A prototype battery-powered carbon fibre and metal Very Light Rail vehicle is under construction at NP Aerospace’s plant at Foleshill in Coventry. The VLR project to develop low-cost technologies which would make light rail a viable option for medium sized cities is being managed by the Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick, in partnership with Coventry City Council and Transport for West Midlands.
The prototype vehicle has been designed by WMG and Transport Design International, with a target of achieving a mass not exceeding 1 tonne per linear metre. It will have a capacity of 56 passengers.
Testing is scheduled to start early next year at the VLR National Innovation Centre which being developed in Dudley. It is envisaged that this would then be followed by passenger operation of production vehicles on a proposed line to be built in Coventry.
Ah … an up-to-date version of the Parry People-Mover
Except … Work is also underway to develop affordable trackform that could be installed quickly and cheaply, and which could also be easily removed to allow access for utility maintenance. REALLY?
Or deformed easily when an overloaded HGV goes over the track, with predictable results …..
Would a battery powered guided busway be easier/cheaper? Enhanced with smaller lighter purpose built vehicles (a bit like a bigger version of Morgantown or Heathrow pods)
Guiding the bus using either an optical guide or a inductive guide wire instead of traditional guide wheels on concrete side guide rails, and an ability for slow speed override driving off the guided busway.
@MilesT
This technology are described in this article that debunks trackless trams.
While the linked article unfavourably compares trackless trams to “standard” trams, it would seem that the trackless concept is not so very different to this “very light” scheme in terms of benefits and problems, a much more “apples with apples” comparison. Nothing novel other than using old concepts in a very use case specific way with specific limits.
Or maybe a hybrid e.g. rubber tyres on flat roads for weight bearing and traction but guided by a shallow centre V track(s) with electromagnetic wire as a fallback and slow speed override controls, rather than steel wheels on very light steel rails, with potential durability issues as commented above.
In France, a number of what I’ll call guided trolleybuses were installed : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber-tyred_tram. As the vehicles have become life expired and sometimes before is seems they are being converted to conventional tramways. They seemed to suffer from road grooving, coming adrift from the guide rail or groove and, of course needed extra overhead knitting for the electrical feed and return. Effectively the market has voted with its feet (or steel wheels!)
Trackless Trams”
Or, that’s what they were originally called, when they were introduced, anway!