"There are so many reasons why PRT is really better compared to normal trains. Once installed I cannot think of anyone who wants to use sceduled public transport again. What about going by train at night, not getting the connecting train, riding with people you don't know but you can smell and hear very intensely? Trains are just a temporary solution. They just don't fit the needs of our time. Only the car does, but it has too many drawbacks for being used so widely.

"The solution: Build a public personal transit system and get the speed, independence and comfort of an individual and private ride but don't pay the price of air pollution, road victims and big space needs in already crowded cities. Sounds good, yah? Cardiff, UK, you have the technology. Please give it at least a single chance to prove its power."

"ULTRA is a paltry and gimmicky solution to a large-scale public transport problem in Cardiff and the surrounding region, and Parry People Movers would scarcely be a more suitable solution to the huge challenge facing Cardiff.

"The city and region have severe traffic problems, which call for an imaginative and bold integrated public transport policy for the region, including, in my opinion, the use of light-rail (trams or 'super-trams') where appropriate. Many cities throughout the world have returned or are returning to modern transit systems which include trams.

"As other writers have said on your pages, there is first a need for a detailed analysis of the problem, but I suggest that a good start would be made if some of the decision-makers in Cardiff and South Wales were to visit (e.g.) Karlsruhe, Montpellier or Croydon (at their own expense) and see for themselves what modern light rail can do for city transport.

"Karlsruhe is roughly the same size as Cardiff but has an impressive co-ordinated transport system, still being extended, and including high spec tram connections with nearby towns comparable with Pontypridd, Barry or Caerphilly.

"Montpellier had long since got rid of its trams, but reintroduced them recently, thanks to far-sighted and determined action on the part of civic decision-makers. The whole scheme was worked out with great attention to detail, resulting in considerable benefits for the city, in terms not only of transport, but also of many beneficial social and economic spin-offs. Croydon, too, has enjoyed similar well-documented benefits from its new tramway.

"Cardiff prides itself on being Europes youngest capital city, and has already done much to live up to this boast, but its present transport situation is an unworthy and shambolic mess. Come on, Cardiff, get your finger out!"

"Nottingham has chosen the tram, which uses tried and tested technology. However, ULTra could be useful as a 'campus transit' system. Why not install it at the Heath Hospital site or the Cardiff Gate Business Park?"

"To adopt a willy nilly approach to traffic congestion mangement is a waste of public money and resources. I will give the Council a tip - ask yourselves why traffic congestion is only a problem during school term times."

"They could get some pointers on how to organise an integrated public transport system - intercity rail, Metro/LRT, trams and buses as well as taxis, bicycles and, for all I know, water taxis - it works!"

"From what I gathered over 90% of the 200 people I asked were against the ULTra proposal and much more in favour of a city-wide tram system that ran to the suburbs, particularly places to the northwest of the city - Whitchurch, Llandaff etc.

"Cardiff Council should get its act together - it is not following government proposals set out in the transport plan. Liverpool, Manchester, and I think Birmingham have been allocated nearly a billion jointly to develop trams that run to the suburbs. These are now in the planning application/consulting stages.

"Cardiff council has all its priorities wrong - since when was there congestion between the centre and the bay? Wake up you idiots in City Hall? Perhaps to curb problems in the future the WDA and others should concentrate more on the depressed parts of the Valleys and quit their fascination with Cardiff which is fine as it is!"

"In principle this is an excellent idea - way ahead of its time - but I can't see it being successful in my lifetime. Surely the planners can see that these driverless cabins would be the subject of mindless vandalism by inconsiderate hooligans and delinquents (or just bored kids...). They will end up being more expensive to maintain than to install in the first place."

"Would it not be better just to create more bus lanes on dual-carriageways around the city, change some of the rail network which only runs around Cardiff into a tram system, and introduce a congestion charge for the city centre?"

"I think that a new driver-free taxi service is excellent. It will get rid of the already-running bay express, and replace it with a new and better form of transport from getting to the bay from town."

"If you think Cardiff's transport problems are bad then a few days in dusty Bangkok will make you change your mind. But they have got one thing right here - the Skytrain. This is an elevated railway that whizzes around the city in modern air conditioned carriages and at a frequency no more than two to three minutes apart. They even had a normal 24 service throughout New Year's eve and day.

"Cardiff should adopt a light railway system, that is frequent, fast, and reliable - one that will not isolate people in small pods, perhaps at the mercy of all kinds of people. The system should run from the fringes of the city, Whitchurch, St Mellons, Penarth to the centre and then to the bay.

"Failing this why not expand the services on the rail line from the Central/Queen's Street Station to the Station at the Bay. It could even incorporate a visitor/history centre at the oldest railway station in the Principality - which stands at the Bay railway halt."

"They could run from Queen Street station using the existing track and railway embankment to the present Cardiff Bay station, and then running at street level into the Bay (e.g. at the rear of Bute Street) then returning back up Bute Street and back to the embankment, then returning to Queen Street, and initially using the Parry People Mover Tram system which does not require over head wires.

"I believe this system is ideally suited to Cardiff and the Bay, whereas the ULTra system is an expensive gimmick, prone to serious vandalism, and could easily be toppled off the monorail-like structure. In fact ULTra is so amazingly similar to a monorail and, as everyone knows, monorails have proved to be an impractical expensive white elephant all over the world, and only suitable for amusement and theme parks.

"As a system which shares the existing heavy rail, trams could be integrated and expanded more easily than the fresh start approach as with ULTra which would cause massive disruption as the existing train service would have to stop and the track and embankment would have to removed. This is a huge unnecessary expense - this money would be better spent on work to extend further into the Bay as described above, and a lowered platform could be provided at the southern end of Queen Street Station."

John Parry, chairman of Parry People Movers, believes their vehicles would be ideal for Cardiff:

"It is our belief, having looked at the short shuttle service between Cardiff Queen Street Station and Cardiff Bay Station, that this line could be quickly extended at low cost to provide a direct link to the Welsh Assembly Building and other destinations in the Cardiff Bay area.

"The mode, as the comment you received points out, would need to be altered from heavy rail to non-electric light rail. There is a PPM railcar-cum-tram running between Brownhills West Station and Chasetown Church Street in the West Midlands and we are engaged in several discussions about conversion from heavy to light rail in the Midlands."