International news :
The most informative news-site on PRT is due to Jerry
Schneider:
News from Innovative Transit: http://faculty.washington.edu/~jbs/itrans/whatsnew.htm
News from Transit-Focused Development: http://www.peak.org/~jbs/whatsnew.htm
SporTaxi news + Abstracts of the History of Sportaxi in Norway
June 2003
The topic for the Telenor Magazine
Teletronikk # 1 2003, is ITS and PRT
April 2003
Taxi2000 uncovers its new prototype:
www.skywebexpress.com
March
POSCO signs letter of intent with
Telenor, Norway, regarding development of PRT.
January
POSCO visits Telenor, Norway, regarding
development of PRT for the Fornebu project in Oslo.
October 2002
POSCO , the world's largest steel
producer, visits
Oslo hosted by InnoTrans. A number of meetings with local politicians,
administrators and national companies regarding PRT in general and the Fornebu,
Oslo project in particular.
September 2002
Statkraft decides to
join the Telenor consortium for PRT - acting like Telenor, as a midwife and not
as a producer.
A 2 page article in Samferdsel (meaning 'Transport' - 26/09/2002 ), published by the semi-public research agency Transportøkonomisk institutt ( www.toi.no ) Individual Public Transport to Fornebu ('Individuell kollektivtransport til Fornebu? with a picture of a Telenor employee).
August 2002
An article from Telenor's employee magazine
åpen linje
07/02 (August 2002)
Svever til jobben ('Levitating to work')
March 20th 2002
An article in Aftenposten, Oslo:
Airy transport til Fornebu ('Luftig transport til Fornebu')
March 31st 2001:
An article in Aftenposten, Oslo:
Study on the Fornebu traffic:
Rather speedy tram than train
('Utredning om Fornebu-trafikken: Heller rask trikk enn tog')
Rough content: A new report by Norconsult for the local transit authorities in Oslo
regarding the traffic to Fornebu (recently abandoned airport in Oslo) suggests
trams, but finds APM (automated people movers) very interesting, because of
factors like low variable costs, frequent departures etc. APMs are seen as 20 %
less expensive than trams, give full service 24 hours a day and release land
area for other use.
The drawback is passage to other types of urban transport.
Therefore, trams are preferred precisely because of their ability to communicate
better with existing (tram and subway) infrastructure.
Heavy train, which used to be the preferred alternative in other studies, is now
totally out of the picture because of costs, land use and inflexibility.
November 7th, 2000
There has as of Nov. 7th, 2000, been a definitive breakup of Norsk Sportaxi, due to one year of
"disagreements over
agreements", etc. This website continues until further notice as the personal site of the webmaster.
Webmaster is : Arno Mong Daastøl
Utsiktsveien 34,
P.O. Box 271, NO-1411 Kolbotn, Norway
Ph: +47. 66 80 63 73 Fax: +47. 66 99 53 25
Email: URL: http://InnoTrans.net
June 22nd 2000
Conference at the House of Civil Engineers,
Oslo, organised by the Senior Expert Group
- in the The Norwegian Society of Chartered
Engineers
Title: "PRT, Metro, Light-rail or Bus to Fornebu"
Arno Mong Daastøl, co-ordinator of Norsk Sportaxi held the speech on PRT.
May 30th 2000
Aftenposten (Norway's largest serious newspaper, morning issue,
major article, last page):
"Wants PRT evaluated" (say the Mayor of Baerum and IT-Fornebu ):
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/d142962.htm
and http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/d142973.htm
Meetings with Oslo Sporveier (Oslo Transit Authority), Baerum Municipality etc.
April 26th 2000
ComputerWorld Norway (scanned)
Interview with Larry Fabian, editor of Transit 21, and with Arno Mong
Daastøl, co-ordinator of Norsk Sportaxi.
April 25th 2000
Application for funds by Arno Mong Daastøl, co-ordinator, in order to evaluate PRT delivered to the Greater Oslo Transit Authority
March 29th 2000
Larry Fabian visited Oslo and a one day meeting arranged by
Arno Mong Daastøl, co-ordinator, was held at the house of the
Oslo Polytechnic Society
Several national media covered the affair with lengthy interviews sent nationwide:
TV2: evening news (18.30 hours)
repeated in the morning (07.00 hours),
(To
see the movie click the link that says, "Se
innslag fra TV 2-Nyhetene onsdag kl 07.00"): http://sportaxi.com/articles/0329TV2rorpost.html
Featuring an interview with Arno Mong Daastøl, co-ordinator of Norsk
Sportaxi.
Or - here is the direct link to the TV
news report:
http://www2.tv2.no/nyheter/tv2/owa/video.asx?xsendingid=1193&xmark=12
TVNorway: : evening news (18.30 hours)
NRK radio:
P1 Trøkk 16 (17.00 hours), the most popular national radio program during rush
hours, 8 minutes interview.
repeated in Østlandssendingen (Greater Oslo morning news, 08.00 hours)
All featuring interviews with Arno Mong Daastøl, co-ordinator of Norsk
Sportaxi.
February 2000
Presentations by Arno Mong Daastøl, co-ordinator of Norsk Sportaxi:.
of "The Business
Belt - Meeting Place Smart Oslo", in several public fora:
The Greater Oslo Transit Authority
The Greater Oslo Business Association
Norwegian Calculation Centre
December '99
The project and document: "The Business Belt - Meeting Place Smart Oslo", issued and distributed by Arno Mong Daastøl, co-ordinator.
October '99
Oct 22
Application for funds by Arno Mong Daastøl, co-ordinator, from the "Oslo Package II"- a € 2 billion project to improve Oslo's infrastructure adding to the similar amount spent in "Oslo Package I".
Oct 16
First presentation, by Arno Mong Daastøl, co-ordinator of Norsk Sportaxi, of our new project "The Business Belt - Meeting Place Smart Oslo" for the city-planner conference Oslo@2020 with 100 + participants: http://www.asplanviak.no/oslo2020/
September '99
Norsk Sportaxi was asked by the Ministry of Transportation to deliver an application for funds, covering expenses for a study on the suitability for PRT / APM for the Fornebu area and eventually other areas.
July-August '99
During the summer we have had talks with the Ministry of Transportation (through support by its Secretary). The message was essentially that transit to the Fornebu development-area (former airport of Oslo) is to be rail. End of story. (The state organisations reached this result after long internal bargaining and don't want us to set off another discussion - rock the boat.)
But we are welcome to come up with solutions for internal transport for the Fornebu development-area (10 times the investments of the 1994 Winter Olympics at Lillehammer, Norway). - However, if there are to be heavy rails going out there, there is a major chance that politicians, and even more likely, the administration, will be satisfied with conventional busses for internal transport. It is our task to make this otherwise but the momentum of the bureaucracy is crushing.
Also we are in talks with another municipality in the Oslo area with relatively large construction plans in a virgin area who are in desperate need of an innovative approach to public transport. If they cannot come up with this, the Ministry of Environment will not allow development. Trams and light rail are out of the question.
And yet again, we are in talks with other municipalities in Norway who have similar problems.
June '99
June 10th:
Aftenposten, (Norway's largest serious newspaper) morning issue, note on 1st
page, Petter Smart til Fornebu (i.e. Gyro Gearloose to Fornebu)
3/4 page on page 6: Vil få kollektivtrafikken til nye Fornebu på skinner (i.e. Wants public transport to new Fornebu on track): http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/d85160.htm#bakgrunn
Aftenposten (same issue and page), Lyn Gordon og
Disneyland (i.e. Lyn Gordon and Disneyland ):
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/d85158.htm
Asker og Bærum Budstikke ran a 1/4 page story on page 4, (news) called Lang motbakke for sportaxi (i.e. Long uphill road for sportaxi) referring to the conservativeness of the central public bureaucracy (as opposed to the municipality).
June 9th :
Presentation of PRT at the Fornebu high tech centre - by Jan Capjon and Arno
Mong Daastøl, of Norsk Sportaxi.
Odd Reinsfelt, the Mayor of Bærum municipality, revealed our model and more precise plans at the SAS hotel, Fornebu, for a group of administrators and media (Baerum is the municipality of the project area Fornebu). He then gave a 10 minute pep-talk for the project and revealed himself as a PRT enthusiast - saying in principle that new problems need new solutions.
The local newspaper, Asker og Bærum Budstikke , on page 2 ran a 1/6 page story called Satser på
svevebane mot Fornebu (i.e. Going for an elevated solution at Fornebu)
interviewing (so it appears) our business leader Gunnar Skomsøy.
The article includes several minor factual mistakes.
The largest national radio station, P 1, and one of the most popular programs Trøkk (pronounced "truck") 16 - a traffic program during rush hours- ran a 6 minute interview with our technical leader, Jan Capjon, and co-ordinator Arno Mong Daastøl.
Another national radio station, P 2, ran a short interview with our technical leader, Jan Capjon, and repeated it 3 times.
Another national radio station, ran a short interview with our business leader Gunnar Skomsøy, and repeated it 3 times.
The local TV station, ABTV - Asker og Bærum Television, ran a 5 minute story on the same issue including cuts from Austrans commercial. The story was broadcasted 3 time s that evening at these hours: 17.30, 19.30 and 23.30. The Mayor of Baerum, Odd Reinsfelt, pulled the sheets off our model and project. He then gave a lengthy 10 minute pep-talk for the project. Stein Fyksen, the director of road infrastructure in the Oslo (Akershus) region (who is in charge of the new infrastructure to be created at Fornebu), promised to start an inquiry on the suitability of PRT. He claimed, though, that competitors were ahead of PRT as a developed solution . (Hopefully so, since the outmoded train and tram-solutions have 200 years on their backs)
January-May '99
Meetings with local authoritities and local investors at the development area of Fornebu.
February '99
Norsk Sportaxi a.s. formally established as legal subject by Jan Capjon, Lars B. Gjerde, Gunnar Skomsøy and Arno M. Daastøl.
November '98
Efforts to reestablish PRT in Norway continued by Jan Capjon, Lars B. Gjerde, Gunnar Skomsøy and Arno M. Daastøl.
April '98
Meeting in Baerum Townhall hosted by the Mayor, Odd Reinsfelt, and the Director of Akershus Road Authority (around Oslo), Stein Fyksen. Some 15 representatives of authorities and major investor and development companies.
January-March '98
Meetings with local authoritities and local investors at the development area of Fornebu.
December '97
Joint effort started to reestablish PRT in Norway by Jan Even Evensen, Gunnar Skomsøy and Arno M. Daastøl.
'70s-'90s
Jan Capjon works with EVs - electric vehicles, national electric grids (somewhat simliar to guide lines in construction) and a range of inventions.
1972-3
Major effort to establish PRT in Oslo, Norway by Elisabeth Nordang, Didrik Seip and Jan Capjon in co-operation with among others The Institute of Transport Economics. Several major articles published in national newspapers, i.e. Dagbladet.
1971
Master thesis on PRT in Trondheim, Norway by Øystein Ludvigsen. Trafikal og økonomisk vurdering av 'sportaxi' i Trondheim : http://www.samf.ntnu.no/h-oppgav/h-opp-70.htm
More general news:
On the Fornebu development, use for instance IT-Fornebu Technoports pages: http://www.it-fornebu.no/infosenter/ and in English
October '99 The state budget for 2000 includes a sum for planning "Fornebu-banen"
June '99 Baerum Kommune (municipality) considers automated transport:
On their homepage, concerning the Fornebu development, Bærum Municipality writes that an automated system with often departures is being considered due to capacity. Also a connection westwards has to be included since no funds are available for further road development:
(In Norwegian:)
"Haster med
transportløsninger
Sentralt i planarbeidet
står utvikling av en baneløsning for transportbehovet. En førerløs bane med svært
hyppige avganger er foreløpig en løsning som kapasitetmessig peker seg ut.
Men også vei og banetransport videre vestover fra Lysaker er spørsmål som må løses. Det er planlagt nytt dobbeltspor for jernbanen fra Skøyen til Asker. På vei-siden er det er problem for hele regionen at kapasiteten på E-18 forlengst er sprengt. Det er ikke satt av midler til ny E-18 i inneværende veiplanperiode."