State-of-the-Art
The Sky Line People Mover

How large, heavy, and fast are the vehicles of the new Sky Line people mover?

The new Sky Line people mover links Terminal 3 to Terminals 1 and 2. More than 4,000 passengers an hour will be able to ride the new people mover in each direction. Its driverless vehicles ensure safe, highly stable operation and travel.

Focus on Technology

A new maintenance facility for servicing, repairing, and cleaning the automatic trains makes sure that travelers ride comfortably and reliably among Terminals 1, 2, and 3. The two-part facility also contains the central control room and a warehouse for materials and parts. The main building spans seven levels, while the workshop has only two.

First comes the carcass …

The maintenance facility has two parts: a seven-level core building and a two-level workshop hall. The core building includes an underground level, so it was first necessary to excavate a pit 6.5 meters deep and lay a floor slab up to 2.2 meters thick. So that trains can roll directly into and out of the workshop, 24 supports mounted on 58 piles hold it up at a height of about 16 meters above ground level.

The work to build the new maintenance facility starts, in this picture with the supports for the future Sky Line route in the background.

The two-part maintenance facility, part of which has seven levels, is already clearly visible next to the supports for the guideways. (photograph 2021)

In the maintenance building, all functions of the new Sky Line people mover vehicles are being put through their paces in “dry runs” before they can go on their first test trips on the track.

… and then the equipment

Once the carcass has been completed, work proceeded on the roof and interior. Everything was ready to go in the fall of 2022, when the first Sky Line vehicles were supplied and prepared for operation. A total of 12 vehicles will be delivered by the end of 2023. Each one is supplied in parts, which truck-mounted cranes lift onto the guideway near the maintenance facility. There engineers and mechanics take over and move them into the workshop for assembly and thorough testing. A lot of work still has to be done before they can start operating.