First SkyTran Systems

Early on, we can estimate what the costs in a mass production environment might be and those are the figures we use throughout for all the economic analysis in the next section.  For curiosity's sake we now will take a quick look at at the estimated costs for two example prototype systems.  These would have to be mostly hand built with minimum tooling.  Design and engineering costs are separate and not amortized in these figures.

Case 1- City of Irvine, California Guideway Demonstration Project

The first table is for a proposed 4 mile long Guideway Demonstration Project - an airport to business area transportation system in the city of Irvine, California.  We would design the system for future 100 mph travel utility and expansion, but since it would be our prototype, we would initially operate at slow speeds of 25 mph or so.  The city is currently expecting to pay $125 million for pre-construction elements.

Up to 500 vehicles could be travelling at once with an 84 foot spacing between vehicles (4.5 seconds apart at 25 mph).  The remaining 120 vehicles are intended to be in dwell at each station set.  To minimize waiting we always want to have at least 5 empty vehicles in place and ready to go at each station (120 in dwell).  The maximum capacity of this system would be 3,000 four mile trips per hour or 6,000 passengers per hour if two people were riding each vehicle.  In the future using the 100 mph capability, the system capacity would rise 12,000 four mile trips per hour with the same number of vehicles. Since all the stations are off line from the SkyTran freeway a passenger never slows down until he approaches his selected station.

 

Case 2- Orange County, California Light-Rail Replacement Project

This second example compares the 28 mile long, $1.8 billion, elevated light-rail system recently proposed for Orange County, California to a SkyTran replacement system. (This proposed Urban rail project would run between the InterModal Transportation Centers in the cities of Fullerton and Irvine and is intended to carry 60,000 passengers per day.) Because this old fashioned type system must stop at every station, it will only average 22 mph, even though its cruise speed is 55 mph.  Thus, even a 25 mph SkyTran system would be a faster way to travel.

Up to 3,520 vehicles could be travelling at once with an 84 foot spacing between vehicles (4.5 seconds apart at 25 mph).  The remaining 240 vehicles are intended to be in dwell at each station set.  To minimize waiting we always want to have at least 5 empty vehicles in place and ready to go at each station in each direction (240 in dwell).  The maximum capacity of this system would be 8,800 ten mile trips per hour or 17,600 passengers per hour if two people were riding each vehicle.  In the future, using the 100 mph capability, the system capacity would rise to 35,200 ten mile trips per hour with the same number of vehicles. Since all the stations are off line from the SkyTran freeway a passenger never slows down until he approaches his selected station.