Subterranean robot train to beat the jams

A German engineering professor has gone underground to come up with what could be the answer to road gridlock - a subterranean freight system for European cities to service everything from factories to pizza outlets.

The German government is so impressed by the vision of Dr Dietrich Stein and his patented Cargo Cap system it has commissioned further studies on the feasibility of having the first complete underground freight railway in place in the German city of Bochum by 2010.

Professor Stein, a native of the old Ruhr industrial city, has produced detailed plans, costs and computer graphics of the driverless trains he envisages criss-crossing the underbelly of the continent's metropolises, making lorry- and van-clogged streets a relic of history.

Fascinated from an early age by the underground sewerage and water systems of ancient civilisations, the 61-year-old engineer says it is a natural step to imitate them for freight transportation.

"These wonderful constructions of ancient times made modern civilisation possible in the first place," he said. "Now we use the underground to move people around, to put our waste into pipes and to bring to us gas, electricity, water. My idea is only a logical extension."

Cargo Cap's genius lies in its simplicity. Beneath city streets would run a series of tunnels. An electric monorail system would be built to run sealed capsules guided by computers and sensors, each carrying up to 600kg in weight. The plan is for them to run, in tens of thousands, 24 hours a day, gliding silently direct to delivery points.

The capsules would be filled at a central distribution point, on the outskirts of a town or city, eliminating the need for heavy freight inside an urban area servicing consumers within it. There are plans for deep-freeze capsules carrying medicines or human organs for transplants and even heated ones for hothouse plants or food.

Cargo Cap could be connec-ted to airport and rail terminals too. "The post, courier services, banking and other information sectors - all would run more smoothly," said Dr Stein.

The underground freight capsules would be controlled from central traffic controls, much like the command centres for the London Underground.

Having already received funds from the North Rhine-Westphalian government, Berlin is now commissioning further studies. Stein estimates that it will cost several billion pounds to build a system for a city the size of Bochum but that the returns will be justified.

Against him are the powerful truck-and-rail lobbyists who will fight hard to prove his idea unrealistic.

Those for him, including local government leader Gerhard Schnuerch, are rallying hard for the idea to become reality. Schnuerch said: "It's a simply marvellous idea. Anyone who has tried to drive around the Ruhr recently knows it is a joke. No - it's a nightmare."

Last November in the Dutch city of Delft, underground engineers from around the world met to discuss other projects afoot beneath the earth's surface. One scheme on the starting block in Holland involves an underground freight link between the main flower distribution point in Aalsmeer to the main Amsterdam airport Schipol. Backers say it will keep flowers fresher for longer.

Another is about to be greenlighted on the traffic-choked streets of Tokyo to get medical supplies and economic data across the city more swiftly.

But neither of these schemes are as ambitious as the one proposed by Stein. He is hoping to have approval before the end of the year for a trial-run for his system, building a Cargo Cap monorail link beneath the A40 road in the Ruhr.

It will have 13 loading-and-unloading points to keep the heavy trucks out of Bochum. "The idea is right and the time is ripe," said independent scientific researcher Paul Klemmer, president of the North Rhine-Westphalia Institute for Economic research.

Electrical engineer Gerhard Wagner, 53, has drawn up detailed plans for every fourth car on the underground freight system to have an electronic motor to power the driverless trains.

"It's a dynamic project and one that deserves men of vision to see it through," he said.

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