Incredibly Low Cost, the Main Secret to the SkyTran System
Orange County, California, light rail comparison
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n high volume mass production, each small, private SkyTran vehicle will be a thousand times cheaper than a single 100 passenger train car. More importantly, since most SkyTran vehicles with passengers will weigh no more than 700 pounds, the monorail track to safely support a continuous stream of vehicles can use 1/100th the structural materials needed to continually support standard tractor-trailer trucks weighing 80,000 pounds. This translates to under $1 million per mile for the SkyTran monorail track.Light rail and monorail train track costs more than $30 million per mile — meaning just 15 miles of light rail track through the heart of a city would cost $450 million. Light rail merely is a new name for "street cars" composed of little trains of two or three cars running on steel tracks, which pick up electrical power through spring loaded contact bars wiping against overhead electrified cables. Bruce Ramsey of the Seattle Post said it best in his June 23, 1999 article Steetcar of No Desire "Light Rail is a Transit Engineer's dream at how to move people from A to B, but real people do not want to move from A to B, they want to move everywhere." (see our chart below!)
A recent proposed 28 mile light rail line in Orange County, California is projected to cost $1.8 billion or $64 million per mile. By spending such money, light rail proponents claim they can move up to 30,000 people per hour. Calculations show that a replacement SkyTran system can move the following people per hour.
Higher Capacity, Lower Cost: Light rail comparison is the perfect example why a SkyTran replacement system has such outstanding usefulness. At $30 million per mile (less than half of the proposed Orange County, California figure) a light rail line that is 28 miles long would require an investment of $840 million, whereas a replacement 28 mile SkyTran line would require $55 million. This means more hourly carrying capacity for just 6.5% of the cost (3% of the proposed Orange County light rail).
SkyTran Passengers per Hour Capacity for a 28 Mile Bi-directional System Average commute distance
Maximum SkyTran Passenger Capacity (per hour)
One passenger per vehicle Two passengers per vehicle 10 miles 40,320 80,640 15 miles 30,240 60,480 20 miles 20,160 40,320 However, it gets much more interesting if a city is willing to invest the same money as spent on the 28 miles of light rail line (that is, $840 million) on a SkyTran 3D networked system of personal/mass transportation. We would have enough money to install 10 sets of 28 mile long SkyTran monorail tracks along with 28 perpendicular sets of 10 mile long tracks all networked together. If we built this as an intersecting 3D grid of 10 by 28 parallel SkyTran tracks spaced one mile apart with stations at every mile intersection and the average trips was 20 miles long, we would now be able to move 400,000 people per hour anywhere on that grid. Ask yourself which system will be instantly useful to more people in that city. No longer will they have to take a car or a bus to connect to a train! Currently, 536,000 vehicles travel through the ignominious "Orange Crush" intersection of three busy California freeways [Santa Ana (I5), Garden Grove (I22) and Pomona (I57)] each day. SkyTran could move the same 536,000 vehicles in 1.3 hours!
SkyTran Passengers per Hour Capacity for a 10 mile by 28 Mile 3D Grid Average commute distance
Maximum SkyTran Passenger Capacity (per hour)
One passenger per vehicle Two passengers per vehicle 10 miles 806,400 1,612,800 15 miles 604,800 1,209,600 20 miles 403,200 806,400 30 Times the Benefit: Automation technology combined with MagLev technology creates the key to a practical, successful, non-tax-subsidized, high-speed personal transportation system. Again, the technology to create and install one mile of track for 1/30th the cost of existing systems simply converts to the ability to place 30 times as much SkyTran monorail track as light rail track. The end result is a widespread, three dimensional, non-intersecting, overhead monorail freeway system. One that benefits everybody in a city — not just the few who happen to live fairly close to the expensive light rail and who simultaneously have a destination located fairly close to another station on the limited light rail route.
More Commuters Can Ride: The total ridership of the proposed Orange County, California 28 mile light rail system is expected to eventually rise to 60,000 passengers per day. This is a miniscule enticement that is unlikely to move commuters from their automobiles. Obviously, this is because it is just a single line and only useful to nearby residents or those willing to drive or ride a bus to get to the light rail. Also, its designers are projecting it will only average 22 mph. This is simply because it must slow down to stop at each one of the 24 stations, wait while some people get off and others get on and then reaccelerate up to its 55 mph maximum cruising speed.Also, only people living fairly close to the 28 mile long, $1.8 billion proposed light rail in Orange County, California would get any transportation benefit (assuming they even consider it a "benefit" to commute at a very non-exciting 22 miles per hour average speed).
Nonstop travel time is just one major advantage of the small, individualized SkyTran vehicles. Just like traveling in your car, you only get off when you want to. You simply travel on the steady, 100 mph SkyTran monorail freeway until you are ready to exit. Can you imagine having to drive your car off every single freeway exit and then get right back on after stopping at the traffic light below? Could you even think of a more horrible time consuming way to commute? That is what light rail is doing!
The stated 22 mph average speed is especially sad for that $1.8 billion investment of capital. People will probably just continue to fight traffic in their cars — if it still takes them 1 hour and 16 minutes to travel the 28 miles on light rail. A 100 mph SkyTran would take just under 17 minutes to get you the same distance, or a one hour time savings. SkyTran is all about cost, convenience, safety and saving time!
