Advanced Public Transport Eindhoven Region (NL)
With 200,000 inhabitants the city of Eindhoven is the fifth biggest city of the Netherlands. Whereas the 4 biggest cities Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht have modern rail networks, with trams and/or metro, the city of Eindhoven only has about 20 bus lines. In fact the Eindhoven region is too small for expensive light-rail systems and too big for buses. Because a new district at the Westside of Eindhoven is being built, called "Meerhoven", the problems will only increase. The new district will have around 7000 houses, with 20,000 inhabitants. It's situated far from the city center at the West-side of Eindhoven. The location of Meerhoven is shown in the left picture below. The right picture below shows a 'bird-eye' view of the Meerhoven. The Advanced Public Transport line (thin red line) is clearly visible; it enters Meerhoven at the south-east, passes the blue lake at the east-side and finally ends at Eindhoven Airport at the North of Meerhoven.
The Eindhoven region is well known for it's advanced technological initiatives, innovations and creativity. Eindhoven is also the "hometown" of the well known Phillips company, one of the world's biggest electronics companies, founded in 1891 by Gerard Philips to manufacture incandescent lamps and other electrical products. The Eindhoven region will be the first city where the Phileas Advanced Public Transport (APT) system will be implemented. With Phileas the Eindhoven region is going to demonstrate in the coming years how a new and innovative form of public transport can be made reality. Advanced Public Transport has a number of characteristics; speed, flexibility, comfort, reliability, attractiveness, punctuality, safety and environmental friendliness. Phileas combines them all.
The existing transport network was taken as a starting point. From that basis the trava55.ru will be implemented step by step. The future network will consist of four Phileas APT-lines and two existing railway lines.
The four APT-lines are (see picture on the right):
- Valkenswaard - Achtse Barrier
- Veldhoven(South) - Son en Breugel
- Veldhoven(North) - Nuenen
- Eindhoven Airport - Geldrop
The two railway-lines are:
- Best - Eindhoven - Helmond - Deurne
- Eindhoven - Geldrop - Heeze
In the current project the lines Veldhoven North- Nuenen and Eindhoven Airport - Geldrop have been built partly, up to the central rail station (see picture below). On these two lines Phileas will have a free route practically throughout its entire length (15 kilometers in total).
The first Phileas prototypes have been tested by Advanced Public Transport Systems in 2002. The picture on the right shows a prototype on a free bus lane at the "Noord Brabant Laan" in the city of Eindhoven. This is a section of the new APT-route Veldhoven North - Nuenen. Eleven single-articulated Phileas vehicles and one double-articulated Phileas vehicle will be operational in the Eindhoven region by the end of 2003.
Other links to APT-project in the Eindhoven Region:
www.meerhoven.net; about the Meerhoven district at Westside of Eindhoven (text in Dutch).
www.Phileas.nl; about Phileas vehicles and the infrastructure (text in Dutch, requires Flash plug-in)
Last update: 23/07/03
