Transportation

Rebuild the Monorial.

Fix the monorail with a GA Inductrack system pictured on the left. As can be seen, the old monorail beams in place are the right size and shape. We can even use the old car bodies as well. This technology uses a passive track which would be inexpensive to manufacture. The monorail is expected to cost $3 million to fix. Instead, the city council should approve $30 million to convert the monorail to an urban maglev demo. This will be a great attraction to the city, silently whooshing passengers between Westlake and Seattle center, while hitting 75 MPH above 5th Ave. This would serve as the demo for the regional Maglev plan.

The Inductrack is on a 7 year development path and is currently receiving $2 million a year in federal support:

Murtha announces funding for initiatives
The Uniontown Herald Standard ^ | 11/24/2005 Posted on 11/26/2005 10:23:27 AM PST by Willie Green

U.S. Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Johnstown) has announced that the House of Representatives and the Senate last week passed legislation that includes funding for important road improvements and other transit projects, as well as community initiatives, in Fayette, Greene and Washington counties.

Included in the fiscal year 2006 Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, and Judiciary spending bill are the following projects:

California University of Pennsylvania's urban Maglev project, an initiative that takes advantage of the university's unique topography to serve as a demonstration site to address future urban transportation needs. The project is important to southwestern Pennsylvania in terms of the potential creation of jobs and technology-related businesses, $2 million

Existing Monorail

As can be seen here, the existing monorail track has the right parameters for an Inductrack retrofit. The infusion of Seattle money to the development program would cut development time to a fraction of the current projected 7 years.