The Zurich Airport Skymetro is an underground airport

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. ...

Zurich Airport Zürich Airport (), french: Aéroport de Zurich, it, Aeroporto di Zurigo, rm, Eroport da Turitg is the largest international airport of Switzerland and the principal hub of Swiss International Air Lines. It serves Zürich, Switzerland's la ...

in Switzerland. The long system connects the airport's main ''Airside Center'', ''Gates A, B and D'' with its mid-field ''Gates E'', passing underneath Runway 10/28. The line opened in September 2003, and was constructed by the

Otis Elevator Company Otis Worldwide Corporation ( branded as the Otis Elevator Company, its former legal name) is an American company that develops, manufactures and markets elevators, escalators, moving walkways, and related equipment. Based in Farmington, Connec ...

. As of 2010, Skymetro was carrying 6.73 million passengers per year, and is claimed to be the most used cable way in Switzerland. With a cost of 176 million

Swiss francs The Swiss franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is also legal tender in the Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia which is surrounded by Swiss territory. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) issues banknotes and the f ...

it is also the most expensive cable car system and one of the most complex with high safety standards. The tunnels of the Skymetro were equipped with

Zoetrope A zoetrope is one of several pre-film animation devices that produce the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion. It was basically a cylindrical variation of the phénak ...

-like films displayed on the sides which ran from 2006 to 2019, with each film consisting of a series of still frames in rapid succession, accompanied by matching sound effects played over the vehicles' public address system. Various films have been shown, including ones based around the fictional character

Heidi ''Heidi'' (; ) is a work of children's fiction published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, originally published in two parts as ''Heidi: Her Years of Wandering and Learning'' (german: Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre) and ''Heidi: How She Use ...

and the

Matterhorn The (, ; it, Cervino, ; french: Cervin, ; rm, Matterhorn) is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy. It is a large, near-symmetric pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the ...

mountain. However, these films are no longer displayed since 2013. Instead, two new films have been made for the system. The first of the two new films has shown a mid-aged woman (holding a crossbow), and her younger son (holding an apple) appeared from late 2013 to 2019, while the other replacement film shows a man waving the

flag of Switzerland The national flag of Switzerland (german: Schweizerfahne; french: drapeau de la Suisse; it, bandiera svizzera; rm, bandiera da la Svizra) displays a white cross in the centre of a square red field. The white cross is known as the Swiss cross ...

. However, for the first time since 2005, as of July 2019, the Zoetrope-like films have been removed. On the 30th of January 2020 they implemented a new voice and film which is shown on 432 vertical pixel rows outside the skymetro. The technology was made by adtrackmedia.

History

Construction of the Skymetro tunnels started in 2000 and was completed in 2001. The first test run was undertaken in November 2002, and the line became operational in September 2003. As built, the line used three trains, each made up of two cars. In 2009, the Skymetro was remodeled as part of a construction project known as ''Zurich 2010'', which mainly involved the centralization of

Security control Security controls are safeguards or countermeasures to avoid, detect, counteract, or minimize security risks to physical property, information, computer systems, or other assets. In the field of information security, such controls protect the c ...

. With the trains expanded from two to three cars, passengers are segregated according to whether they have been screened to EU aviation security standards (whether in Zurich Airport or at their departure airport), and transported in separate cars. Glass dividers enforce this segregation at the station platforms. For the expansion Swiss cable car companies were used: the three new chassis derived from Bartholet in

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, the cabins from Gangloff in Bern, and Altdorfer SISAG company supplied the electrical controls. When the Skymetro opened, the audio featured a recorded female voice, however, the original voice was retired in 2008 when the current male voice debuted.

Technology

Vehicles on the parallel long guideways are drawn by steel cables and float on an approximately thick air cushion generated by on board air compressors, running over a smooth

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...

guide way as in other

Otis Hovair Otis Hovair Transit Systems is a type of hovertrain used in low-speed people mover applications. Traditional people mover systems used wheeled vehicles propelled by electric motors or cable traction, the Hovair replaces the wheels with a hov ...

installations. Service is provided by a total of nine cars, which operate in three trains of three cars each, with each train carrying up to 157 passengers. Trains can run in a pinched loop configuration, with trains reversing direction at each end onto the opposite track. Alternately a shuttle service can be operated, with a single train shuttling backwards and forwards on one track, or a double-shuttle service with one train on each track. In order to allow this flexibility, the traction cables are arranged into five loops: one in each of the main tunnels driven by 465 kW motors, one in each of the reversing lines driven by 266 kW motors, and one in the maintenance siding driven by a 55 kW motor. The trains can engage with, and switch between cables using hydraulic horizontally movable clamps. The maximum speed of a Skymetro train is , and the journey time between ''Airside Centre'' and ''Terminal E'' is 3 minutes.

References

External links

* {{Commons category-inline, Skymetro
YouTube Video of the Train #1 (Old Audio)

YouTube Video of the Train #2 (New Audio W/Heidi 2004–2013)

YouTube Video of the Train #3 (Audio W/new Heidi 2013–2019)

Airport people mover systems Hovair people movers Cable car railways in Switzerland People mover systems in Switzerland Railway lines opened in 2003