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SwedeTrack System is a public Swedish company which has designed the FlyWay, a technically advanced system for automatically controlled beamcarried traffic, for transportation of people and goods.

This suspended rail system allegedly has many practical uses for the masses that must commute in cities flooded with cars from the urban sprawl.

To better understand the use of a FlyWay, the SwedeTrack people have provided some background insight:

SwedeTrack has in detail studied how a good transportation system for people and for goods should function, and what attributes it should have, in order to be of optimal use in an urban environmenet.

The cheapest and quickest way to produce a functioning system is by further development of the “SIPEM” system developed by Siemens in Germany. We at SwedeTrack have chosen to call this complete system of ours for “FLYWAY”

Since Siemens has chosen to no longer promote its own system, SwedeTrack has developed this by itself. Thus, FLYWAY is a genuinely Swedish project.

The details that distinguish “FLYWAY”® from other existing and proposed systems are:

• the beamcars can be equipped with lifts
• the beamcars can be equipped with swiveling functions
• the system is designed for scheduled transports, individual transports and transportation of goods, intermixed
• the system has computer-controlled functions that allow the size and complexity of the network to grow indefinitely
• the system uses addressing functions based on that of the Internet

Since February 2004, SwedeTrack System Inc. is a public company and offers shares (Swedish only) to interested parties.

The inventors of this engaging urban transportation system have also caught our attention with this statement: “To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.” — in our view, when two distinct ideas meet for the first time, they inevitably give way to a third idea which is, by its very nature, something new.

On a lighter note, the term “FlyWay” is presented as a registered trademark but our search at the USPTO yielded no relevant results. Perhaps it’s registered in Sweden.

Tags: sweden, swedish flyway, swedetrack, suspended rail, mass transit, alternative transport, europe

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You’ve heard about the metro, especially if you live in a densely populated western city. But what about the MiniMetro? Is the concept new to you?

Well, a European company called Leitner has developed an innovative MiniMetro solution for conveying less considerable number of people in an unmanned capsule moving on fixed rails.

In their own words, the MiniMetro is dubbed an “Intelligent people mover systems for local transport services”.

Defined as a “light rail system” for its agility, space efficiency and easy integration within the urban context, the Minimetro constitutes the most appropriate solution for predominantly historic cities where a “regular” metro system is impractical. Furthermore, the MiniMetro can be setup to link less populated areas with the main metro lines.

Here’s a comprehensive description of the MiniMetro system:

“LEITNER has developed an intelligent solution for local public transport services – the MiniMetro®, an automatic people mover for short and medium-distance operations.

This APM is designed for use as the primary means of transport in towns and small cities and as a transit system for park+ride services or links to busy locations like shopping centers, universities or interchanges.

The LEITNER MiniMetro® offers outstanding flexibility for integration within the urban infrastructure. The compact design of the cars means a minimum footprint for the system as a whole and optimum harmony with existing buildings and structures.

The APM technology also handles demanding routing requirements, with such features as a 12% hill-climbing capability, and the availability of overhead guideways or underground sections.

The APM operates with its own guideway and is available in two versions – with the cars permanently attached to the haul rope or with cars that detach automatically.”

Here’s how the Minimetro works, technically:

The Minimetro system usually consists of 25 cars accommodating up to 50 passengers each. The cars run on rubber wheels along a pair of steel tracks.

The cars are not self-propelled. Instead, they are hooked for traction to a steel chain rope that is driven by an electric motor. In addition, because the cars run on rubber wheels, the system’s noise level is below normal environmental values.

The cars move in sequence at a frequency of under a minute and for this reason, the system is labelled as “semi-continuous”.

When a MiniMetro car reaches the end of the line, it is rotated by an inversion platform so that it can resume its run in the opposite direction.

Leitner also offers like-minded transport solutions, such as:

• Aerial tramways
• Funicular ropeways
• Bicable and tricable ropeways
• Gondola ropeways
• Pulse gondola ropeways
• Detachable chairlifts
• Fixed-grip chairlifts
• Surface lifts
• Inclined lifts

Other companies operated by the Leitner Group include Prinoth for snowgroomers and Leitwind for directdrive and high efficiency wind turbines.

Tags: minimetro, leitner, prinoth, leitwind, wind turbines, aerial tramways, transportation alternatives

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The 47th Edition of this prestigious aeronautics event will be held in Le Bourget, France, from the 18th to the 24th of June, 2007.

Why talk about it now?

Because the aircraft industry and those who provide for it meet there. Let’s take a look at the 2005 Edition’s numbers:

• 1,926 exhibitors from 41 countries
• 238 aircrafts on-site
• 480,000 visitors, over the 7 days of the event
• 223,000 trade participants
• 206 official delegations from 88 countries
• 4,000 accredited journalists (not just from the aviation world)
• 127,519 sq. meters of covered exhibition space

If you’re looking to sell planes or do business with the market leaders, this is the event to attend. Bombardier Aerospace, Airbus, Embraer, Dassault, Boeing and Gulfstream will all be there.

The International Paris Air Show at Le Bourget is organized by the French aerospace industries association GIFAS.

If you have anything to announce, make sure to do it at the Paris Air Show since the world’s media is listening: The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, Agence France Presse, Reuters, Associated Press, BBC News, Die Welt, EuroNews, Le Monde, The Financial Times and thousands more!

Tags: paris air show, trade fair, airlines, airplanes, aerospace industry, gifas, world media, aircrafts, exhibitors

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Happy birthday Transport Canada!

Or, should we say “http://www.tc.gc.ca/” to be more precise — this abundant and resourceful public web site has celebrated its 10th year on the web on January 15th, 2006.

The full story is available here.

It’s one thing to create a web site of this scope but it’s another to maintain it daily. More than 8 million visitors came to TC’s web site in 2005 alone.

In their own words, TC looks into the future with these objectives in mind:

“As more Canadians turn to the Internet as a source of information, Transport Canada remains committed to providing accurate, timely, relevant information, tools and services that support business objectives and meet requirements under all relevant policies and standards.”

Let’s hope TC has many more successful years ahead with their web site destined primarily to the general public but also to the T&L industry specialists.

Tags: transport canada, 10th anniversary, celebration, successful years, transport, logistics

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Located in La Prairie, on Montreal’s South Shore (15 minutes from downtown), Nova Containers are specialists in materials handling, blocking and bracing. They also offer extensive customs warehouse services as well as transport, logistics and storage.

Increasingly popular are the freight forwarding and customs brokering services which help customers save time and money.

The services are offered individually or as an “A to Z” package to answer all the T&L needs of their customers who usually transit, fully or in part, by the Port of Montreal.

As their name implies, they repair, store and sell empty maritime containers.

The company has started its operations back in 1982 and the current President is Ms Diane Sirois. Her reputation for providing complete satisfaction and peace of mind to her customers is already very well known by companies using Nova Containers’ services, when going through Montreal.

For more information, you can visit the web site.

Tags: nova containers, freight, logistics, maritime containers, storage, montreal, quebec, canada

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