Véhicule Automatique Léger
''Véhicule Automatique Léger'' () or VAL is a type of driverless (automated), rubber-tyred, medium-capacity rail transport system (people mover). The technology was developed at the Lille University of Science and Technology, was marketed by Matra, and first used in the early 1980s for the Lille Metro system, one of the world's first fully automated mass-transit rail networks, preceded only by the Port Island Line in Kobe, Japan. The VAL technology is now marketed by Siemens, which acquired Matra in the late 1990s. A total of 11 lines in 8 systems based on the VAL technology are currently in operation worldwide. The current version of the VAL product is marketed as NeoVal (with a distinction between AirVal for airport environments and CityVal for more conventional transit environments). The name is a backronym, with the first project to use the technology nicknamed VAL after the routing of the line: ''Villeneuve d'Ascq à Lille'' (). Technology Original VAL The VAL syste ...
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People Mover
A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks. The term was originally applied to three different systems, developed roughly at the same time. One was Skybus, an automated mass transit system prototyped by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation beginning in 1964. The second, alternately called the People Mover and Minirail, opened in Montreal at Expo 67. Finally the last, called PeopleMover or WEDway PeopleMover, was an attraction that was originally presented by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and that opened at Disneyland in 1967. Now, however, the term "people mover" is generic, and may use technologies such as monorail, rail tracks or maglev. Propulsion may involve conventional on-board electric motors, linear motors or cable traction. Generally speaking, larger APMs are refe ...
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