Preliminary assessment of the operation of a personal rapid transit system in Eindhoven

Although various personal rapid transit systems (PRT-systems) have been proposed and investigated by different companies and different researchers over previous decades, yet no PRT-system has come to practical operation that is confined to the definition of a PRT. From a literature review it was found that limited attention has been given to the relationship between PRT design variables and performance indicators-such as the (average) waiting time for passengers and the network capacity. The paper investigates, by means of micro-simulation, the feasibility of a circular PRT-system that connects the campus of the Technical University Eindhoven with the main railway station. The features of the applied simulation tool are described, as well as the performance indicators used. For two alternative boarding concepts the planned PRT-system is analyzed. The analysis shows the impact of the different concepts on the quality and efficiency of the system. The conclusion is that there is a trade-off between user quality (expressed as average waiting time at stops) and the system efficiency.