Soon Göran Persson will be able to fly to work

In about five years we'll be riding cabin-rail to work. Or trackcars [Personal Rapid Transit, PRT], which is the new term. Among the advantages: reducing oil dependence. Friday's opening salespitch to Prime Minister Göran Persson is part of the Oil Commission hearings.

In the future we'll fly to work, summoning a PRT, the class of elevated driverless cabin-rail. Anyway, if Royal Institute of Technology Prof. Ingemar Andreasson gets his wish. This he planned to inform Prime Minister Göran Persson of on Friday's hearing with the Commission on Oil Dependence.

"PRT will be the first mass transit system that can really compete with cars," Andreasson told di.se.

PRT riders can for first time ride when he or she wants, without to needing to crowd with other riders.

"We need a complement to the personal automobile. Roads are simply full up. We have neither space, gasoline or time to keep on sitting behind the wheel together as we do today," said Magnus Hunhammar, who is managing director of the Institute for Sustainable Transportation, IST.

Göran Persson and other members of the Commission against oil dependency are coming hence for a lesson on PRT advantages with Friday's hearing:

This is our first, but future transit is spreading with others succeeding. This gloomy information for Sweden's prime minister on Friday, others will be first: Heathrow Airport in London has already signed a contract with the British company ULTra. An older variant of similar technology has been in use for 30 years in West Virginia, USA.

But those not first in the world can try for being first in Sweden. Still are these possibilities for cities that want to realize their potential with next generation's mass transit.

Magnus Hunhammar of IST is clear about which cities as are those hot candidates. Arlanda has a big interest in technology, and Uppsala, believes Hunhammar, for a PRT link between the Research Center and the University hospital. In addition the start of one or the other days building of a test track developed by Korean steel giant Posco in Uppsala. Three and four on Hunhammar's list are Gustavsberg and Ekerö outside Stockholm.

"Those living in Gustavsberg and in Ekerö are altogether for car limits and [crossleaders] are bad," Hunhammar said.

When will the first PRT run in Sweden?

"In five years. In two years we figure the first test track in Uppsala will be certified and cleared for use," said Hunhammar.

...but Volvo is not scared

PRTs are coming to impart fresh business to several leading Swedish ears [from] little known companies, Korean Vectus and British ULTra. But Volvo vice managing director for research and development, Hans Folkesson, is not afraid of competition from a PRT industry.

It is obvious a risk to an already very strained car industry coming to feel competition from PRT, according to Ingmar Andreasson.

"It is clear transportation in the future is going to occur with this type of vehicle. It may become a new business," he said.

An example of the exact future movement now in the field is Britain's ULTra, recently entered into a contract with Heathrow, and Korean Vectus. Ingmar Andreasson does not believe car companies will surrender the market to either.

"This is up to them, but this will be a question about an enormously big transition," he said.

Magnus Hunhammar, managing director of the Institute for Sustainable Transportation, IST, is not fully so categorical.

"PRT is a complement that makes it possible to ride individually in a collective system. 80 percent of all person-kilometers are made daily by car. That is the intended segment," he said.

Hans Folkesson the vice managing director of Volvo, also attended the hearing on Friday. But he is not afraid of competition from the Korean and British PRTs.

"I am not too scared, because something like that facilitates driving vehicles in the future with the freedom we have today," he said.

He sees PRT more as an alternative to other mass transit and this demand more than ever thus also threatens cars.

"PRT is more competition to buses. Because there is bound to be competition to a certain extent, but absolutely not with us. Cars are freedom to drive where I want, when I want," said Folkesson.

Volvo is coming to supply its oil-free vision after Friday. But how that looks he does not want to reveal in advance.

"Our vision is not entirely different, but this is another five. We are coming to give our picture of things here, and we watch development of current technology," he said.