On Wed, 2 May 2018 11:14:55 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message
-sept
ember.org, at 21:49:16 on Tue, 1 May 2018, Recliner
remarked:
It was the underground route of the shuttle that surprised me: I
hadn't realised it went past and under the cargo terminal.

I'm becoming less and less convinced it does.

I'm going by this map, but I can't verify if the underground section is
accurate:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/recliner/41802404401/in/photostream/lightbox/

Let's look in the opposite direction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRqbXwmxE4I

At 1:55 the train leaves the existing satellite station and almost
immediately curves round to the left.

It's interesting that the straight stretch between the station and the
start of the curve looks shorter than between the end of the curve and the
portal, even though the portal is in line with the satellite.

Here's a better video, which shows broadly similar (~6 second at full
speed) straight sections either end of the curve.

One of the sources quoted by Wikipedia says the network is 3.2km long,
which if you measure from the depot to the headshunt beyond terminal B
matches exactly, if the apex of the curve is in the very middle of Apron
A (ie halfway between the passenger and freight terminals).

The train also takes exactly 20 seconds to get from the edge of the main
terminal building to the portal, a distance of 235m (thus 12m/sec -
which is 80% of the unit's 34mph top speed) and there simply isn't time
between the portal and the station to go anywhere near the freight
terminal and back.

Yes, thanks, it does look like the map I found places the 180 degree
curve too far to the west.

On Wed, 02 May 2018 12:18:14 +0100
Recliner wrote:
On Wed, 2 May 2018 11:14:55 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:
The train also takes exactly 20 seconds to get from the edge of the main
terminal building to the portal, a distance of 235m (thus 12m/sec -
which is 80% of the unit's 34mph top speed) and there simply isn't time
between the portal and the station to go anywhere near the freight
terminal and back.

Yes, thanks, it does look like the map I found places the 180 degree
curve too far to the west.

I can't see the point of the system when all the satellite terminals are
within walking distance of the main building. Why didn't they just
install some sky bridges and travellators?