Wednesday, 7 June 2006

Copeland urges 'exciting new public transport' initiative for Wellington

United Future transport spokesman, Gordon Copeland, today urged the Greater Wellington Regional Council and the Wellington City Council not to rule out the ULTra concept when looking at options for future public transport services between Wellington and Johnsonville.

"Reading Projects, the group behind the ULTra system, presented the idea to me last year."

ULTra is a battery powered public transportation system utilising driverless "pods" which run on an elevated concrete track.

"It is an innovative 21st century system which is likely to be adopted at Heathrow airport, in Cardiff, and possibly Dubai.

"It is powered by electricity and that fact alone should take it ahead of fossil fuel alternatives when environmental and sustainability criteria are taken into account.

"In addition, it may, when properly evaluated, prove to be the cheapest alternative.

"The Wellington City Council rightly has a vision of Wellington as an innovative high-tech futuristic city.

"However we would simply give the lie to those aspirations if we were to turn away a project like ULTra without an indepth and professionally competent assessment of the new technology."

ENDS

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