Automated Guideway Transit (AGT)

Automated guideway transit is a fully-automated, grade-separated rail transit system and is applied to complex automated systems.

Simple back-and-forth shuttles are referred to as hectos, short for hectometric, meaning designed for a few hundred meters.

Multi-station systems intended for mass transit in a city are more formally known as automated guideway transit (AGT) systems. This term is generally limited to rubber-tired vehicles led by a guiding track; fully automated rapid transit lines, such as the Singapore MRT's North East MRT Line, are usually not considered AGTs.  (See Comparables).

It can be used for driverless transit services and potentially for 'dual-mode' automobiles. A Rapid Urban Flexible (RUF) test track was opened at Ballerup, near Copenhagen in 2000. The track is very short (25 meters) and has one test vehicle. Tests have shown that practical personal vehicles can be developed with dual mode qualities.

Complex APMs deploy fleets of small vehicles over a network of guideways with off-line stations in a dynamic configuration that supplies non-stop service to passengers. These taxi-like systems are referred to as personal rapid transit (PRT).

The term was coined by Walt Disney when he and his Imagineers were working on the new 1967 Tomorrowland at Disneyland as a working title for a new attraction, the PeopleMover. According to Imagineer Bob Gurr, "the name got stuck," and it was no longer a working title.

The world's first airport people mover was installed in 1971 at Tampa International Airport in the United States. The VAL (Véhicule Automatique Léger) system in Lille, France, opened in 1983, is often cited as the world's first mass transit AGT, but the title is disputed by Kobe's Port Liner, which opened two years earlier in 1981. Lille's VAL is, however, acknowledged to be the first AGT installed to serve an existing urban area.

Driverless metros have become common in Europe and parts of Asia. The economics of automated trains tend to reduce the scale so tied to "mass" transit, so that small-scale installations are feasible. Thus cities normally thought of as too small to build a metro (e.g. Rennes, Lausanne, Brescia, etc.) are now doing so. In the U.S. APMs have become common at large airports and progressive hospitals.

Smartskyways is an example of an AGT system.

Other examples include:

USA 
Lake Buena Vista, Florida: Disney Monorail, Disneyworld 
Detroit, Michigan: Detroit People Mover -- elevated loop system (Downtown People Mover) 
Jacksonville, Florida -- in the form of a monorail (the Jacksonville Skyway) (Downtown People Mover) 
Miami, Florida: Metromover (Downtown People Mover) 
Las Colinas, Dallas, Texas -- Las Colinas APT System 

Japan 
Hiroshima: Astram Line 
Kobe: Port Liner, Rokko Liner 
Komaki: Peach Liner 
Nagoya: Linimo, Nagoya Guideway Bus 
Osaka: New Tram (Osaka Municipal Nanko Port Town Line/OTS New Tram Technoport Line) 
Saitama Prefecture: New Shuttle 
Sakura: Yamaman Yukarigaoka Line 
Tokyo: Yurikamome, Nippori-Toneri Line (opens 2007) 
Yokohama: Kanazawa Seaside Line 

Singapore 
Bukit Panjang Light Rapid Transit 
Sengkang Light Rapid Transit 
Punggol Light Rapid Transit 

The Philippines 
Manila Light Rail Transit System 
Manila Metro Rail Transit System 
Dortmund, Deutschland: H-Bahn 
Kuala Lumpur, Putra Light Rail Transit 

London
UK: Docklands Light Railway 

Taipei
  Muzha Line 

Canada 
Toronto, Ontario: Scarborough RT (semi-automated) 
Vancouver, British Columbia: SkyTrain 

Airport

Air-Rail Link at Birmingham International Airport, 
Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, US 
Birmingham International Airport, UK 
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, US 
Chicago O'Hare International Airport, US 
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, US 
Denver International Airport, US 
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, US 
Düsseldorf International Airport, Germany 
Frankfurt International Airport, Germany 
Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport, US 
Hong Kong International Airport - Hong Kong International Airport Automated People Mover 
Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia 
Las Vegas McCarran International Airport, US 
London Gatwick Airport, UK 
London Heathrow Airport, UK 
London Stansted Airport, UK 
Miami International Airport, US 
Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, US 
Newark Liberty International Airport, US - AirTrain Newark 
New York John F. Kennedy International Airport, US - AirTrain JFK 
Orlando International Airport, US 
Osaka Kansai International Airport, Japan - Wing Shuttle 
Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport, France - CDGVAL 
Paris Orly Airport, France - Orlyval 
Pittsburgh International Airport, US 
San Francisco International Airport, US - AirTrain (SFO) 
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, US 
Singapore Changi Airport 
Tampa International Airport, US 
Toronto Pearson International Airport, Canada - LINK Interterminal Shuttle 
Zurich International Airport, Switzerland