Supraways, the air transport of tomorrow against urban traffic jams? It is the idea of a French start-up who developed this project, between aerotrain and cable car, with the aim of unclogging cities.
Imagine. You are stuck in the traffic jams, in the morning, to go to work or for your departure on the weekend of All Saints' Day. You raise your head, and on the side of the road, you see cabins with 7-8 people inside, who run at full speed, about ten meters in height. It looks like science fiction. Yet, we could soon see them all over the country. It's called Supraways. It is a French technology, like an aerotrain, but upside down, since the cabin is suspended from its rail like a cable car.
Faster than a metro
It can peak at 130 km / h but on average, it will rather run at 80-100 km / h between cities. It is faster than a tram, a metro or a cable car.
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A dozen cities are already interested. The most advanced are Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, especially to serve the future Olympic venues of Paris 2024. The cities of Thionville in the Moselle and Lille metropolis (North) are also seduced by the concept. The goal will be to unclog the national and some parts of the highway.
Very profitable installations
The big advantage of this aerotrain upside down is that it needs very little floor space. In Lille, for example, one imagines it on the central reservation of the highway, the installation will be much simpler. According to their calculations, it would be 2 to 3 times cheaper than a tram and 15 times less than a metro, since there is nothing to dig. In addition, given the fact that it does not have a driver, the operating cost is also very low.
For a long time, the car has accumulated most innovations but with traffic jams, pollution and energy transition, it is now in public transport that we expect big changes.