PRT application at Heathrow.  ULTra PRT won this competition.  As a result BAA let an initial design and development contract to ULTra PRT in October 2005.  Simultaneously BAA made an investment in ULTra PRT.  This investment allowed the company to undertake the design of a production system based on the lessons learned from the prototype work.

Initial applications for Heathrow were based on a route linking from the car parks to the Central Terminal Area.  This was planned to use one of the side bore ‘taxi’ tunnels at Heathrow.  It was determined that four separate ULTra tracks could be fitted into this space compared to the single existing one way road.  After considerable detail analysis, including clearance of issues involved in running in a tunnel, it was decided to change the location of the initial scheme.  This was to link the Terminal 5 business car park to the new Terminal 5, which was already under construction.

BAA let a contract to ULTra PRT for this scheme in June 2006.  Ground breaking for the footings for the first columns occurred in January 2007.  ULTra PRT are principal contractor for the whole system at Heathrow.  ULTra PRT also operate the system.

ULTra PRT selected ARRK to design and manufacture the prototype vehicle against the ULTra PRT specification, which drew on the whole experience of the prototype development work.  The first production vehicle was delivered to Cardiff for testing on August 2007.  At the same time ULTra PRT undertook further development of both the central and vehicle control systems to meet the expanded requirements of the full production system.  Changes were also made to the Cardiff test site to allow testing to be more representative of the Heathrow application.

A major milestone was reached with the “first flight” of the production vehicle on the completed guideway on September 21st 2008. The “topping out” ceremony which marked the handover of the system for operational testing occurred on July 7 2009.

In August 2009 ULTra was featured at the Science Museum as the 21st Century equivalent of Stephenson's Rocket, the first commercially successful steam locomotive, which launched the railway era, 180 years before.  ULTra PRT look forward to a future in which the ULTra system has launched a new form of transport which will have equivalent benefits for people in the present century.