JTRP 98

PERGAMON

Transport Policy 5 (1998) 6172

The use of pipelines for the urban distribution of goods

Timothy Howgego, Michael Roe*
Institute for Marine Studies, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, Devon, UK

Abstract This paper provides an analysis of the role of pipelines in urban areas for the distribution of freight an idea that has been considered, and even attempted occasionally over the last 150 years. No attempt has been made previously to pull together the relevant literature, and this paper not only does this but also goes on to attempt to evaluate the potential contribution of pipelines towards the alleviation of the severe urban transport problem that exists. 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Pipelines; Urban transport; Freight distribution

1. Introduction Science ction is littered with examples of the use of pipes for all forms of transport. Not that the idea is anything new. River water has been transported in what are little more than open-topped pipes since before the dawn of civilisation. Pipes already form the basis of what are arguably the largest ows of freight within built up areas: water, gas, sewage, even electricity and ground-based communications. However, ask someone to name modes of transport and the humble pipe will be the last on their list, if at all. There is little doubt that some of the worlds most successful cities are in danger of becoming victims of their own transport systems failings. Although there are often alternatives to road transport for many passenger trips, freight has no such luxury. As Ogden (1992) comments, an urban area requires a freight system to sustain it. Within cities, freight moves extensively by road. There are no alternatives. Or are there? Given the traditional denition of pipeline transport, the movement of a uid through an enclosed pipe, the idea of moving many goods in this way may seem a little ridiculous. However, when we regard the pipeline as nothing more than a sealed dedicated transport way through which any product may be propelled, perhaps more akin to an underground railway tube, the potential of this mode of transport is vastly increased. We intend to examine the concepts and problems, and then apply a pipe-based system to the urban environment. Although in studying the use of pipelines for the urban
* Corresponding author.

distribution of goods we should consider applications of traditional liquid pipelines, these are limited in application and hence of minor importance. We shall instead focus on an area known as capsule pipelines, sometimes referred to as tube transport. As we shall see, in spite of a history spanning more than 150 years, the sytem remains virtually undocumented. Vance and Mattson (1994) broadly dene it as, a class of transportation system for passengers or freight in which vehicles (or capsules) are propelled through essentially continuous tubes between terminals. It is common to further subdene it by the type of propulsion used; here pneumatics (air) have predominated, although water and linear induction techniques are also in development. It is not realistic to hope to cover every area of urban freight transport in a paper of this sort, so we will examine one of the more important sectors, that of grocery retail within an urban area. Although it should be recognised that this may not be completely typical of every city and every freight movement, if nothing else it should allow some basis for the assessment of capsule pipeline systems for freight transport.

2. Urban freight transport As a number of authors (Roudier, 1976; Hensher, 1977; Button and Pearman, 1981; Ogden, 1992) point out, the movement of freight within cities is critical to their very existence, and yet it remains an issue that is largely overlooked. What we dene as urban freight transport is even more complex. Goodwin (1995) maintains that within the retail sector (one of the largest in terms of movements) the

0967-070X/98/$19.00 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved PII: S0 96 7 -0 7 0X (9 8 )0 0 01 2 -2

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private car has become a freight delivery system, forming the last link in the distribution chain from factory to consumer. And what of water, sewage, gas, even electricity? Many authors fail to acknowledge these as freight, or even urban transport, but as Button and Pearman (1981) point out, pipelines account for the largest volume of freight movements. According to Roudier (1976), a typical resident of New York was supplied with 210 t of water per year, a large proportion of which is actually transported twice, albeit as sewage. Further complication is added by the fact that urban freight encompasses four differing movements: in, out, within, and through an urban area. As for the denition of urban, we could dedicate an entire paper and have no clearer idea than a built up area. Perhaps even that is too narrow a denition. The urban freight problem really encompasses two areas: specic issues of road freight vehicles in cities, and the wider ows of trafc in cities, both in respect to freight adding to ows and the impact of passenger ows on the ability to move freight. It is interesting to note that, given a relatively modern infrastructure, pipe-based freight ows are never regarded as a problem. Meanwhile, there is a tendency, as Roudier (1976) points out, to think of transport and land use in two dimensions, when in fact there are three. For over a century, underground trains have formed something of a backbone for passenger transport in cities but they have few equivalents in the freight world. At various times during history, a number of pneumatic systems have existed. One of the few underground freight systems currently operating is an automated railway run by the Post Ofce between a number of Londons city centre sorting ofces. According to Aldhous et al. (1995), the 11 km track carries almost 6m letters a day, although changes in the Royal Mails distribution system have reduced the importance of the railway. Planning transport in three dimensions is not as easy as it may seem. In any city the few metres just below the surface are crowded with various services, including water, sewage, electricity, gas and communications lines. Further underground, the situation is not that much easier. To quote an anonymous London Transport Jubilee Extension Project source, one of the biggest problems with tunnelling in London is avoiding things, and the most difcult things to avoid are the ones nobody knows are there. This applies as much to the physical tunnelling process as to planning. Aldhous et al. (1995) touch on the existence of extensive Ministry of Defence tunnels under London, also thought to carry some trunk telephone lines. The extent of these tunnels is a mystery, but they are said to run for more than 19 km. According to Aldhous, even projects having the blessing of wider government can only resubmit three times plans that happen to run too close to these secret tunnels. The problem is that those submitting the plans are never told where the conicts occur, lest the locations of the tunnels be mapped.

3. Pneumatic capsule pipeline transport and associated developments According to Peggs (1985), the rst extensive recorded use of pipes for urban transport was by the Romans. Roman sewer systems were so important that their patron goddess was somewhat curiously Venus, goddess of love. Whilst sewage and water distribution systems are in effect freight transport, we will focus on the use of pipelines and tubes to move freight in encapsulated form. Simper and Baker (1975) attribute the idea of pipeline systems for the movement of large solids to a Danish engineer, Medhurst. As early as 1810 he proposed the use of a small-diameter tube for the transport of letters. The idea is reported to have fallen out of favour after Medhurst proposed a 2 m diameter passenger version in 1827: the prototype caused claustrophobia in Victorian passengers. The rst widespread implementation of the technology, as reported by McGregor (1957), was between the Central and Stock Exchanges of the Electric and International Telegraph Company in the City of London in 1853. The 1.5 ft diameter tube system allowed messages to be conveyed in a more efcient manner than the use of trained telephonists. Eventually 57 miles of tube across London were constructed. Aldhous et al. (1995) add further detail, describing cast iron ducts laid 30 cm below the surface of many of Londons pavements enclosing smooth lead pipes 60 mm in diameter. Within these ran cylinders made of gutta-percha covered in felt or leather, which carried messages. Cylinders were either propelled or sucked at more than 30 km h 1 by a force due to air differentials created by steam-driven beam engines. By 1874, the system was transporting some 4.5m messages annually from the Central Telegram Ofce to local ofces for distribution by hand. In 1860, the rst use of what would come to be known as the large-bore pneumatic capsule system was implemented, again in London, by the Pneumatic Dispatch Company. Simper and Baker (1975) report that the company constructed a 2 ft 9 in 2 ft 5 in diameter tube from Battersea Fields to various unspecied locations in Central London. The system allowed small tracked vehicles to be pushed through a sealed system by force of air (Pneumatic Despatch Company, 1859). As with all early systems, one of the biggest problems was that the system needed to be sealed while in use, allowing only one movement at a time. Several companies started using the system and it was not long before it was declared the solution to Londons street congestion. Although the system remained in use until the turn of the century, high maintenance costs and bad system reliability made it few friends. Aldhous et al. (1995) also make mention of a Pneumatic Despatch constructed by a Victorian engineer, Thomas Rammell. From the description given of a railway carriage based system for passengers and freight operating in a 2 m diameter horse-shoe tunnel between Euston station and St. Pauls, the authors may be

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commenting upon a different scheme from that described by Simper and Baker (1975), possibly referring to a scheme depicted by Beach (1868) which shows the inauguration of The London Pneumatic Dispatch at Holborn station. The system was opened in 1869, but because it was underpowered, and hence slow, it was shut in 1882, only to re-emerge in an explosion caused by built up gases in the disused tunnel in 1928! A further system for the carriage of passengers is also shown by Beach (1868), both in prototype form at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1864, and within the Whitehall Railway scheme. According to Vance and Mattson (1994), this scheme fell foul of the 1866 nancial crisis. Clearly there is some potential for further study here, but since many of these systems have little to do with the current ones, we will not linger on them. Finally, it would appear that the principle also attracted Victorian innovators such as Berlier (1885), who proposed a system between London and Paris, or at least as far as the Channel ports. It seems that similar schemes were adopted throughout several East Coast American cities. Beach (1868) details a number of proposals made at the American Institute, New York, in 1867. There are various suggestions for postal, packaged freight, and even passenger applications. McGregor (1957) claims that an 8 in diameter system capable of carrying 8 lb loads in 7 in 21 in tracked vehicles at 2530 mph was used for postal trafc in New York, Brooklyn, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and St Louis. Vance and Mattson (1994) note that at their peak in 1906, 63 miles of mail-carrying double pneumatic tube were operating around the US. Anderson (1994) refers to the introduction of a pneumatic system for moving mail in New York in 1897. There are also a few US government documents to support pneumatic pipelines as being something of an issue around the turn of the century (US Government Publication, 1901, 1919). Thornton (1972) also quotes Batcheller (1899) on the subject. In Europe at least, large-bore systems would seem to be something of a non-starter. This is countered by the apparent success of small-bore message systems which were widespread in most major European cities. Anderson (1994) refers to a 250 mile network of pneumatic tubes in Paris, while Aldhous et al. (1995) claim Londons 120 km network to be the most extensive in the world. They go on to comment that the London system was not closed until 1962 when it was superseded by telephone networks, telexes and teleprinters, although it was in fairly intensive use until shortly before. Presumably the tubes have been integrated back into the communications network to carry cable. According to Aldhous et al. (1995), Mercury Communications, for example utilised 186 miles of old piping belonging to the defunct London Hydraulic Power Company in order to link city customers at very low cost, almost overnight. It is interesting to note that in spite of the vital role of pneumatic tube systems in communications, because they were all but invisible to the casual observer they were regarded as being of no real signicance in the transport literature of the time. Much the same is true of pipelines

in the wider context today. Coyle et al. (1982) comment that pipelines are the hidden giants of US freight transportation, accounting for 25% of ton-mile of US freight, about half of which is gas. When the use of pipelines for the movement of water and waste is taken account (and no texts appear to even consider these ows), it is possible that pipelines may come out as the most important mode in US freight transportation, if not in the world and few good authors will do little more than mention this mode. There appears to be no literature concerning the uptake of the system for the physical transfer of small packages, documents and money by large retail outlets and businesses more generally; sufce to say that they were common at least before the Second World War. It is probable that the process was so phased in over decades that it was not until the 1960s that anyone thought to document it as a separate area from telegram conveying. Thornton (1972) quotes several examples of systems for moving everything from medical items to small aircraft components. Many of the examples are German, with some American sources. One interesting development is covered by Schultz (1965) who details new systems for directing capsules on to different locations, in which an electromechanical Electric Lorenz system similar to that of automatic telephone exchanges of the time is applied. This certainly highlights the growing use of technology within the eld, which Schultz suggests would lower costs. It seems that small-bore systems have changed very little over their 140 year history. The current systems, such as that detailed by Lamson (1996), would seem to work on the same principle of blowing small capsules through a virtually closed system. The key differences are the use of modern materials, particularly plastics, and the adoption of increasingly complex electronic operating systems which allows a greater variety in the network of locations served and more control over capsules. The advantages to companies of the system remain the same. Cash transfer away from the points of sale reduces the risks of robbery and eliminates the need for staff trips with cash. Although the days of the telegram are all but gone, there is still a need for document transfers within different businesses. It appears that there were no further developments in large-bore systems until the 1960s. Various sources document the implementation of a twin-bore capsulated system for moving mail around Hamburg. Simper and Baker (1975) cite Hecks et al. (1969), while Thornton (1972) cites Haussmann (1970) on the operational experience. The system carried 1.6 m long containers/capsules through 0.45 m diameter tubes laid under the streets of the city. Capsules moved through the 1.8 km network at speeds of between 30 and 36 km h 1. It was reported to have worked reasonably well, attracting the attentions of the Belgian and French postal authorities; the latter even went as far as to develop prototypes in the late 1960s. Although the use of modern materials and technology certainly gave the system better reliability than that a century before, it was still

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limited by the same principles of physics that had traditionally prevented more than one capsule in the system at a time. From the late 1960s onwards there was considerable development of large-bore pneumatic capsule technology. Critical to this process was the development of the booster pump. The theory behind this seems to be attributed to Carstens, working at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1969, although as we will see, it is possible that the Russian Special Design Bureau had mastered the technology previously. Carstens (1970) provides a theoretical analysis of the use of booster pumps along a low-speed capsule pipeline. Without the use of boosters, pneumatic systems lose pressure over distance from the pump and as a result of additional capsules in the system. The imposition of boosters at intervals along the pipe not only ensures that many capsules can be moved over great distances, but also allows certain parts of the system, such as terminals, to return to atmospheric pressures without interrupting the operation of the rest of the system. It is interesting to note that Carstens chooses to provide an example based on a system for moving postal parcels. Later schemes have tended to focus on the use of the technology for raw material movements. Carstens puts forward a number of advantages for the system. Power could be provided from stationary power plants (always the most efcient form of energy generation), the system would be virtually pollution free and safe, and would have minimal labour requirements when compared to existing trucking, whilst pipelines could be readily buried, making them aesthetically innocuous and eliminating competition for land. Disadvantages were seen as the necessity to work to xed trafc patterns, working freight in a constant ow for optimum efciency, and the sizeable initial capital investment required in the systems construction. Carsten sparked off several different research projects concerning pneumatic capsule pipelines (PCPs). Much of the literature focuses on efforts by the British Hydromechanics Research Association (BHRA) working at Craneld, and a system at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US. While there are a lot of papers relating to engineering issues relating to PCPs, these tend to be nothing more than technical adaptations of the Carstens scheme. These systems generally used capsules running on wheels within pipes between 200 and 600 mm in diameter. Although both teams eventually produced working prototypes, according to Fidler (1973) most of the early economic work was conducted in the UK. Simper and Baker (1975) cite two studies by the BHRA concerned with the transportation of sand and waste, highlights of which are also covered by Fidler (1973). The studies took base building costs from those for gas pipeline laying. Operating costs were mainly power-based, assuming a minimum power consumption achieved at the optimum velocity for a given load. Some administration and maintenance costs were also included. Over a 20 year life span, a

system running in the worse-case scenario could offer a rate of between 1.5 c and 3.55 c per tonne per mile. Road haulage at the time is quoted at 35 c per tonne per mile. Simper and Baker saw possibilities for single product/user systems, publicly run systems for one kind of product, and multipurpose, multiuser systems. When the naive economic costs are combined with unquantiables (at least at the time), such as security, congestion and environmental costs it is easy to see why they declared that long term pneumatic capsule pipelines will become an established method of freight transport. By 1978, PCP economics had started to become more realistic. As Marcus et al. (1990) point out, one of the disadvantages of all forms of pneumatic pipeline is that they are very difcult to design. So many factors affect each other within the design process that relatively small changes in one area can cause large changes overall. The impacts of this principle on costing such systems are obvious. Lynam (1978) is forced to conclude there are no easy costing methods, with costs varying with every option and technology. He presents a methodology for costing, starting by dening the application parameters, then selecting design options to be costed. Calculation is then necessary of the system curves and gradients, then locations and size of boosters. These are nally combined with the booster operating conditions to give a comparative cost for each option. Because raw material movements are envisioned by Lynam, speeds are assumed to be at the optimum efciency of the system. With throughputs as high as 2m tonnes per year, inclusive costs over a 10 year life-span give rates as low as 8.4 c per tonne per mile. Zandi (1978) adopts a much broader approach in attempting to assess the market for a PCP system transporting manufactured cargo on hypothetical US intercity routes, the only known study that is not agricultural or raw materials based. Zandi examined the system in terms of technological feasibility, economic comparisons, environmental consequences and acceptance of shippers, purposefully ignoring socio-political issues. He compared pipelines with existing modes: truck, rail and a combination of the two. Whilst expressing similar difculty to Lynam in calculating pipeline costs, he does provide a methodology for their calculation c
i1

[ c i c si

1 ]F (1 r )ni i

oi
i1

where c is the total annual cost of the system in dollars, c i is the capital cost of the ith cost component in dollars, o i is the operation and maintenance cost of the ith cost component in dollars, c si is the salvage value associated with the capital cost component i, at the end of the useful life of the component, in dollars, r is the annual interest rate (0 r 1), n i is the life span associated with the ith cost component in years, F i is the capital recovery factor equal to r=[1 (1 r) ni ], and i is the index for counting cost components.

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A sensitivity analysis on the factors inuencing this equation concluded that the unboostered pipeline itself accounted for 7161% of the total construction costs. The pipeline was also the most inuential operating cost, though not to the same degree. Although the methodology of Zandi and Lynam are substantially different, as Butler (1978) points out, there are considerable similarities in their estimations of the distribution of cost within their systems. Zandi gave capital costs for a 700 mile, 15m tonnes per year system as being between US $1221m and $869m, with operating costs per year of US $249m$122m, of which 60% were capital costs. He found that there was a good case to be made on cost with more than 25m tonnes per year, and also ows as low as 5m tonnes per year for journeys up to 700 miles and these gures were based on the use of total pipeline costs compared with marginal costs in other modes. He concluded that cost may not be the only factor in play. Most literature makes reference to the existence of PCP systems developed in the USSR; however because of the nature of the regime at that time, there has been very little information published in depth. A number of authors, such as Marcus (1984), refer to Jvarsheishvili (1981) and Alexandrov (1978). Whilst the technology appears to be different from that of other PCPs in name only and the fact that capsules were formed up into trains, the USSR clearly had grand plans for the system, proposing it as nothing short of the solution to urban freight movement. According to Marcus (1984), Zandi (1982) went on to propose a very similar application, with households linked up by PCPs and able to order groceries which would arrive by capsule. Domestic waste would ow the other way. Although Vance and Mattson (1994) note the existence of an 11 km line for waste transport near Leningrad from 1983, the rst Soviet system was designed for the movement of crushed rock. A 1 m diameter system was constructed near Tibilisi in Georgia as early as 1971, with a second line being added in 1979. A nal 18 km mineral system near Tula in Georgia, LILO-2, is acknowledged by Liu (1993) as still being the largest PCP on the planet. One interesting aspect of the scheme is the way in which costs were calculated. In order to avoid inefciency in the planning process, two models were used, an approximate one for initial use, with a complex model for detailed analysis. The technology was sold to Japan. A system for moving limestone built by the Sumitomo Cement Co. was based on Russian technology, according to Vance and Mattson (1994). Nippon Steel Corporation also constructed a system for moving limestone around the Muroran steel plant using US technology. In spite of years of research and some quite healthy economics, these few schemes remain the only commercial applications of large-bore PCPs. But why? Marcus (1984) argues that the PCP system was inadequately marketed. Although Butler et al. (1989) found there were many advantages in PCP systems, many rst

suggested by Carstens, they identied a number of important disadvantages. They believed PCPs had not been successful because of the existence of established networks, barriers to trade in the wider economy, transport traditions, lack of planning, and a serious lack of working examples. In a survey based on raw material transporters, they found that issues such as spillages, power failures and blockages had not been answered in the minds of those surveyed. As for urban and processed goods applications, there appear to be no answers. Perhaps such schemes were too capital intensive, perhaps the culture shift among shippers required was just too great. Perhaps there were no real attempts to nd markets for the technology. Vance and Mattson (1994) can nd little better reason than a quirk of history. To quote Ed Broomeld of the BHRA (quoted by Aldhous et al. (1995)), the technology is ... there and waiting, if someone would like to come and wake up Sleeping Beauty with a kiss. Enter HCPs. Liu (1993) cites British Army operations in the Second World War in East Asia as being the rst time hydraulic capsule pipelines (HCPs) were considered as a transport system. Although the Alberta Research Council investigated the system in Canada, it was not until the creation of the US Capsule Pipeline Research Centre in 1991 that research in the eld really took off. According to Marrero (1996), at a sufcient speed of water ow, there is enough lift generated to raise the capsule from the bottom of the pipeline, allowing it to be transported with only 10 30% more energy than required to just move the water. The system tends to be slower, but more efcient than the PCP system. Liu and Jianping (1989) provide an interesting example of the potential for an HCP for grain transport from the American Midwest, and can be compared with Koo (1989), who carried out work in the same eld, but using a PCP. Although individual methods will clearly vary between each author, Koo found that PCPs could compete with other existing modes under 280 miles where at least 2m tonnes per year were being transported. Liu and Jianping concluded that an HCP was cheaper than road and rail with at least 1m tonnes per year, but was only cheaper than a barge under 150 km. Both authors appear to have proposed fairly well-integrated networks which discounted environmental benets and use by other commodities, particularly outside harvest. Recent work such as that by Noble, cited in the communication by Marrero (1996), provides the economics of using HCPs for transporting coal in the form of coal logs (basically coal glued together into a capsule shape). Based on the work of Liu et al. (1995), Noble details a fourlevel economic analysis, starting from the basic system costs and becoming more complex to take into account complex engineering aspects, nancial returns, and changing economic conditions. This is combined with a cash ow analysis to account for investment, operating cost and prot. All these are conducted for ows over 10 2000 miles with a pipe diameter of 420 in. Nevertheless,

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Noble is forced to conclude that the economics of the system will not be known for certain until a commercial system is installed and operated. Marrero (1996) remains condent that $6 per tonne could be knocked off the current rail prices on the WyomingTexas corridor, saving business more than $90m a year. Recently, according to Anon (1996), the US Department of Transportation has started to re-examine the use of capsule pipelines for intercity freight movements. One key element, detailed by Vance and Mattson (1994) is the Subtrans proposal developed by Vandersteel. The scheme appears to utilise some of the ideas of Knoll, alongside base principles of Carstens Tubexpress. The proposal is for pallet-carrying capsules running in 2 m diameter tunnels between cities. In what may yet come to be called LICP, linear induction motors are used to propel capsules. A maximum throughput of 1875 capsules or 15 000 tons h 1 would be possible, with the scheme showing a net return with 13m tons or more per year. One additional benet of the scheme cited is that of increased control over delivery schedules. Koshi (1992) comes closer to the idea of an urban freight capsule pipeline system than most, proposing in some depth the use of an automated underground tube network to move goods around Tokyo in Japan. In the face of some of the worst trafc congestion in the world, and one of the highest proportions of freight vehicles, the scheme aims to take up to 40% of freight off the roads through the introduction of an extensive network of underground railways. These will run trains between automated stations, where cargo will be transferred either directly to the destination or transferred to road vehicles for highly localised delivery. The scheme is expected to cost around 5 trillion yen, about a third of this cost being in terms of tunnelling. The benets in terms of travel and time savings alone are said to equal 9.2 trillion yen over 20 years. According to the Japanese Ministry of Construction and Udea (1997), proposals have now been

modied to include the use of electric dual mode vehicles that run between hubs on dedicated automated underground or overground roadways and transfer to normal roads for nal deliveries. A similar, albeit smaller-scale scheme to that originally proposed in Japan is being developed for Central London. CCLT (1995) details a scheme that appears to expand and develop tunnels currently used by the Post Ofce. It proposes creating a 2 m wide underground roadway on which automated vehicles, such as those used in warehousing, can carry palletised goods directly to their nal destinations in Central London. Goods could be conveyed from inner suburban locations with greater exibility and reliability. There are also important advantages in terms of the removal of stockrooms from large retailers, stock instead being held in the suburbs. This allows more expensive Central London oorspace to be used for retailing. The system would also use less labour and energy, and has various socio-economic benets such as reduced noise and pollution. Arguably it also reduces handling and improves the ow of goods through the logistical process. While the scheme has the potential for large-scale application, its initial aims are relatively small-scale. One interesting aspect of the CCLT document is that it highlights the current inefciency in modern highway transport systems through comparison of the London orbital motorway, the M25, with the London water ring main which was recently completed. Whilst the two systems are by no means identical, some frankly shocking comparisons can be drawn (Table 1). The water ring main has a ow of material movement 19 times greater than the M25, with an effective capacity eight times that of the motorway. To add more salt to the wound, the ring main occupies only 2.5 m diameter of soil against eight lanes and rising of prime land surface. This combines to give the M25 (if dedicated to freight) a volumetric utilisation of just 0.54%, against virtually 100% for the ring main, and thats not to mention

Table 1 Comparison between the transport characteristics of the London water ring main and the M25 (1990) a Parameter Length (km) Cross-section Cross-sectional area (m 2) Movement speed (miles h 1) Flow rate (10 3 tonnes per day) Material transport capacity (10 12 t km per year) Cost (m) Volumetric utilisation (%) Visual intrusiveness Noise generation Energy consumption Pollution Danger to public
a

Ring main 80 2.54 m (diam) 5 6.7 1300 37.96 250 100 Very low Very low Low Low Very low

M25 187 28 m 5 m 140 60 67 4.59 1000 b 0.54 c Very high Very high High High Very high

Source: CCLT, 1995. 1986 cost. c If fully dedicated to freight.

b

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operational overheads, congestion, pollution, visual intrusion, etc. Such examples speak volumes for current transport policies. This is an issue to which we shall inevitably return.

Table 3 Top 10 selling groceries in 1994 a Product Carbonated drinks Detergents Cereals Toilet tissue Instant coffee Tea bags Yoghurt Canned cat food Dilutables Canned dog food
a

Sales (m) 918 836 833 566 497 489 475 438 336 324

4. A new perspective The next leap forward is unclear. This is as true of grocery logistics as it is for the solution to the urban freight problem, and yet in both elds there is a need to move forward, be it a simple issue of commercial efciency, or a much more complex issue relating to the very fabric of urban society. Pipelines are not a new solution. Water mains have not only addressed important urban issues, arguably relating to transport, but have also been commercially expedient. Throughout their long history, capsule-based pipeline systems have frequently been declared as being the solution to urban freight transport, which indeed they might well be. Many economically and technically sound proposals have been made, but the only real success in implementation was in the communications eld. As the next stage, we intend to take the conditions that prevail within the grocery sector, and develop a pipelinebased transport system. The grocery sector is so large that it can probably fully utilise a dedicated system. Having said that, there is no reason to assume a system designed to meet the demands of one user could not be adapted to meet the needs of another. The ideal within urban freight would be a system that could transport goods to any location at any moment in time, that could time deliveries with perfect accuracy and never be late, and, above all, one which does all this without people even realising it is happening. The ideal within groceries would involve a system that minimised inventory holding, but yet still kept the customer supplied. For once there appear no conicts among these ideals. Our focus must now be drawn to the customer. We need to ask what needs to be transported, where to, and why. It is important within this to discount elements that are purely a function of the existing method of transport. Within the grocery sector, the only thing that actually needs to be moved is the product that the customer wishes to purchase. So long as that product can be made available in perfect
Table 2 Breakdown of products distributed and sold by J. Sainsbury plca Product type Ambient K lines Bulky Single stocking point lines Frozen Chilled Produce
a

Source: Nielsen, 1996.

Percentage of total 33.4 12.9 5.0 0.6 5.4 28.8 13.9

Source: J. Sainsbury (1995, 1997).

condition, then existing levels of packaging, handling or temperature control are superuous to our discussion. The movement itself is purely from supplier to consumer. So long as the nished goods can make those moves, the status quo of complex webs of distribution depots and even retail outlets are again superuous to our requirement. We must, however, recognise that existing data and industry structure are based around the current system, and any new system would have to be initially integrated into the current system if it were to succeed. Table 2 shows a breakdown of different types of products distributed and sold by a UK national supermarket. K lines are those with a low sales velocity, bulky lines are delivered by pallet, single stocking point lines are those held at only one depot nationally, and produce can be eloquently dened as the green stuff. Others speak for themselves. Important points to note are that about half of the sales are of goods that are not temperature sensitive. Of those that remain, most need only to be chilled to some extent (chilled and produce) surprisingly few are actually frozen. The top 10 selling grocery products are shown in Table 3. For the majority of groceries, the physical sizes and dimensions of the products are determined by current packaging. Given a minor change to the current pattern of multipacks and liquid-based products being purchased in bulk, there are actually very few grocery purchases that could not be repackaged to t in a relatively small area, for example a box 15 cm square. There are, of course, exceptions - 12 in pizzas, Christmas turkeys, frying pans but these are few and far between, and as a point of interest, often frozen. The simple observation that individual groceries are, or can be made to be, small, can be combined with an aim of inventory minimisation to give us a whole new outlook on the transport system: why cannot items be transported individually as and when required? Why cannot the entire transport and distribution system be miniaturised? The answer, of course, is that it can. Enter the pipeline. The basic idea is as follows. The retail outlet is connected to a centrally located distribution depot by means of at least

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one small-diameter pipeline run over or under existing rights of way, such as roads. A small number of items from every product line is available for purchase from racks within the retail outlet, with all other inventory held at the central distribution depot. Every time a single item is picked from the rack, a direct replacement is propelled down the pipeline from the central distribution depot to the retail outlet, arriving onto the rack ready for sale. The system benets are extensive, and will be discussed in the next section. Sufce to say at this point, in commercial terms alone, the fact that the inventory is held in just one central location makes the system highly efcient. Our discussion will, for now, focus on a number of important issues that the system raises. It is important to recognise that although a xed infrastructure would be required, this would be serving relatively xed locations. The decision to build a modern supermarket is long term. Even longer term is the decision of the population to live in particular areas, and people are always going to want to buy groceries. The exact diameter of the pipeline will depend on the size of the items passing through. Given that we should be aiming to minimise the diameter and hence the probable costs of construction and operation whilst ensuring as many products can use the system as possible, it is probable that nal diameters would be less than 20 cm. Propulsion technology is perceived as being gas- or airbased, other uids being unsuitable in such close proximity to foodstuffs and consumer goods. Air would be forced into the system at various points along the tube Carstens style. Many items could hence traverse the system at one time. The ride quality experienced by the groceries could be likened to towing them behind a car in an unsprung trailer: ... milk would become butter, eggs will scramble, beer will explode, crisps will be broken, claret ruined. There are a number of methods of providing active suspension; however, it seems reasonable to use a system that does not create vibrations in the rst place. As detailed by Jayawant (1981), electromagnetic levitation in its most complex forms is often found in developing transport systems. Within this, the simplicity of the basic repulsion of permanent magnets seems often forgotten. Given modern permanently magnetic materials and the low intrinsic weight, it is possible that our pipeline could be lined with three or four rows of such magnets. With corresponding permanent magnetic strips on each grocery item, the item would be held clear of the pipe walls, eliminating the friction and vibration present at that point. Whilst such basic principles are usually discounted because of their instability, this should not be an issue within a closed tube system. The only real problems would result from the effects of the magnet elds on the product being conveyed. Again much more consideration needs to be given here, particularly in relation to speeds. It is realistic to expect that given the elimination of friction with the pipe wall,

almost any speed is achievable. It is equally possible that this technique may prove uneconomic. Another issue to be considered here is that of frozen and chilled goods. By denition, air under pressure in the pipe will create heat which will transfer to the product. Since frozen goods are more susceptible to temperature change, they might need to be excluded from the system. As we noted earlier, frozen goods are often those that would be excluded on the basis of size anyway. One only has to wander around a supermarket to realise that some items, although small, could never really be repackaged into a suitably capsule-like shape to use a pipeline. Other products would need considerably enhanced packaging; for example sausages would end up having to be boxed rather than wrapped. This leads to the idea of using capsules within the system that act purely as a vehicle and display cabinet for a number of similar products. Once the products are sold the capsule would return through the system for relling. Such capsules would probably be used wherever the costs of the additional packaging necessary to allow a product to use the pipeline were greater than the cost of using dedicated capsules for transport, including any inventory disbenet. The system itself needs to be capable of working at the same velocity as sales are occurring. This should not be underestimated. A large store has all of its 30-plus checkout positions in use on a Saturday afternoon processing up to 600 items a minute. There is, however, considerable peaking within the sector, although, particularly with the introduction of Sunday and 24 h opening (Beddall, 1997), there is increasingly no time period in which no sales occur. We have also noted that a reverse channel is likely to be required for at least a proportion of items sold. It is proposed that in order for the system to be workable, the principles of relief and reversible lines be taken from the railway industry. In addition to a main pipeline for incoming items and a reverse channel pipeline for outgoing empty capsules, a third relief pipeline would allow extra capacity at busy times, and if made workable in both directions at different times, could be used to provide cover while one of the other pipes was undergoing maintenance, or in the event of a blockage. Lastly, we must consider the design of the terminals. Initial thoughts on how to feed products into the system would be to emulate the branching of a tree. Each product would be stored at a given point in a warehouse, that point linked by a feeder pipe. When required, the product could be released into the latter, initially at low pressure and velocity. One feeder pipe would then join another, doubling the pressure for the next section. All feeders would double in this way until all had formed into one pipe for the trunk trip, by which time considerable pressure/velocity would have been reached. The exact opposite would happen at the other end, with items nally emerging onto their display racks with almost no velocity. Obviously such a system would require great accuracy in its operation, but given the highly reliable and predictable nature of the system, that in itself

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should not be a problem. This is clearly going to require extensive remodelling of both depot and store, although with careful design there is no reason why any structural changes would be needed to the building. By the very nature of what is being proposed, there is considerable scope for further evaluation. What should be clear is that although the technology may need ne tuning, nothing totally new is being proposed, merely a new application of a broad range of concepts. It is also hoped that although a number of questions remain unanswered, the proposal is in essence a workable one. But just because something can be done, it doesnt mean that it should be. Therefore in the next section we outline the principles of a methodology that can be applied to our system to determine just whether there is a net benet from its implementation, and to whom it is of benet.

5. Evaluation The evaluation of our proposed system can be very much likened to transport planning for trips to the Moon. Whilst both are technically possible, they are so vastly different from the norm that no clear, certain methodology can be developed. We can, for example, make no assumptions about who owns, builds or runs the system, and since different agents will have differing objectives, the weights applied to different benets and disbenets will vary. The commercial sector might wish to emphasise pure cash benets, while government might be looking to give greater weight to social, strategic, or economic aims. Equally, it is difcult at this stage to do little more than identify possible sources of cost for the system. The system is both vaguely dened with areas of extensive possible variation, and subject to very little development. Within this environment, we must acknowledge that we can do little more than outline both a broad method for evaluation, and highlight some of the important factors that future promoters might wish to include. Much of what follows has principles in common with current transport theory and practice. This means that it is likely that, as has been common in areas such as costbenet analysis (Bruton, 1985), issues may come to light in the future that are not fully perceived in the present. It should further be realised that although terms like cost are used, this does not necessarily imply a monetary gure. Many factors included may be considered to be intangible, i.e. impossible to give a meaningful monetary value. The term evaluation therefore needs to be applied in its loosest sense, where tangible and intangible elements go to form a value judgement in the mind of the decision-taking body. The rst step of any evaluation is to quantify the existing system. Within our eld, this ideally would be a total cost gure for the transport and warehousing operation; however because the entire supply chain tends to be fairly integrated it is naive to think that this would be meaningful. Worse

still, it is likely that our system would, initially at least, only serve a proportion of the market. This means we would need not only to break the costs down further, but to examine whether these costs are meaningful given the reduced economies of scale that may result. It is clearly going to be difcult to obtain a precise gure; however, it is possible that the differences between the current and proposed systems might be so large as to make highly inaccurate estimates valid. The monetary costs of the system can be broken down into three areas: construction, operation, and return on capital. The construction costs will obviously vary with different options. As we have seen, in the past the largest cost has been tunnelling. Propulsion systems are also envisaged as a major cost. While terminals would have to be internally redesigned, it is difcult to know whether this should be included as a cost, since these are frequently updated under the current system. Operation will again vary extensively with the system. A variety of costs are involved, including power, maintenance, and any additional cost of repackaging, this being included under operation since it can be regarded as an ongoing cost. Finally the return on capital must be integrated into our costs, although how strictly this is done may vary with the aims of the system. It should be noted that with such a massive change it would be very difcult to apportion costs just to the new system. It is perhaps better to examine the system on the basis of total additional cost; however that would require extensive knowledge of every cost component. Different agents (those who build, own or run the system), will apportion differing weights to the various benets and disbenets of the system. Although there will be some overlap, within the UK these agents can be broken down into three types. 1. Commercial: an agent motivated by long-term prot, though which may have other short to medium term aims. 2. Economic government: an agent whose objective is one of economic efciency within the countrys economy. This encompasses areas such as political power as well as straight economics. 3. Social government: an agent whose interest is in accounting for those areas that traditional nancial economics tends to discount. It can be argued that there is a ne line between this and type 2 since often these issues manifest themselves within the political arena; however they are rarely fully dealt with in this way. We will examine each agent in turn, looking at the benet or disbenet. 5.1. Commercial
Inventory For Tesco, Stead (1995) estimated one days inventory to be worth 19m per year. Nationally, one days inventory for the groceries market will be worth more than

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T. Howgego, M. Roe/Transport Policy 5 (1998) 6172 150m per year, or about 25m in the London area. Inventory savings might be possible in a number of areas. Given that most outlets receive supplies only once a day, they must hold at least one days inventory at the outlet in order to satisfy demand. Ergo, with the new system, at least one day can be removed from the inventory holding of the entire system, since stockholding at stores can be cut to a few items of each line. The speed of transport is as yet undetermined; however it is unlikely to be slower than urban trafc, and has the potential to be a lot quicker. Faster delivery again means less inventory in the system. The fact that deliveries could be timed to the second with complete reliability might also have inventory benets in terms of less contingency stock. The physical costs of day-to-day operation stand to be reduced in a number of areas. A handful of control and maintenance staff could replace both truck drivers and mechanics, as well as those involved in manually moving goods, including, most importantly, the entire shelf-lling operation. There could be some economic savings on power consumption, especially given that stationary power stations are generally much more efcient than those tted to moving vehicles. On a commercial basis this could increase, largely because current maintenance is based purely on the vehicle and not on the road. There are various costs of repackaging, including initial costs and operating costs. The new system would have the potential to remove existing storerooms and even lorry bays from the stores. This, coupled with the fact that less space would be needed on shelves, would mean that the oor space could be used a lot more efciently, yielding a higher volume of sales per square foot. Depending on how the system was set up, it might be possible to use it as another barrier to entry into an already big capital industry. The novelty value of the system should not be discounted there is potential for bringing new customers into a store just to view the system! The system solves the retail industrys big problem how to make sure shelves are lled from the back, and not the front. It can be argued that the system loses the exibility of a road network; however, given that locations are generally xed in all but the very long term, this may not be as important as it sounds. The system may be unable to transport all products, requiring some use of the existing system. There are obvious difculties in phasing in the system over an existing network; however, it is possible that the current distribution network could be rst adapted for transporting goods packaged as capsules. The nal swap would then be a lot easier. A clear disbenet is the high initial cost, both in terms of development and construction.

Reduced store stockholding

Initial cost

5.2. Economic government

Turnover of capital A faster turnover of capital would effectively make more money available for investment within the economy. Inventory within the nation as a whole would move quicker, although the advantage may have to be longer than a day to make any appreciable difference. Within at least one area of transport, the sector would drain fewer resources from the nation. A reduced requirement for road freight could justify less road investment. Equally, pipelines might be seen as a possible replacement for roads, given their lower maintenance costs and potentially improved efciency. More space would be freed up on the existing road network for other users. This would no doubt cut into the US $18b a year cost of congestion to businesses in London (Metropolis, 1995). The land requirement of the system would probably be minimal, with the possibility of using underground space of no real current value. Fewer people would be required to operate the system, either freeing them for other jobs or adding to the unemployed, depending on your economic standpoint. A pipeline-based distribution system may or may not be more susceptible to acts of terrorism and war. Various individuals may experience economic disbenet from construction work on the system. Even governments run out of money, particularly those already in debt.

Speed of delivery

Reliability of delivery

Turnover of products

Operating cost Stafng

Efciency of transport Road subsidy

Power

Benets to other road users

Maintenance

Land take

Packaging Floor space

Labour

Strategic

Barrier to market entry

Construction disbenets Initial cost

Marketing spin-offs

5.3. Social government

Environment The new system would have massive benets within just about every area of the environment. Details are too numerous to mention here, but generally areas are all substantially improved when compared to roads. Benets will fall into the areas of visual intrusion, air pollution, noise pollution, vibration, impacts on communities and power production, to name but a few.

Product display Flexibility

Transport of all products Phasing in

No doubt there are further benets and disbenets in all areas; however, the authors regard the above as some of the

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most prevalent in the minds of the agents concerned. There are clearly extensive benets for all agents, with a few disbenets, principally the high initial construction cost that the system would have. It would be customary at this point to declare the system the best thing since sliced bread and have done with it; however nothing is that simple.

6. Conclusions Another pipe dream? Our pipeline system clearly has many advantages over the status quo, from everyones perspective. Most benets are intangible; those with a monetary value we have not attempted to evaluate. There is massive potential, potential that is in dire need of more detailed investigation. Our pipelines to supermarkets are just the beginning. Why not cut out the middle man and link up individual homes? No more trips to the shops. Purchases can be made minutes before they are consumed. The days when people had to leave their homes to purchase goods would be looked down upon in the same way in which we regard people taking water from a well, or collecting lumber to heat a house. Again, great benets, but no doubt at a great price. And retail is just a drop in the ocean. All manner of goods could be transported in larger diameter pipes. Though not covered here, there is scope for the greater use of liquid pipelines in our urban areas. Can anyone explain why petroleum is still transported to petrol stations by road tanker? Roads are not efcient modes of transport. As the motorway/water ring main example showed earlier, the space utilisation of the actual item being transported to the space required by the transport operation itself is ridiculous. Power efciency is appalling, the social disbenets take some beating, the subsidy required for maintenance alone is huge, and why in this age of technology are people still having to undergo the stress of manual driving? The irony of these statements is that roads are still regarded by government as the only viable means of transport for most applications. Instead of looking to other modes, government and all it represents seem set on ghting a losing battle in using technology to make the road network only marginally less inefcient than it is. With the exception of the motor car, the last real development in land transport was the railways. They can be likened very much to any new pipeline system. Railways were very capital intensive, largely built on speculation. Though rarely making a real prot, they had massive impacts on travel and particularly on industry and commerce. Roads have one major advantage over all other land-based modes of transport: they can be built in a totally piecemeal fashion. Networks can be built up from footpaths over the course of centuries. Vehicles can be purchased as required by those wishing to use the roads. Unfortunately it

is this very ability to add to the system in such a haphazard manner that has been its downfall. Who pays is another wide issue. In the private arena, banks, wealthy entrepreneurs and corporations might have access to the capital, but to invest it in an expensive scheme that might only give a return in the long run might leave them nancially vulnerable in the interim. There are few governments that would have the resources to build an extensive network. It is far more likely that they would end up adding infrastructure to a private network, much in the same way as the historical development of roads. There is something of a capitalist paradox in the reality that however many commercial benets a scheme might have, it will be most likely to fail on the basis of lack of capital for investment. It is noticeable that every one of the very few authors who have ever considered the use of capsule pipelines has regarded them as something akin to transports holy grail, but yet they have been extensively ignored as modes of transport. Vance and Mattson (1994) were forced to conclude that the current lack of what they call tube transport is nothing more than a quirk of history. Of course, pipelines do not provide the ultimate solution to transport. Though fundamentally more efcient than other modes in most circumstances, they too would reach a point where just like any other network they would become congested. This leads to two logical conclusions. Either we develop a network with the capacity to carry absolutely everything that can be moved at once, or we rethink the whole principle of transport and question just why movements are occurring. Follow the last train of thought and you return mankind to the caves. Perhaps effective transport can only exist if it completely saturates its arena either that or not exist at all. Possibly the current situation somewhere in the middle cannot exist with any stability. If there is no middle ground, then unless we are prepared to return to the caves, logic demands that we must build a transport network for every eventuality. These authors would certainly maintain that if this is to be done, then the pipe is the mode by which it should be accomplished.

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