The Monorail Alternative

Riccardo · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 1:03 pm

del_horno15 · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 1:03 pm

I quite like the Monorail idea, i think your argument is very good. Well done

But we cant use it if there is no ticketing system lol

AlanIde · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 1:54 pm

Riccardo, I have a monorail avatar because right now I am proposing a monorail. I quote monorail sites because right now we are talking about monorails. I use monorail and other statistics because that’s usual in reasoned discussion.

FORGET about the mickey-mouse Sydney tourist monorail with its 48 seats – that’s why I posted links to the Japanese commuter monorails that carry hundreds of thousands of people a year.

Del_horno15, thankyou for your post! I think we are in the wrong place. Bizarrely Railpage Australia™ is exclusively about conventional rail – the suggestion that any other type of rail system could be used is anathema. Maybe they should put ‘Promotion of Monorails is Prohibited!’ on the home page??

mjja · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 2:02 pm

Take it easy - everyone is entitled to their opinion, whether it be you with your pro-monorail ideas, or Riccardo with his not-so-pro-monorail ideas. And you're both entitled to answer each other and point out the flaws in each other's arguments. Stick to facts and don't get personal, that's the only condition.

Happy Gunzelling and remember, "Go by rail!"

Michael Angelico
President, Smart Passengers Inc
(My opinions are my own unless specifically stated.)

Knowitall · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 2:41 pm

Melbourne does not need yet another form of Public Transport

spend the money on what we already have

Banned

spottyrahr · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 3:12 pm

del_horno15 · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 4:50 pm

Dont worry Alan, im sure our beliefs will be shared with other people.
What we need to realise is that there is no room for more rail and tram lines. We need to start looking at 'unconventional' forms of transport, like monorails, simply because they are elevated and therefore easier to construct (easier as in where to put a line, im no engineer)

Plus, were not advocating for monorails everywhere, just in a few places:
-Melbourne Airport to City
-Huntingdale-Monash Uni-Rowville?
-Doncaster to City.

These places are in need of a better alternative than buses

Knowitall · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 7:18 pm

No room,

If you had the funds you could sink tram lines underneath major roads

Quiet, Out of the way and fast

Melbourne Airport will not go ahead for some time as it was in the contract for citylink that no PT projects can go ahead without compensating them

Jeffed Again

Banned

ZH836301 · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 8:23 pm

bramt · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 1:01 am

But why would you want a 80km/hr monorail or a 60km/hr underground light rail when you could have a 200km/hr+ maglev monorail like the one proposed by Transrapid? See this thread:
http://www.railpage.com.au/f-t11342674.htm

By the way, I'm not saying we should have either, I'm just thinking aloud that there's an awful lot more we could do with $7.5 BILLION than simply 17km of track.
IE in Paul Mees' submission, remove every single track section, build all proposed extensions, and buy more trains, implement a lot of efficiency changes, all for less than this tunnel.

ZH836301 · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 12:25 pm

Yes, there's slack that needs to be pulled up, but we'll still run into capacity issues.

A tunnel is needed, but Ed's vision is clearly not the best option.

(But I can see where Mees and the like are concerned - what's to say they build the tunnel and nothing else happens?)

AlanIde · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 12:49 pm

There is no possible surface rail easement from Southern Cross Station to Caulfield that goes via Domain & Windsor. If you want to put extra public transport capacity in that corridor (as Sir Rod and John Brumby do) then your fully grade-separated options are (a) $7 Billion Subway (b) $1 Billion Monorail (c) $??? Elevated railway (d) other - please specify.

(a) Subway has the highest capacity - but uses up all the transport money for a decade on one project.
(b) Hitachi Monorail gets you up to 30,000 per hour per direction peak capacity in one year and leaves $ left over for Rowville, South Morang, Tarneit, re-open Leongatha line, extend No3 tram, all concrete sleepers in the met zone, or whatever.
(c) Elevated Rail has the same capacity as subway for far less $ - but I can't seeing it happen as visually it would be a shocker.
(d) .........anyone for a cable car???

Maglev might be a good option for Geelong - City - Dandenong high speed link down the freeway but technology wasted in Footscray - Caulfield link with ~10 stops. Not sure that this is a priority though.

ALL the technology options should be put on the table and compared for the tasks at hand and the most cost-effective selected.

(Note that part of my proposal was a rail subway from Richmond - SXS. That would solve a lot of the rail congestion problems on the viaduct without the expense of a subway going all the way from Caulfield - Footscray)

SPSD40T2 · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 2:48 pm

Im just rather curious...where do they expect to actually PUT this shiny toy ??

bramt · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 4:51 pm

Plans to build Geelong-Melbourne-Frankston monorail
Wednesday 30th of July 2008 - Herald Sun

A GERMAN plan to build a multi-billion dollar monorail from Geelong to Frankston, via Melbourne, was yesterday backed by city leaders.

Transport joint venture ThyssenKrupp Transrapid has unveiled an ambitious plan to build a high-speed, magnetic monorail line around the bay, linking two airports and three cities.

The Geelong Advertiser reports that if built, the monorail would ferry Geelong commuters to Melbourne in little more than 20 minutes.

The German-based consortium recently submitted its proposal as an alternative to the $8.5 billion east-west tunnel being considered by the State Government.

ThyssenKrupp Transrapid general manager Peter Hatcher said the line would link Geelong, Avalon Airport, Melbourne Airport and Melbourne before heading east to Frankston at speeds of up to 275km/h.

The consortium's submission said the monorail would:

HOVER above the track using magnetic levitation;

REACH speeds of 500km/h in rural areas;

SILENTLY cruise at 250km/h in urban areas; and,

OPERATE safer and cleaner than normal rail transport.

But the submission also revealed considerable cost - calculated to be about $4 billion per 100km of double rail lines.

Mr Hatcher said the monorail was in response to Sir Rod Eddington's transport report, which did not look at above-ground transport solutions.

from
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24100590-661,00.html

SPSD40T2 · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 5:52 pm

possibly missing the point..where exactly is the r-o-w- to be....ought to be interesting....bound to upset a few !!