The supply side of the automated people mover market: A spectrum of choices

Abstract

A survey of the supply side of the Automated People Mover (APM) market over the past ten to fifteen years shows some significant trends. In the nineteen eighties, suppliers concentrated on designing, developing, and marketing unique technologies. Thus, each supplier tended to specialize in a single technology, with some variations in size and capacity. With the present growth of the APM market, several APM suppliers have developed, either through mergers or acquisitions, a more diversified range of technologies to meet a variety of system requirements in terms of capacity, service and budget considerations. As a result of this trend, the transit industry now has a full range of technologies that are well proven and capable of meeting the different needs, special operational requirements, and budgets of its potential clients.Paul V. Didrikson is at Bombardier