Take the ARRT - A potential transport solution for Cork?

For a keen supporter of public transport like me, the last month or two haven’t been the easiest, with a coalition of fossils and egomaniacs here in Cork bringing down the partial closure of Patrick Street and its use as a public transit corridor. At the same time, BusConnects Cork, 200 million € worth of new vehicles, lines, ticketing principles and other much needed improvements promised in the governments Ireland 2040 plan seem to have taken an express bus to nowhere as they’ve completely disappeared from view. Anyway, I had a day off from work on Thursday, due to it being a bank holiday in the main market that I cover, Germany, and as luck would have it, I’ve been dealing with a bloody migraine all day. 

As I’m sitting here on the couch, nursing my head and cursing everyone and no one indiscriminately (Hey, I’m an equal opportunity hater when I’m in a bad mood ;) ), a video on the Facebook Page of RTÉ News catches my eye. Apparently, the city of Zhuzhou in China has begun field tests for a contraption called the ARRT, or Autonomous Rapid Rail Transit. Designed by China's CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Company, the concept was first introduced back in 2017, but tests have only now begun. The video certainly looks intriguing, so headache or no, I decide to dig a bit deeper. Not really an easy thing to do as, like with many public transport projects in China, the amount of English sources is limited, so most information here will come from the corresponding Wikipedia article, sorry about that.

The lady may look like a tram but she isn't... or is she?

At its core, the ARRT is a 30 metre long, double articulated electric bus. Double articulated buses themselves are nothing new, having been in use in cities such as Hamburg for many years. The ARRT takes things a bit further, though. Instead of relying on the driver, it follows painted on tracks on the road, using an advanced sensor suite to stay “on track”, effectively turning this road vehicle into a “virtual tram”. This tram look is further reinforced by its double ender design with control cabs on each end, negating the need for turning loops at the end of a line, as well as its low floor design. The three car trainsets currently being tested in Zhuzhou have a capacity of 300 passengers, and a proposed five car trainset could carry up to 500 passengers. Power is provided by a set of lithium-titanate batteries that, when full, can provide power for a total of fourty kilometres. The vehicle is also equipped with current collectors that can provide a charge for a 3-5 kilometer journey in 30 seconds, or for a 25 kilometer journey in ten minutes.

The Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit system is designed to provide tram-like experience for bus lines. 

The twin dashed lines in front of the vehicle form the "track" that the ARRT follows.

With all this being said, the advantages of such a system immediately become obvious. Infrastructure costs are much lower compared to traditional light rail systems. In “shared traffic” situations where an ARRT trainset has to share the road with other vehicles, it simply comes down to painting the markings, as well as adapting any bus stops to cover the additional length of the vehicle, and providing overhead charge points at the stops for vehicles to top up their batteries. Continuous overhead wires and expensive tracks are not needed at all. When it comes to building dedicated lines, the costs go down dramatically as well, since rather than building a complicated track system with signalling and the likes, all you need to build is basically a road with some dedicated stops alongside. Another upside is the inherent flexibility. The ARRT is apparently still driver-controlled, and can disconnect from the guiding “tracks”. This is a major advantage should a trainset be confronted with an accident that is blocking its “tracks”. Given that there’s at least one free lane available, the driver can simply go around the accident and reconnect to the track on the other side, something impossible with systems like LUAS.

Apart from the wheel, this could be any modern tram cab. The system is designed to operate autonomously, but can also operate with a driver.

The interior resembles a light rail train more than a bus.

Now, to be fair, there are downsides. Increased wear on bus lanes and dedicated busways, rather large turning radius and a dependence on fixed charging points are some that I can think of right off the top of my head. In addition, they will still be hostage to road conditions unless they’re running on dedicated busways or bus lanes, affecting their reliability. However, this is a risk with traditional tram systems as well, as I’ve learned during my time in Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Prague, and Mannheim. Finally, as the system operates on visual clues alone, it is dependent on the track marks being visible all the time. This could potentially be an issue here in Ireland, given the “amazing” quality of roadworks in this country. However, the ARRT is still operated by a driver, so apart from taking out the assistance systems, it shouldn’t be a big issue.

Now, I know that the ARRT is still in its test phase, however I believe that the points I raised above make it clear that this system could be the key to providing Cork with an attractive high capacity public transport system. It would all but eliminate the heavy engineering work in the city centre that a classic light rail system would require, and any dedicated busways outside the city centre could easily be built at a fraction of the cost of a light rail line. I still believe that any such transit system should be introduced only after BusConnects Cork has been implemented, but ARRT could be the key to finally providing Cork with a 21st century public transport system. The only question is whether the people of Cork, especially the business owners, are intelligent and farsighted enough to embrace this opportunity.