A rail-transit people-mover headway comparison

For many years, GRS has supplied control systems for conventional rail transit. Headways for these systems range from minutes or hours to as low as 75 seconds, In the last few years, the company has supplied control systems for people-mover applications in which minimum headways of 10 to 20 seconds have been achieved. The 75-second design headway of a model Conventional Rail Transit (CRT) system is compared with the 18-second design headway of a model Automated Guideway Transit (AGT) system from the viewpoint of potential for reduced CRT headway. It is shown that the major CRT factors responsible for this headway difference are on-line stations, train length and Safe Braking Distance. These factors are evaluated and discussed. It is concluded that a large increase in CRT track capacity should not be expected from the transfer of control technology from AGT.