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80-473: After 30 years of service the system's 1970s technology was no longer adequate for the expanding airport's needs, and in 2005 it was replaced by the current Skylink system. While most of the system was auctioned and sold for scrap, some guideways and stations (some of which are still open to the public) remain. Airtrans moved nearly 5 million people in its first year of operation; by the end of its life it had served over 250 million passengers. Airtrans technology

160-514: A monorail . Twenty-four vehicles were purchased for the system, sometimes operating in four-car trains during periods of increased demand. Known as the Toronto Zoo Domain Ride , the system opened in 1976. In March 1991 nine people were injured when two trains collided. In spite of a warning that major maintenance was needed to fix problems in the brakes and motors, in 1994 another accident occurred that injured thirty. The zoo

240-419: A 99.8% in-service record. In 1989 the vehicles were refurbished to improve maintenance and cleaning operations. When Airtrans made its debut, it used eight-track cartridges for its announcements; the audio system was later upgraded to a cassette system, and still later to a digital voice synthesizer . The system was originally installed in an era of very different security concerns, and operated on both sides of

320-418: A disabled vehicle to be removed from the guideway and towed to the maintenance facility. The guideway was uni-directional, with all vehicles traveling around the airport in a counter-clockwise direction. The top of the guideway walls contained rails that steered the vehicles. Small urethane wheels on either side of the vehicle engaged the rail and were mechanically linked to a conventional steering suspension on

400-409: A fence and no automatic doors preventing access to the electrified guideway. The North (1W) and South (5E) Remote Parking areas each contained two stations; an additional station served the airport hotel. These stations consisted of two platforms on either side of a single guideway: an enclosed passenger station and an exposed employee station. Transfer to either side of the guideway was accommodated by

480-588: A future Terminal F if it is built. Dashaveyor The Dashaveyor was an automated guideway transit (AGT) system developed during the 1960s and '70s. Originally developed by the Dashaveyor Company for moving cargo, the system used motorized pallets that could be routed on the fly to any destination in an extended network. The pallets could run at high speeds between stations, climb steep grades at slower speeds, and even climb vertically. They were designed to replace several manned vehicles with

560-1269: A guideway when American Airlines expanded to that terminal. This new service resulted in termination of the Airtrans cargo service, as all cargo vehicles were converted to passenger vehicles. In the final year of operation (2005), Airtrans consisted of the following routes (in order of travel): Airport Train Red: North Remote Parking Stations B & A; Terminal B (2W) Stations C, B, A; Terminal C (3E) Station B; Terminal A (2E) Station C & A. Airport Train Green : Terminal B (2W) Stations C, B, A; Terminal C (3E) Station B; Terminal A (2E) Station C & A. Airport Train Yellow: Terminal B (2W) Stations C, B, A; Terminal E (4E) Stations C, B, A; Terminal C (3E) Station B; Terminal A (2E) Station C & A. American Airlines TrAAin: Terminal C (3E) Gates C17-C39, Gates C1-C16; Terminal A (2E) Gates A19-A39, Gates A1-A18; Terminal B (2W) Gates B1-B10. Airport Employee Train : Two routes connecting all terminals with North Remote or South Remote Parking. In 1977,

640-506: A nearby service road. The Airtrans vehicles were 21 feet (6.4 m) long, 7 feet (2.1 m) wide, and 10 feet (3.0 m) high and had an empty weight of 14,000 lbs. The chassis was based on a large electrically powered bus , built of steel and running on foam-filled tires with air-bag suspensions. A linkage between the front and rear wheels provided four-wheel steering. Passenger vehicles contained longitudinal seating for up to 16 passengers and standing room for up to 24 people (for

720-601: A network of tracks. Most competing AGT systems operated at a fixed speed that was much lower than the Dashaveyor, and normally followed fixed routes. They purchased the company and turned it into a subsidiary, developing the AGT versions in Ann Arbor, Michigan . Conversion to an AGT system was relatively straightforward. The steel wheels were replaced with rubber ones, which ran in a narrow concrete guideway structure instead of

800-407: A new PRT design. The Dallas/Fort Worth Airport had recently started construction, and a people mover was one of their requirements. The airport consisted of four semi-circular terminal areas arranged in a line with large parking lots on either ends of the line, and two hotel towers in the middle. It was miles from one end to the other, so some form of rapid transit was needed to move people around

880-414: A number of fixed routes throughout the airport. Each route could be modified using different stations, guideways and vehicle configurations. Conversion of the system to offer point-to-point service like a true group rapid transit system was considered but not implemented, although all stations contained bypass tracks or vehicles could proceed through lower-demand stations without stopping. The flexibility of

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960-469: A rigorous testing period. It was opened to the public on May 21, 2005, and is completely automated. Skylink trains run every two minutes and travel at speeds up to 35–37 mph (56–60 km/h) . In 2015, after a decade of service, Skylink had transported over 141 million people and traveled over 32.4 million fleet miles (52.1 million kilometres). The Skylink system operates airside at DFW, mostly serving passengers connecting between flights, and

1040-673: A sheltered elevated or below-station walkway. At the time of opening, Airtrans routes consisted of five passenger routes (three inter-terminal, two remote parking) and four employee routes (directly connecting one terminal to one remote parking station). On-demand cargo service served various cargo stations located at the terminals. Two air-mail routes were put in service for the U.S. Postal Service, but they were soon terminated when demand outpaced capacity and equipment did not interface well. In 1991 American Airlines built 2 new stations each in Terminals A (2E) and C (3E) for $ 38 million as part of

1120-545: A single Airtrans passenger train slammed into the back of a two-car employee train, injuring nine people. The vehicle was under manual control to bypass a malfunctioning section of guideway in the South Remote Parking Lot. Two deaths related to Airtrans occurred in September 1977. A teenager was killed after jumping on top of a vehicle from a restricted retaining wall and falling to the guideway, where he

1200-559: A single automated one, controlled from a central operating station. One such system was installed and operated at the White Pine mine from 1968 to 1972, but was considered a failure. Bendix Corporation purchased the rights to the basic Dashaveyor system in order to use it as the basis for an AGT system during the heyday of urban transport research in the late 1960s. Often referred to as the Bendix-Dashaveyor in this form,

1280-414: A solution, but as they traveled in traffic their speeds were not comparable to separated rail systems. They key appeared to be to use smaller vehicles, which reduced the size of the entire system; stations, tracks and switches all took up less room and cost less to build. However, smaller vehicles also have lower passenger capacities, a problem for rush hour periods. In the 1960s a solution to this problem

1360-413: A third) and elevators to upper level ticketing/baggage claim. In early years of operation entry to the station was gained by placing a quarter in and passing through entry turnstiles. An employee station for each terminal section was located on a separate guideway adjacent to the terminal's ramp area, and screened from passenger view. These stations were more primitive, containing an outdoor waiting area with

1440-422: A total of 40). The bodywork was made of acrylic-coated fiberglass and an automatic door was located on only one side. Across from the door a raised area provided room for hand luggage while hiding the manual controls. Emergency exits were located on each end of the vehicle. The passenger vehicles could be coupled to form 2- (or later) 3-car trains. The bi-directional motor could be switched and the car repositioned on

1520-531: A total of 64 Innovia APM 200 vehicles, coupled together into two car trains. Each Skylink vehicle can accommodate up to 69 passengers and their carry-on luggage. The Innovia APM 200 technology is also used at London Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 as well as the PHX Sky Train . The audio announcements on SkyLink are provided by local voice-over artist Doc Morgan. The concrete and steel guideway for Skylink, elevated at an average of 50 feet (15 m),

1600-420: A total of 97 million miles (156 million kilometres) over the lifetime of its fleet. As DFW became a large connecting hub for flights, Airtrans was noted for being slow with its top speed of 17 mph (27 km/h) and following a uni-directional counter-clockwise loop located inside security for Terminals A, B, and C and outside security to other areas, was inefficient in moving passengers. The system

1680-430: A traction gear that engaged rack gears between the running rails that allowed them to climb high grades at lower speeds. Optional elevator -like systems allowed the cars to move vertically as well. The idea was to build an offshore terminal with docks equipped with Dashaveyor tracks instead of a conventional container shipping port on land. An operator would load containers onto Dashaveyor cars, which would then enter

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1760-536: A tunnel to move them at high speed to the shore. There they would exit the tunnel and automatically drive the container to its storage location, and optionally lift it to stack them. In a Dashaveyor equipped port, a single vehicle would pick up, move and stack the containers. Normally each of these steps required a separate, manned, vehicle. Additionally, the ships never had to enter port, which had major advantages in terms of siting and construction. The system would also be useful for similar roles where any sort of freight

1840-477: Is inaccessible to those who have not cleared security. Skylink operates trains 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The system is double-tracked and both tracks are operational between 5 am and midnight. Between midnight and 5 am, one track may be taken out of operation to allow for maintenance. The system has crossovers between the Terminal D stations and the Terminal E stations. There are also pocket tracks in

1920-517: Is longer). Skylink was developed as a replacement for the Airtrans (part of which was later operated as American Airlines' TrAAin System), the airport's original people mover system that connected airport facilities and parking lots. It served the airport for 31 years from 1974 to 2005 and transported a quarter of a billion passengers between DFW's then four terminals and employee facilities, logging

2000-638: The Vietnam War and Project Apollo , leaving the aerospace industry with a sudden lack of projects. Many of the HUD research funds were directed towards aerospace companies, and a wide variety of AGT programs followed. One of these companies was the Bendix Corporation , who found the Dashaveyor concept and decided it would make the basis for a competitive AGT system. Its main advantages in this role were its high speed and its ability to switch among

2080-412: The suburbs expanded and caused a flight of capital out of the cities. The only cities that were combatting this were the ones with effective mass transit systems; cities like New York City and Boston , where the utility of the subway was greater than a car. However, these solutions were extremely expensive to develop, well beyond the budgets of smaller cities or the suburbs of larger ones. Through

2160-453: The 1960s there was a growing movement in urban planning circles that the solution was the personal rapid transit system, small automated vehicles that were much less expensive to develop. At the same time, as Project Apollo wound down and President Richard Nixon started disengaging from the Vietnam War , there was considerable concern in the aerospace industry that the 1970s and 1980s would be lean times. The highly automated operation

2240-462: The Airtrans baggage handling system was never used in operations. Likewise, the mail handling services were demonstrated at the "Air Mail Facility", but the USPS declined to use it as they felt it was too demanding in that it required their employees to interface with an automatic system. An incinerator was built for trash handling, but never worked properly and was never put into use. Instead, trash from

2320-499: The GO-Urban decision. For the zoo deployment, a greatly simplified operating system was needed. Since the schedules were relatively slow, on the order of 10 minutes between trains, the automated system was not needed. The cars were modified to place a small operator cabin at the front of some of them, entered through a separate door. Trains normally operated in four-car units, with the cabins facing front and rear. The rear-facing cabin

2400-488: The I-beam rails. The guideway was roughly the size and shape of a pedestrian sidewalk, with short vertical extension on either side to form a U-shape. Small horizontal wheels at the front of the cars pressed against the vertical sections and guided the main wheels around corners. Power was provided via a third rail system attached to the top of the right vertical extension (as seen in the direction of travel). The vehicle body

2480-524: The PRT systems required, along with the project management needed to build a large mass transit system, was a natural fit for the aerospace companies, and by the late 1970s many were working on PRT systems. In 1970 LTV joined these efforts, when the Vice President of Engineering formed a study team to investigate ground transportation systems. They sketched out a system using off-the-shelf hardware to build

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2560-809: The airport had budgeted, and the companies were asked to re-submit. Varo declined, and sold their interest in Monocab to Rohr, Inc. , which later re-emerged as the Rohr ROMAG . LTV decided to submit their original design for the May 1971 deadline, developing their guideway to match existing highway specifications and construction techniques as a way to lower costs. Since they had no time to develop prototype hardware, they instead backed up their proposal with an extensive computer simulation of full operations. Westinghouse and Dashaveyor (Bendix) also entered designs, but LTV's simulation proved decisive and they were announced as

2640-530: The airport's main roads, stations can still be found in the employee parking lot, and Terminals B and C still have guideways running underneath them, though access to the stations has been restricted, and some portions have been converted to use as a baggage handling system . A complex of support facilities, including an intact car wash , is still standing in the southwestern part of the airport's property as of January 2021, where four preserved Airtrans passenger cars (40, 42, 48, and 31) can be seen parked outside from

2720-464: The cars to climb higher graded areas. The cars sat between the rails, hanging down between them, with doors on top that opened and closed automatically to keep the ore from falling out when in motion. Major portions of the network were enclosed in rectangular tubes to protect them from the elements, especially snow. The cars could be loaded at 5 mph (8.0 km/h) without stopping, and traveled at up to 52 mph (84 km/h) on straight sections of

2800-457: The complex. DFW wanted the system to transport not only people, but mail, trash, supplies, and baggage as well. Varo Corp. had recently purchased the Monocab concept from its private developer and were pitching the system to DFW. LTV was asked to join them in a joint proposal, which was submitted late in 1970, along with two others from different providers. However, all three were over the price

2880-637: The earliest major sales efforts for the Dashaveyor AGT was a system for the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport . Bendix and Varo both received parts of a $ 1 million grant from the new Urban Mass Transit Administration to study the system. Both bids came in well over the airport's budget, and in the end it was won by the Vought Airtrans . A similar system for Newark International Airport ended when

2960-611: The embossing machines used to produce the BankAmericard, the first plastic bank credit card system, which later evolved into Visa . Dashew moved into the area of offshore oil loading in the 1960s, and was instrumental in the creation of the single-point mooring systems used in modern terminals, as well as the omnidirectional thrusters used to maneuver the ships up to the moors. As a part of these developments, Dashew became interested in using similar offshore mooring to handle bulk freight as well, especially container shipping which

3040-434: The employee side doors to the opposite side of the platform, then sending in some of the cars "backwards" so the doors were on the other side. With this change the new routes became the "Employee Train", while the passenger side became the "Airport Train". Another modification was added between 1990 and 1991 to service American Airlines passengers moving between terminals 3E and 2E (today known as Terminals A & C), known as

3120-516: The entire project was put on hold. In 1972, the company displayed the Dashaveyor as one of four major deployments shown at the Transpo '72 show in Washington, D.C. Like the other vendors, Bendix found little third-party interest in the AGT market, and was one of the first vendors to withdraw from the market, inactive by 1975. Bendix had found a customer willing to act as a prototype site,

3200-505: The existing DFW guideways at increased speeds, and used the information collected to determine what changes would need to be made to provide this performance in an operational setting. Several changes were needed; the power collection arms that pressed against the wires on the track side had to be modified to a design originally considered for the DFW system, the steering had to be upgraded in order to switch quickly enough, and to improve energy use,

3280-409: The exterior with orange and yellow interiors, matching the color scheme of the airport. In 1989 the cars were refurbished, resulting in a blue and white theme and more durable interiors. Guideways were made of concrete and based on highway construction techniques. The varying topography of the airport resulted in both aerial and ground level guideways winding their way over and under public roadways. As

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3360-433: The guideway entered the semicircular terminals or remote parking areas, it remained at ground/ramp level and under the terminal building. At these terminal areas the guideway branched out to serve various stations, bypass tracks and vehicle storage sidings. Additional bypass guideways were constructed as the airport expanded. At several locations along the guideway tug sidings were located near the airport service road, allowing

3440-427: The guideway to provide a right-opening or left-opening door. For cargo vehicles, the passenger bodywork was replaced with a flatbed containing three powered conveyor belts for loading cargo, sized to handle three LD3 containers. Vehicles operated with five blocks (consisting of 90 feet (27 m) each) of guideway between vehicles. Full speed was allowed in the first, reduced speeds in the next two, and full stop in

3520-414: The last two. The vehicles required 165 feet (50 m) to stop completely. These large headways reduced passenger capacity and required multiple vehicles to make up for this. Operations were normally handled by two operators in the control center. Vehicles were equipped with two-way communications to allow passengers to talk to the operators in an emergency. The vehicles were originally painted brown on

3600-404: The main wheels. Switching was provided by switching bars on either side of the guideway that raised or lowered to trap one of the two sets of guidance wheels under them. The switch was adapted from existing fail-safe switches used on railways. Power was supplied in three-phase form at 480 VAC through three conductor strips on the guideway wall. Below the conductors was a common ground, and above it

3680-424: The modern secure/insecure line. The insecure side was used by passengers moving between the terminals and to and from the parking lots, the secure side for employees moving around the airport and for cargo services (when they were used). This forced employees to transit through security when moving to and from the line when new security arrangements were added. A solution to this problem was easily implemented by moving

3760-443: The mooring points were so far offshore that the movement from the ship to the land-side terminal would be a significant delay. The system they designed operated at speeds up to 80 mph (130 km/h) in order to reduce these delays. A variety of options were available to improve flexibility. The cars were normally powered by two electric motors spinning steel wheels that ran on steel rails at high speeds, but could optionally include

3840-425: The nearby mill. They reached an agreement with Dashaveyor in 1966 to install a pilot system, and when this proved successful, the two companies signed a contract for a complete system. Starting in 1967, workers laid 27,000 feet (8,200 m) of guideway rail for about $ 2.5 million. The rails consisted of two I-beams for the running wheels, with an optional rack gear on the bottom that could be engaged to allow

3920-510: The new Toronto Zoo that would be opening in 1974. The zoo covered 700 acres (2.8 km ), which made walking the site a difficult proposition. Boeing also entered a bid based on their new version of the Alden staRRcar . At the same time, the provincial government was in the midst of planning a major AGT system known as GO-Urban , and Bendix was one of many companies to bid for that project. The Zoo system would be an excellent demonstration for

4000-415: The new "TrAAm" (later, "TrAAin" service). The modern stations, built adjacent to employee stations on the secure ramp side, allowed connecting passengers to transfer between American's terminals without exiting security to use the inter-terminal airport train. These stations provided escalator service directly to the terminal gate areas. A fifth TrAAin station serving Terminal B (2W) was later constructed along

4080-472: The new vehicles also featured regenerative braking . A non-mechanical steering system reading a ferrous stripe in the center of the guideway was also tried, but abandoned as not necessary for speeds up to 30 mph. Nothing ever came of these proposals, and LTV exited the AGT market. Despite being abandoned in 2005, a significant amount of the Airtrans infrastructure still exists on the airport property. Long sections of untouched guideways still exist next to

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4160-534: The next day. In 1976 Vought was awarded a $ 7 million contract by the Urban Mass Transit Administration to study modifications needed to produce a version of Airtrans suitable for mass transit applications. Changes were aimed primarily at increasing the speed from 17 to 30 mph, along with changes to reduce capital costs of implementing systems. Vought used one of the production cargo vehicles as an instrumented testbed, running it on

4240-527: The ore to the original shaft. The new shaft was used for ventilation after this point. In 1968 the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published a series of reports, known simply as the HUD reports , that described the problems in modern cities due to the rapid expansion of suburbs in the 1950s. The rise of the suburbs led to a flight of capital from the city centres, which in turn led to

4320-437: The original contract specifications, Airtrans was originally built to support both freight and passenger service. Inter-terminal baggage was handled by 89 LD3 containers , which were loaded on a series of semi-automated conveyor belt systems at each terminal. During construction the airport demanded a lower required time for inter-terminal handling, and a different system had to be installed that could meet these increased speeds -

4400-410: The sections of the guideway that cross International Parkway . The longest trip between farthest stations is 9 minutes with an average 5 minute journey. This allows most passengers to make a connection from any one flight to another in around seven minutes, not including walking time to and from the stations. The train supports a minimum airline connection time of 30 minutes. The Skylink system uses

4480-421: The system resulted in routes that changed often to serve different airline and passenger needs. While initially planned for "origin and destination" traffic, the system was modified to move connecting passengers (although never very effectively due to its uni-directional operation). The initial service specifications allowed for a maximum inter-terminal trip of 20 minutes, and 30 minutes to remote parking. Airtrans

4560-463: The system used the basic design of the cargo system, but with a larger passenger body running on rubber wheels. Only one such system was installed, the 5 km long Toronto Zoo Domain Ride which operated from 1976 until a lack of proper maintenance led to an accident that forced its closure in 1994. The Dashaveyor concept started with Stanley Dashew , a prolific inventor who is best known for building

4640-409: The system, one piece at a time. Wiring and electronic components were moved inside the Airtrans cars; they had been exposed to weather under the cars. Circuit boards were replaced with microchips. After fifteen years of continual improvement, the system emerged as a paragon of reliability. At its peak in 1987, the system carried 23,000 passengers a day. In 1988, now operating 24 hours, the system achieved

4720-454: The terminals was moved on the existing passenger vehicles after hours. In the end, only the supplies facility would use the cargo vehicles, operating with great success until 1991 when increased demands for passenger services forced the cargo vehicles to be converted to passenger bodies. In service, the Airtrans system had a number of unexpected problems. The system was originally designed for typical Dallas weather, which rarely sees snow, and it

4800-421: The time. A more serious problem was the budget. Originally bid at $ 34 million, a series of problems led Vought to declare a $ 22.6 million loss on the project. Upon the opening of the airport in 1974, the Airtrans system consisted of 13 miles of single lane guideway with 53 stations across the airport. Initially it carried 68 train vehicles. In addition, all vehicles were equipped with voice communication between

4880-436: The track. Cars were normally linked to form small trains to increase route capacity, but could be detached to operate independently, all under the control of a single operator. In 1972 Copper Range stated that "Design problems could not be solved" and that they were ending experiments with the system. This left the mine with no way to haul the ore from the new shaft to the mill, and they fell back on underground systems to bring

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4960-401: The vehicle and the central dispatch. TV surveillance was installed in passenger and employee station areas. An automatic wash facility was available for all vehicles. In its first two years, the system carried over 5.6 million passengers over 6.4 million vehicle miles without major accidents or fatalities. Two workmen were injured by a vehicle while working in the guideway. In accordance with

5040-509: The widespread urban decay seen in the 1960s. The reports noted that cities with well-developed mass transportation systems avoided the worse of these problems. However, these systems were very expensive, and were only suitable for the densely populated areas of large cities. The reports called for a government-supported development project to design mass transit systems with greatly reduced capital and operating costs, making them suitable for less-dense environments. Busses and streetcars offered

5120-512: The winner on 2 August 1971. The contract stipulated that the system had to be operational on 13 July 1973. Construction of the Airtrans guideway took place almost on-schedule, which turned out to be better than the airport itself. When DFW opened in January 1974, Airtrans, which had been heralded as "people mover of the future,' quickly fell short of expectations. Originally operating between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., it worked reliably only 56 percent of

5200-412: The “TrAAin" or "AAirtrans Express". An additional crossover connecting east and west sides of the airport was added to the system in 1997 and 1998. As the original lifetime of the vehicles approached, DFW started studying replacing the system. As LTV had long exited the transit business, and no other companies offered similar AGT systems that could be adapted to the existing network, an entirely new system

5280-413: Was an inductive loop used for signalling. Mechanical "feelers" extending from the corners of the vehicle with brushes on their ends engaged the conductors. Power was rectified and fed into a DC motor, which was attached to a conventional differential and then to the wheels at one end. The motor was bi-directional and was switched depending on the vehicle's direction of travel. Airtrans was operated over

5360-455: Was becoming practical; using automated guideway transit (AGT) technologies, the cars could be made to run much closer together to improve capacity. Their small size and lack of a driver would improve economics; payrolls amount to 60% to 70% of the operating costs of traditional transportation systems. When funding was announced in 1968, the US was in the midst of winding down construction for both

5440-532: Was being moved from point to point using custom vehicles; the company advertised the system for mining, trans-shipping, large factory automation and warehousing. In 1965 the Copper Range company decided to dig a new shaft at their White Pine mine in Michigan. Copper Range was involved in a number of different technology projects, and for the new shaft they decided to experiment with automated ore hauling to

5520-435: Was built to serve 53 passenger, employee and service stations around the airport, 33 of those for passengers and employees. Each terminal contained 3 passenger stations corresponding to that terminal's section (for example, Terminal 2E Section 1) located adjacent to the lower level terminal drive. These passenger stations contained an enclosed waiting area, destination signage, two sets of bi-parting automatic doors (with room for

5600-568: Was constructed above the terminals on 375 columns in a 4.81-mile-long (7.74 km) bi-directional loop. The inner track travels clockwise and the outer track travels counter-clockwise. Each of the five terminals contains two stations which are accessed on the secure (air) side. Unlike the previous Airtrans APM system, Skylink only connects terminals and does not travel to the airport's parking lots or rental car facility. The stations contain four sets of doors on each platform for entrance and exiting of passengers. Two more stations can be constructed for

5680-526: Was decommissioned soon after Skylink opened as a modern replacement and the old guideways were left in place throughout the airport. Skylink guideway construction began in the fall of 1999 and took place with limited interruption of aircraft traffic. Contractors worked during overnight hours for 3 years – when airline gates were unused – arriving on site, completing work and removing equipment each morning before returning gates to an airline. The system made its public debut on June 25, 2004, where it then began

5760-642: Was donated to the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas, Texas , and Cars #30 and #82 were donated to North Texas Historic Transportation in Fort Worth, Texas . During the early 1960s there was growing concern in the United States about the effects of urban sprawl and the resulting urban decay that followed. Major cities across the country were watching their downtown cores turn into ghost towns as

5840-421: Was expected that the normal operations would keep the guideway clear when snow did fall. In operation, snow and ice proved to be a serious problem, but a detailed study on ways to keep the system clear demonstrated it would be less expensive to provide truck services during those rare periods. Additionally, maintaining the vehicles proved more difficult than expected, but DFW's transportation department kept updating

5920-412: Was expected to be deployed in similar mass transit systems around the US. In Japan , the system was licensed by a consortium formed between Niigata Engineering and Sumitomo Corporation for similar deployments there. Niigata Engineering has since supplied this technology for urban people mover systems such as Osaka's Nankō Port Town Line , Hiroshima's Astram Line and Tokyo's Yurikamome . Car #25

6000-579: Was extended upward and generally enlarged to form a van-like structure holding 31 passengers. An image of the vehicle was published in Popular Science in its November 1971 edition in a story about personal rapid transit Each car had three sets of automated doors, entering into a set of facing seats. This divided the internal area into sections; it was not possible to walk the length of the vehicle, nor were there provisions for standing. They were normally operated in trains of two or four cars. One of

6080-557: Was needed and eventually won by the Bombardier Innovia APM 200 . Since the system required entirely new guideways, the Airtrans system would have to be kept operational while the new system was installed. A mid-life upgrade process, mostly guideway improvements, was implemented in 1998. Passenger operations started to wind down in 2003, replaced by a shuttle bus service. Employee Train operations ended on 9 May 2005, followed by TrAAin on 20 May. The new Skylink service opened

6160-524: Was not killed. Airtrans facts from DFW Airport: DFW Skylink Skylink is an automated people mover (APM) system operating at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). It is an application of the Innovia APM 200 system and is maintained and operated by Alstom . When it opened in 2005, it was the world's longest airside airport train system ( AirTrain JFK , which operates landside ,

6240-536: Was rapidly dominating the industry. After consulting with experts in the automated warehousing field for several months, he incorporated the Dashveyor Company in 1963 in California to develop these ideas. The company's solution to this problem was an automated conveyor, similar to the track-based systems being introduced for industrial automation and warehousing systems. Unlike those systems, however,

6320-408: Was run over by a two-car train. During the same week, a man from Fort Worth was electrocuted when touching a high voltage conductor on the guideway. In 1986, an Airtrans vehicle struck a jogger who had mistaken the guideway for a running path. The man, visiting from Atlanta, was pushed 238 feet (73 m) by the train before a trip wire snapped and stopped the train. He received cuts and abrasions but

6400-401: Was used while backing up the trains. The operator also doubled as the tour guide. Three miles of track wound around the site, with a spur running to a maintenance depot at the northern end of the zoo. Most of the track was laid at ground level, although there were elevated portions above terrain features. In spite of operating on four wheels similar to a bus, the system was often referred to as

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