Tampa, Florida will be the host city for the 16th International Conference on Automated People Movers and Automated Transit Systems and the theme for the conference is “Moving to the Future – Building on the Past”.
During the 1960s an innovative terminal design was proposed for the Tampa International Airport and a key component was the need for a reliable transit system that would shuttle passengers between satellite terminals and a central terminal building. When the system went into service in 1971, it was the first airport automated people mover and it marked the start of numerous applications and development of these driverless transit systems around the world. A second driverless monorail system was installed in the airport garage and the vehicles on the original shuttles were replaced in the 1990s. A new automated people mover is under construction linking the terminal area with a consolidated rental car complex and will open prior to the conference. Full automation of urban rail transit lines, autonomous transit vehicles, and other new technologies are among recent innovations.
This conference will be sixteenth of a series of successful conferences that began in 1985 in Miami, Florida. Since that time subsequent conferences have become the meeting place of professionals from around the world to share project experience, advanced technologies, and innovative ideas on the planning, design, implementation, and operations of automated people movers and automated transit systems. Conference attendees will include planners, engineers, APM and transit system owners and operators, government officials, system suppliers, prospective owners, educators, and students as they reflect on the past and look to the future.