Transportainment

What Transportainment means

Transportainment combines functional passenger transport with a thoughtfully designed journey. Reliability, availability, capacity and efficiency remain the foundation. It adds another question: how and where should people move through the site?

A connection can open up new perspectives, combine horizontal and vertical sections without requiring passengers to change transport systems, or turn arrival into a distinctive moment. Time in transit becomes a meaningful part of the journey or stay.

Spike PM360 puts this approach into practice in a rail-based system whose track layout, motion profile and cabin design can be tailored to each application.

The Expertise Maurer Rides Brings

The Spike Platform draws on Maurer Rides’ decades of experience in roller coasters and specialized rail systems. The aim is not to turn passenger transport into a roller coaster ride.

What matters is the expertise to control motion precisely, deliver demanding 3D track layouts and integrate drive, control and communication technology directly into the vehicle. Depending on the project, the journey can remain calm and functional or be deliberately shaped and choreographed.

Transportainment turns the journey into a thoughtfully designed part of the overall experience.

Route Freedom in Three Dimensions

The technical foundation is the modular Spike track and drive system. In the patented rack-and-pinion drive, the pinion meshes directly with the rack to provide positive engagement. Traction therefore does not depend on friction between a driven wheel and the rail.

This enables track layouts with steep gradients, vertical sections and overhead sections. Throughout the journey, the 360° self-leveling cabin keeps its floor horizontal and passengers upright - even on vertical and overhead track sections.

Drive, control and communication systems are located directly on board the vehicle. This simplifies the trackside drive infrastructure and enables precise stops and controlled motion profiles. Operation is quiet and locally emission-free, with energy recovered during braking.

What This Makes Possible in Operation

At a resort, one continuous journey can connect different terrain and building levels and carry passengers directly to a central arrival area. At an airport, a route can connect different levels or pass beneath surface transport routes without requiring passengers to transfer between separate horizontal and vertical transport systems.

On a campus or in an urban district, the route can adapt to existing buildings, constrained spaces and complex terrain. The decisive benefit is not spectacle, but continuity: flexible routing, fewer transfers and an arrival that feels naturally integrated into its setting.

When the Route Becomes a Design Element

Where the track is deliberately visible, it can become part of the architecture. It can follow the lines of a building, frame distinctive views or create a silhouette of its own.

This allows Spike PM360 to cover a spectrum ranging from a discreet connection to a defining architectural element. For higher passenger volumes, Spike POD expands the mobility portfolio with a larger cabin.

The article “Motion as Architecture ” explores how this can develop into a site-specific landmark.

Where Transportainment Adds Value

Transportainment is relevant wherever a connection forms part of how a place is experienced: as a quiet resort shuttle, an airport feeder, a link between campus buildings, a mobility solution for an urban district or a vertical access system.

The level of experiential design can vary. Not every route needs to become a landmark. Sometimes the added value lies in a seamless connection across several levels; elsewhere, the track and cabin become visible expressions of identity. The role the system takes on depends on the application, site, capacity requirements and operating concept.

Conclusion

Transportainment does not replace the established requirements of a passenger transport system - it expands them. Alongside safety, availability, capacity and efficiency comes another question: what additional value can the journey itself create?

To answer it, the Spike mobility portfolio combines flexible routing, onboard technology and configurable vehicles. The result is a range of project-specific solutions - from functional connections to architectural signatures - while keeping the transport function firmly at the center.

Discover More About Transportainment

Our “Transportainment” white paper offers further insights into the concept and explores how passenger transport can create added value beyond its core function - for passengers and the places it connects.

Open the “Transportainment” White Paper

Learn more about the application: Explore Spike Passenger Transport

Discover the right system: Explore Spike PM360