Group rapid transit (GRT) is similar to personal rapid transit but with higher-occupancy vehicles and grouping of passengers with potentially different origin-destination pairs. In this respect GRT can be seen as a sort of horizontal elevator. Such systems may have fewer direct-to-destination trips than single-destination PRT but still have fewer average stops than conventional transit, acting more as an automated share taxi system than a private cab system. Such a system may have advantages over low-capacity PRT in some applications, such as where higher passenger density is required or advantageous. It is also conceivable for a GRT system to have a range of vehicle sizes to accommodate different passenger load requirements, for example at different times of day or on routes with less or more average traffic. Such a system may constitute an "optimal" surface transportation routing solution in terms of balancing trip time and convenience with resource efficiency.
GRT has principally been proposed as a corridor service, where it can potentially provide a travel time improvement over conventional rail or bus and can also interface with PRT systems. However, GRT's necessary grouping of passengers makes it much less attractive in applications with lower passenger density or where few origin-destination pairs are shared among passengers.
Automated transit networks (ATN) is an umbrella term for GRT and PRT. While they have long been considered separate systems, Vectus is developing GRT vehicles formed by combining multiple PRT vehicles. The larger vehicles are designed to accommodate standees and operate on the same guideway as the PRT vehicles. The door spacing of the larger vehicles matches the door spacing of PRT vehicles stopped in a station, allowing the GRT vehicles to share the same station infrastructure too. The concept is intended to allow GRT to serve high-demand station pairs during peak periods, while PRT serves all stations at all times in a network which includes the high-demand station pairs as well as other stations.
The same passenger grouping and destination scheduling approach is used in some advanced elevators, in the form of a destination control system.
Read more about this topic: Personal Rapid Transit
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