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| Subject: Re: Seattle----encouraged by Las Vegas---Bombadier. | |
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Author: anonymous |
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Date Posted: 06:59:47 10/17/02 Thu In reply to: anonymous 's message, "Voting on development of 14 mile Seatlle Monorail November 5th U.S. time." on 06:47:57 10/17/02 Thu http://www.elevated.org/project/default.shtm ------------------------------------------------------------  ------------------------------------------------------------ http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/134390994_weeksop15.html ------------------------------------------------------------ Guest columnist Encouraging lessons from the Vegas monorail ------------------------------------------------------------ By Tom Weeks Special to The Times ------------------------------------------------------------ Four board members of the Elevated Transportation Company (ETC, or the Seattle Monorail Project) traveled to Las Vegas this week, on our own dime, to check out the largest urban monorail project currently under construction in the United States. We returned to Seattle convinced that monorails have great potential as hard-working urban transit systems in the United States and that the technology is appropriate for Seattle. ------------------------------------------------------------ The Las Vegas monorail has four miles funded and being built today. A second four-mile phase is in environmental review, with additional extensions also under consideration. It will begin operation with four-car trains, but their stations are large enough to handle eight-car trains. The initial capacity of the system will be approximately 3,400 riders per hour per direction, with four-minute intervals between trains. If there is sufficient demand, more cars will be purchased, increasing the capacity to over 18,000 riders per hour per direction. ------------------------------------------------------------ There are six lessons we learned in Las Vegas. ------------------------------------------------------------ • Under $100 million per mile. The Las Vegas system will cost just under $100 million per mile. While comparisons about per-mile costs are rarely apples to apples, it was encouraging to learn that their costs are consistent with our preliminary estimates. The ETC recently released an initial cost estimate for the Seattle monorail that ranged from $70 million per mile to $124 million per mile. ------------------------------------------------------------ The Las Vegas cost information is especially encouraging because they are building for a larger capacity than we anticipate for Seattle, and they are building it to fit in to the Las Vegas design ethic. Because of these factors, the cost per mile in Seattle might be lower than the Las Vegas monorail's cost. ------------------------------------------------------------ • Thinner beams, smaller and fewer columns. The Las Vegas monorail is using a system of beams and columns for their new monorail that will have columns up to 120 feet apart. Columns in the existing Seattle monorail, in comparison, are only 80 feet apart. The guideway beams in Las Vegas are 8 inches thinner than the ones used in Seattle. ------------------------------------------------------------ The ETC is looking at ways to reduce the column width even further. In addition to being slightly smaller, the Las Vegas columns incorporate corner detailing and an earth-tone coloring that makes the columns pleasing to the eye. ------------------------------------------------------------ • New train designed for urban transit. The cars that will run on the Las Vegas monorail are accessible to disabled people, can make sharp turns, have a low profile, and can run at a 90-second frequency. ------------------------------------------------------------ This new train could offer many advantages in Seattle. The sharper turns would allow us to buy less property for turns and to "snake" effectively through an already-built urban environment. The lower profile means less aesthetic impact in neighborhoods or downtown. And, an improved automatic control system allows for the 90-second frequency, which would increase our ability to handle events like Seattle Mariner, Seahawk and Sonic games. ------------------------------------------------------------ • Stations are small and attractive. Many of the stations that we saw in Japan were too large and unattractive to be acceptable in Seattle. The Las Vegas stations are smaller, with considerable attention to design detail. They are open-air and functional. The stations fit well in the community and are welcomed by adjacent property owners. ------------------------------------------------------------ • Private dollars. Property owners next to the Las Vegas monorail stations are helping pay for stations. Revenue from advertising in the stations and trains will pay a substantial portion of the system operating costs. Las Vegas is also building unused conduit into the guideway in order to lease space to private and public entities to run cable and other utilities along the route. ------------------------------------------------------------ • Eliminating financial risk to the taxpayers. The Las Vegas monorail is using a relatively new approach to building transportation projects. A private group of companies is designing and building the project for a fixed price. If the project exceeds its budget, the contractors are liable for additional costs. If the project does not open on schedule, the contractors pay a substantial penalty. ------------------------------------------------------------ In addition, the companies that build the system will operate and maintain it for 15 years with a 99-percent performance guarantee. This ensures that the people who build it have a strong financial incentive to build it right and for the long-term. This approach is called Design, Build, Operate and Maintain — or DBOM. ------------------------------------------------------------ The ETC was born of a grass-roots movement culminating in the passage of Initiative 53 in November 2000. As we learn more about monorails of the world and the potential for a monorail in Seattle, it is increasingly evident that the voters in Seattle did the right thing by passing Initiative 53. ------------------------------------------------------------ Tom Weeks is chairman of the ETC. He was accompanied on the trip by ETC board members Dick Falkenbury, Donald King and Stuart Rolfe. To learn more about the ETC, visit its Web site at www.elevated.org. ------------------------------------------------------------ [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |