LHS1 wrote:
On 25.03.17 1:58, Recliner wrote:
John Levine wrote:
In article ,
Richard J. wrote:
Recliner wrote on 24 Mar 2017 at 13:11 ...
For anyone who's interested, I've uploaded a set of photos I took
recently of the underground railway that links Heathrow T5 and its two
satellite terminals. The rubber-tyred railway isn't visible to anyone
not using the satellites.

The two satellites are mainly used by long-haul, wide-body flights
(most European flights use the main terminal):

https://www.flickr.com/photos/reclin...57679819076761

Thanks for the photos.

I recall that when the transit first opened, Heathrow Airport claimed
that the "very long" escalators from the main termainal were the longest
in London, longer than the longest LU escalators at Angel.

It's slightly frustrating not to have an external view of these
rubber-tyred trains (trams?), but I guess that's not possible for the
public. Apparently they look like this: ...

Here's Bombardier's description.

http://www.bombardier.com/en/transpo...le-movers.html

They've installed larger systems with the same equipment at the
Dallas-Fort Worth and Phoenix airports in the U.S. I've ridden the
Dallas one.

Yes, the current Heathrow T5 installation is quite modest: relatively
short, all underground, all within one terminal, flat and straight (apart
from the crossovers). But it's likely to grow as T2 expands, and again when
when (if) the third runway with associated terminal is built.

I've ridden the DFW system, but a long time ago, and almost certainly an
older generation of trains. Ditto Phoenix.

What are the prospects for PRT development at T5, or even to other
terminals?

Pretty low, I think. The current T5 PRT system was supposed to be the first
stage of a much bigger system to link all the terminals to the business car
parks, in order to reduce the number of shuttle buses. It might even have
been part of the planning conditions for T5. But I don't think anything has
been heard of such expansion plans since T5 opened.

A certain awol cynical member of this group predicted exactly that, and I'm
sad to say he appears to have been proved right. But I fear Mr Polson won't
be along shortly to say, "I told you so".