Reporting on-location, our London correspondent recently filed a report on the electric pods at Heathrow airport, shuttling passengers from the business car park to Terminal 5 (see also our previous stories on the pods, Pods from the car park at Heathrow Airport, and Heathrow airport pods are now in motion).
Some of the key features of the system include:
- Noiseless
- Attractive
- No emissions (pods are re-charged when waiting in the berths)
- Easy to install as the narrow track can snake around obstacles; no need to change existing infrastructure
- Revenues can be generated from sponsorship and advertising on inside-pod screens. Exterior advertising makes the pod a moving billboard
- Importantly, it delivers ON DEMAND transport – a product built to cater for the fact that people don’t like to wait
The first-hand experience of the pods was quite exhilarating. According to our correspondent “it makes you feel like you’ve stepped into 2001 Space Odyssey”.