Airport Architect's vision for aerial link

AN architect has called on the West of England’s metro mayor to get in touch, after claiming he has come up with what would be the cheapest and least impactful way of creating a transport link between Bristol Airport and the city centre - an aerial rail system with driverless pods travelling five metres up in the air. Called ‘Aerial,’ its inventor Robert Hutson said it could be built quickly and at a fraction of the cost of any light rail, railway or tram system.

- Tristan CORK [e-mail]

Mr Hutson, from Essex, has already designed and proposed a version of ‘Aerial’ to connect Cambridge with the town of Cambourne nine miles away, and has proposed the scheme for the growing town of Maldon in Essex too.

Now, he said he is in the early stages of designing an ‘Aerial’ system to travel the eight miles from Bristol Airport to the centre of Bristol, with plans for the driverless cars or pods running on a track at speeds of up to 40mph, 17-20ft above the A38. The cars would be electric-powered, and travel at one-minute intervals, taking between ten and 15 minutes to reach Temple Meads station.

Mr Hutson’s initial plan is for the aerial track to follow the A38 from Bristol Airport into Bristol at Highridge and Bedminster Down, before joining the course of the Bristol-Taunton mainline at the Parson Street gyratory, travelling above the railway line all the way into Temple Meads.

He said the system could transport 480 people an hour, which could be increased to 720 per hour.