If you follow our Youtube channel, you might have seen our video about the autonomous pods that we posted a few years ago. These pods simply connect Heathrow’s Terminal 5 with satellite parking lots, but we loved them and made sure to ride them again when we returned to the airport.
Our initial experience with the pods was silly — just back and forth from the terminal, for no reason at all. But this time, we actually had a purpose: to get to our hotel. We arrived into Heathrow quite late, and our train to Kent wasn’t leaving until the morning. It just so happened that the hotel we chose totally at random, the Thistle, is connected to Heathrow by the pods! We completely didn’t know this beforehand, nor did we choose that hotel solely because of this fact! That would be weird, and we are totally normal guys, not bizarre transportation fetishists!
But it was a smart choice, regardless. The Thistle is affordable, and getting there from Terminal 5 couldn’t be easier. Just follow sings for the POD parking area, and there will be a little space egg waiting to whisk you away. No queueing for a bus or train, no hassling with a taxi or a ride share. The pods are an on-demand system and you can be on your way with the press of a button. The ride to the hotel takes just five minutes.
Introduced in 2011, this system has about four kilometers of track, and runs with 21 vehicles. It has proven to be a huge success, carrying around 70k passengers per year and cutting an estimated 50% of CO₂ emissions per passenger compared to shuttle buses. On top of that, it’s super fun to ride them. Heathrow is thinking to extend the system and bringing it to other terminals. And other airports are paying attention as well, as they consider similar systems.
We hope they do! This is such a neat little system, especially for people who’ve been just arrived into the airport. When you’ve been traveling all day, the last thing you want to do is wait on yet another bus, train, or taxi stand. Much better to just hop into your own little private pod, and motor away.
From our Travel Blog.