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April 13, 1973: Ford Plans Tram R&D Center

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On April 13, 1973, Ford Motor Company announced plans to explore a new transportation segment – the elevated, automated “people movers” popularized at amusement parks like Disneyland.


Ford plans called for research center near Ann Arbor, Mich., and a mile-long pilot at the Fairlane shopping center developed by Ford adjacent to the company’s world headquarters in Dearborn, Mich.


Global planners in the early 70s forecast a potentially huge market for the systems, in which small driverless vehicles are directed by computer along a fixed guideway. While the number of cars and stations would vary, the systems were touted widely as the ideal transit solution for downtown, university and airport environments.

Fairlane’s Automatically Controlled Transportation (ACT) system opened in 1976 and carried more than a million passengers. But Ford lost money building a second system in Connecticut, as people mover projects elsewhere bogged down in overruns and political snarls.

The once-rosy market failed to materialize and Ford closed down its ACT development office before the Fairlane system opened. The elevated guideway that linked the shopping center to a nearby Hyatt Regency Hotel was razed in 1988.
 
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