San Jose studying autonomous pods between Amtrak & airport

[joelkfla]

https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/04...ose-airport-major-transit-plan-moves-forward/
https://www.masstransitmag.com/alt-...national-airport-autonomous-shuttle-connector

 

[AmtrakMaineiac]

Sigh. Another Gadgetbahn. Why not a proper APM like every other airport in the country?

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

The pods at Heathrow that serve one of the remote parking areas look pretty cool. It might actually be an appropriate solution (though I wonder how they could be abused or how safe they would be as effectively public transit).

 

[jiml]

 

[b1xn00d]

Sigh. Another Gadgetbahn. Why not a proper APM like every other airport in the country?

$500M for the pods vs. ~$2B for a tram, per the article. If the pods have enough capacity, why not? Trains scale better but it's not like this was ever going to be extended to a nearby downtown.
Why it costs billions of dollars to build a short tramway is another discussion.

 

[cirdan]

It would be

$500M for the pods vs. ~$2B for a tram, per the article. If the pods have enough capacity, why not? Trains scale better but it's not like this was ever going to be extended to a nearby downtown.
Why it costs billions of dollars to build a short tramway is another discussion.

It would be interesting to see not just the construction costs but also operating and lifecycle costs, plus the penalty of being locked in with a single supplier of an untested technology.