Transit X
Transit X is an transportation infrastructure company founded in 2015. The company proposes to construct privately-funded transportation networks based on personal rapid transit pods running on an exclusive guideway. In a video on the company's website, founder Mike Stanley says a portable prototype system will be completed by 2018.1
The system uses carbon fiber reinforced polymer vehicles (pods) suspended 14 feet above the street or sidewalk. There are three vehicle types: a "car" holding up to "3 large adults, or up to 6 children", a "roll-on" vehicle that can accommodate a wheelchair or carry large items, and a "cargo pod" that delivers one standard-sized (48-inch by 40-inch) pallet weighing up to 800 pounds. Vehicles have solid polyurethane wheels, not tires, rolling on steel rails mounted inside hollow fiber-composite beams that are supported by a fiber-composite pole every 75 feet. Propulsion is from brushless electric motors powered by onboard batteries that are recharged while the vehicles are parked. Solar panels above the tracks charge batteries inside the support poles. Since vehicles need to be charged before peak load periods, whether or not there is enough energy stored, the handbook says that grid power will be used when needed, with unneeded solar power fed back at other times to make the system net carbon-neutral.
The proposed maximum speed is along roads and along highways and railways. The energy efficiency of the vehicles is estimated to be 0.24 L/100 km or 1000 MPGe. If achieved, this would be 10x more efficient than the 2010 Automotive X Prize requirement of 100 MPGe (21 kWh or 2.35 liters of gasoline/100 kilometer)
The station design is for small, modular, elevated platforms that are at least 80 meters apart. Like other PRT systems, the guideway at the platform will be on a loop off the main line, allowing for travel on demand and non-stop from origin to destination.
The theoretical maximum capacity of a single track is 20,000 passengers per hour per direction. However, this calculation assumes a 1-second headway between "trains" of 6 vehicles bunched together. It is unclear how realistic these numbers are; for instance, no currently-operating PRT systems offers headways less than four seconds.
Further information
See Also
- Personal Rapid Transit
- List of automated transit networks suppliers