Honolulu plans fully autonomous transit system

The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) is embarking on a fully automated transportation system to help reduce highway traffic congestion by as much as 18 per cent, officials say, taking as many as 40,000 automobiles off the road and replacing them with a fleet of four-car trains that can accommodate up to 800 passengers. Said to be the first fully automated wide-scale urban transit system in the United States, the $5.2 billion Honolulu Rail Transit Project features a 20-mile elevated rai
September 19, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) is embarking on a fully automated transportation system to help reduce highway traffic congestion by as much as 18 per cent, officials say, taking as many as 40,000 automobiles off the road and replacing them with a fleet of four-car trains that can accommodate up to 800 passengers.

Said to be the first fully automated wide-scale urban transit system in the United States, the $5.2 billion Honolulu Rail Transit Project features a 20-mile elevated rail line that will be run through a centralised, scheduled system to prevent human error and reduce delays.

Instead of human drivers, a centrally-located computer system will control stops, departures, and speed, and even open and close doors. Operation will be cheaper than for manually-driven rail, says Dan Grabauskas, executive director and CEO HART, and he also expects it to be safer. The autonomous rail line is expected to begin operating in three years.

Related Content

  • Swarco McCain adds VMS to Virginia
    December 19, 2022
    Signs can be run by AC or DC power, plus six of them are off-grid and solar powered
    Read More
  • Paris metro world first inaugurated today
    March 23, 2012
    Pierre Mongin, chairman and CEO of RATP has today inaugurated the commissioning of the first automatic trains on Line 1 of the Paris metro in the presence of Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, minister for ecology, sustainable development, transportation and housing and Jean-Paul Huchon, president of the regional council of Île-de-France.
    Read More
  • Foundation funds research for informed campaigning
    April 29, 2015
    ITS International talks to Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the transport research and lobbying organisation, the RAC Foundation. It is through the eyes of an economist that Professor Stephen Glaister, emeritus professor of transport and infrastructure at Imperial College London and director of the RAC Foundation, views current and future transport problems. Having spent 30 years at the London School of Economics and another 10 at Imperial, the move to the RAC Foundation was a radical departure from
    Read More
  • UK defaults to hard shoulder running to expand motorway capacity
    April 8, 2014
    Hard shoulder running has become the UK’s default response to increasing motorway capacity as Colin Sowman reports. Facing a predicted 46% increase in traffic levels by 2040 and the current economic recovery leading to more people travelling to, from and for work leaves the UK government under short- and long-term pressure to increase the capacity on the main motorway network. Particular sections of motorways are already experiencing repeated, sometimes tidal, congestion and both tight Treasury limits and t
    Read More

Highlighted Content