skyTran is building a futuristic, aerial commuter rail in Israel

skyTran, a company headquartered at the NASA Ames Research Center, is building an aerial rapid transit system spanning a 400 to 500-m loop at the Israel Aerospace Industries’ (ISI) campus in Israel. skyTran vehicles are suspended from elevated magnetic tracks and travel at speeds of up to 70 km an hour. If the venture is successful, the alternate method of transportation will expand commercially to the nearby city of Tel Aviv.

skyTran seeks to alleviate the congestion caused by the growing number of vehicles on the roads; the system is especially paramount in lacking an underground metro system. skyTran CEO Jerry Sanders told Reuters that projects aims to be completed by the end of 2015, with construction divided between in-house and on-site.

 
The subsequent skyTran commuter rail in Tel Aviv will extend the loop up to 7 km; it consist of three stations and bears an estimated cost of $80 million to build. Patrons will be able to order a vehicle to meet them at a predetermined location directly from their smartphone. Sanders claims the system can handle 12,000 people an hour per guideway, and that the number of guideways can be expanded. “That is more than a light rail and equal to three lanes of highway,” he explains.

The company adds that skyTran projects are being planned globally, including the United States and India, pending the success of the Israeli pilot project. A commercial implementation could bump the speed of vehicles up to 240 km per hour.

Via SkyTran.us