South Africa is no stranger to busy city centres, with Cape Town having recently won the not-so-coveted award of “Most congested city in the country” from navigation provider TomTom. So when word reached us of a new elevated, monorail-style transport system being built in the heavily-congested city of Tel-Aviv, Israel, we were more than a little bit intrigued.

The system is called skyTran, and a California-based company of the same name is working on a pilot project together with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to test its viability with a view to creating a much larger network across parts of the city. The initial pilot will consist of a small 400m – 500m loop around the IAI campus, which should be up and running before the end of next year according to skyTran CEO Jerry Sanders.

“Tel Aviv is a world city. It’s a destination for people around the world. A centre of commerce. Israelis love technology and we don’t foresee a problem of people not wanting to use the system. Israel is a perfect test site,” Sanders said, “it can handle 12 000 people an hour per guideway, and that number grows exponentially with each additional guideway. That is more than a light rail and equal to three lanes of highway.”

SkyTran uses lightweight pods with a  two-person capacity suspended from magnetic levitation tracks. The pods will be capable of travelling at 70km/h during the pilot phase but will be significantly sped up to 240km/h when the commercial phase comes online, should the pilot phase be successful.

The first phase of the commercial commuter line will come in the form of a 7km long track with three stations that will cost around $50 million (R531 million) to construct. The entire system will be automated, with passengers able to order a skyTran pod using their smartphones to meet them at a specific station in order to cut commute times even further.

We have some htxt.africa staff members who would definitely consider using a skyTran given the chance. Would you?

[Source: Reuters UK, Images – skyTran]