Boston Garage Equipment has designed purpose built test equipment for braking systems and the computerised laser guidance for Advanced Transport Systems (ATS) as part of the world’s first contract for the supply of a commercial PRT. The contract was won by ATS to replace shuttle buses from the N3 business car park to Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport and the system is now under construction to begin operations in 2009.
ATS are the world leaders in Personal Rapid Transport technology, and Heathrow’s owners BAA have taken a substantial shareholding in ATS, entering into a framework agreement to make ATS their PRT supplier worldwide. ATS are presently in negotiations with customers for PRT systems in UK, USA and the middle east.
The Boston testing facility will be equipped to carry out functional checks on vehicles after maintenance before releasing them back to the network and will enable fault analysis of defective vehicles. Vehicles will also be checked following production and the test equipment may also be used for vehicle development. Engineers from ATS and Boston have worked closely to meet demanding criteria for safe, efficient and reliable vehicle testing.
Boston MD Ray Calcutt commented “This project has demanded new, innovative cutting edge technology. Transport systems of this nature represent the future in overcoming congestion and pollution. They provide rapid, comfortable and low cost movements to airports, town centres and entertainment venues where traffic problems are accentuated.” Boston is involved because we lead the maintenance equipment field in progressive technology and a large portion of our budget is applied to development.”