Four brand new Alstom vehicles enter service at Tampa International Airport as part of broad upgrade of its automated people mover (APM) systems

TPA has ordered a total of 16 state-of-the-art Innovia R cars to replace 30-year-old APM cars (also made by Alstom) which have logged more than 1 million miles each. The third-generation model is quieter, easier to maintain, and more energy efficient. Interiors feature improved lighting, updated video information screens and doors with obstacle-detection systems. In addition, Alstom is installing its Urbalis Flo automatic train control system, which allows trains to run more frequently, increasing the system’s capacity and reducing passenger wait times.

“Since 1971 Alstom has worked with the Tampa airport to keep passengers moving swiftly and reliably; some of the cars we’ve provided have logged over 1 million miles. Today we’re proud to celebrate a new milestone in this decades-long partnership, introducing our latest and most advanced APM vehicles into service, designed and manufactured in the United States,” Alstom America’s President Michael Keroullé said. “This is an important part of our broader commitment to support the improvement of the airport’s shuttle system.”

“TPA’s signature shuttles go back to our opening in 1971, and were the first of their kind at any airport in the world when they debuted,” Tampa International Airport CEO Michael Stephens said. “Now we are proud to offer another first, with TPA being the first airport in the world to offer these brand-new shuttles coupled with the new technology and operating system that will be guiding them.”

A long-standing partnership

The achievement is the latest chapter in Alstom’s 55-year-long collaboration with Tampa International Airport (TPA). It started when TPA opened in April 1971 with an Alstom-made APM system to connect travellers from its central terminal to four airside concourses. That was the first time a driverless transportation system was employed at an airport anywhere in the world, an innovation that has been widely imitated and is now a standard feature of airport design. Alstom has also maintained the APM system at Tampa since it began operation.

The first four Innovia R vehicles are serving as the Blue shuttles to and from the A and C concourses (known as “airsides”). By the end of the year, the APM connections to three of the airport’s four airsides will be equipped with new vehicles and the new signalling system. Alstom is also building the guideways, signalling system and vehicles for the future Airside D, which is expected to open in 2028.

All of the APM vehicles are manufactured at Alstom’s plant in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, near the site where the first APMs were developed and tested in the 1960s.

A market leader

Market leading for 50+ years, driverless Innovia automated people mover (APM) is an efficient transportation solution, specially designed to offer quick and convenient service for commuters between airport terminals, to and from airports or within cities. The trains are made up of single cars that are coupled together for highly flexible operations. They operate on a dedicated guideway underground, on ground level or elevated, avoiding interference with surrounding road or runway traffic. Over 30 of Alstom’s APM systems have been delivered around the world and are in operation at 13 of the world’s busiest airports.

The state-of-the-art Urbalis signalling system is used on over 190 metro lines in 32 countries with, including 74 that operate in a complete automatic, driverless basis. 

Alstom is the leading rolling stock and rail service company in the U.S., having delivered more than 12,000 new or renovated vehicles for domestic rail agencies and airport APM systems. Alstom is also the number one private operator in the country and operates and/or maintains APM systems at airports in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, New York City, Orlando, San Francisco, Phoenix and Tampa, moving millions of travellers daily.

ALSTOM™, Innovia™ and Urbalis Flo ™ are protected trademarks of the Alstom Group.