Photo source: Whoosh
A groundbreaking transportation concept from a Christchurch-based company, Whoosh, aims to ease urban traffic congestion with its innovative transport system that operates above roadways.
This project features gondola-like pods suspended from elevated rails, designed to transport passengers seamlessly around city centres. Construction for a pilot project is scheduled to commence in Queenstown next year.
Dr. Chris Allington, the CEO of Whoosh and a representative of the engineering firm Holmes Solutions, noted that the project has been in development for five years, primarily kept confidential until now. The system allows users to summon or pre-book an autonomous electric vehicle via an app, which then navigates along a fixed cable guideway.
“The whole system works on demand, so you can hop on your app and call a vehicle, when you walk to the station it will be waiting for you, hop into it, it will take you directly to where you want to go without stopping along the way,” Allington explained.
The pods, capable of accommodating five passengers, are expected to be more cost-effective to build compared to traditional roadways or light rail systems.
“For most standard networks that we’re installing, it’s around about $5 million dollars per kilometre, and if you compare that to say road construction in the urban space that’s around about $20 million per kilometre, and I think when they were looking at light rail it was north of $100 million per kilometre. So it’s quite a cost-effective solution,” he added.
Funding for the Whoosh project has been secured from a North American private equity firm, with local investors also contributing to the pilot project at Remarkables Park in Queenstown, which is expected to be operational by 2027. Allington expressed optimism that the pilot would demonstrate the viability of the technology to other cities.
“The system has been designed to fit nicely in the urban environment so we can fit within that tight urban constraint. The cities and the environments we’re building in, they’re really tight so there’s not much room to build more roads and there’s definitely no more room on the roads for more cars so you have to think differently. So elevating up above it was the way to go with lightweight infrastructure,” Allington said.
Interest in Whoosh has been significant, with former Google transportation executive Jeral Poskey among its early supporters. Poskey, who founded Swyft Cities, is working to establish licensing partnerships for Whoosh in various locations, primarily in the United States.
However, not everyone is convinced of Whoosh’s potential. Jon Reeves, the national coordinator for the Public Transport Users Association, expressed scepticism about the project, likening it to the fictional monorail from The Simpsons.
“When I see these sort of things, I am always reminded of the famous Simpsons episode with monorail where they had the monorail that goes nowhere. And it does remind me of that. I’m glad they’ve got a lot of hype about it, it’s probably the perfect thing for a ski resort, or a city with a resort, maybe Rotorua, but for a mass transport system it doesn’t cut the mustard,” he stated.
Reeves raised concerns about potential backlash from property owners along the proposed routes, suggesting that the gondola system might not be suitable for large-scale public transport.
“I think the gondola type or monorail ideas come up every five to 10 years, I’ve probably seen this about four or five times now. As a public transport method to move large scale numbers to get people out of cars, I don’t think this is the right one. It may be cheaper, but it isn’t better,” he concluded.
