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| Subject: Seatlle extimated by Lost to be May of 2003 | |
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Author: The latest news, added November 2, 2002 |
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Date Posted: 09:48:02 01/14/03 Tue http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/News.html#anchor421890 ------------------------------------------------------------ The latest news, added November 2, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------- News Brief Archives ----------------------------------------------------------- By popular demand, we have begun to keep archives of all News Briefs. The first News Brief archive date is April 28, 2002. ----------------------------------------------------------- Seattle election coverage Final stretch in Seattle Dubai progresses towards monorail. Surprise endorsement for Seattle Monorail. Seattle Monorail endorsements numerous, minus one flip flop. Bumpy ride delays ODU Maglev. Kuala Lumpur wheel incident not design flaw. Wilmington Monorail planners establish route. Seattle Center Monorail problems concern campaigners. tMs TV coverage during APTA Expo 2002 Shanghai Transrapid guideway in place. tMs members head for APTA Expo 2002 Düsseldorf Airport Skytrain open. Hitachi Monorail website premier Nevada Maglev progress ----------------------------------------------------------- Seattle election coverage. (11/02/02) Seattle, Washington. Starting Sunday, November 3rd, tMs Vice President Keith Walls and President Kim Pedersen will be in Seattle to partake in the final campaign days and witness election day firsthand. For this reason, an update of election news won't be posted on the tMs website until late Wednesday afternoon, November 6th. In the meantime, the following links will have updates on events, including election results. Good luck Seattle and all monorailists hoping for victory! ----------------------------------------------------------- MONORAIL society Discussion Group Seattle Post-Intelligencer Google Monorail News search Altavista Monorail News search ----------------------------------------------------------- Final stretch in Seattle. (10/29/02) Seattle, Washington. One week from today, Seattle voters will say yes or no to building a 14-mile monorail system, a system with plans to expand to an eventual 58 miles. Campaigners are busy distributing pro-monorail materials and preparing to get out the vote. Radio ads are being broadcast to voters frequently with citizens on the street proclaiming their support for the monorail. Joel Horn, formerly on staff at the Elevated Transportation Company (ETC) and now with Monorail Yes!, has pulled off a dramatic promotion for the monorail. While at the APTA Expo in Las Vegas, he coaxed Bombardier into loaning the mock-up nose of a new MVI monorail train to the campaign. The monorail nose is now prominently on display above the heads of Seattle commuters on a billboard proclaiming "Monorails Never Get Stuck In Traffic." Meanwhile, Seattle Citizens Against the Monorail (amusingly known as SCAM to some), has not let up in their efforts to find scandal in the ETC's plan. SCAM doesn't have the same amount of money to spend on a vote no campaign, but they have been very successful in getting negative articles about the monorail published in local papers on almost a daily basis. It's an exciting race, and come November 6th we should know if Seattle will lead the USA into a new era in urban transit. ----------------------------------------------------------- Billboard at Denny & Pontius. Photo by MIA (Monorail Intelligence Agency) ----------------------------------------------------------- Top of Page ----------------------------------------------------------- Dubai progresses towards monorail. (10/28/02) ----------------------------------------------------------- Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Dubai Municipality commissioned Wilbur Smith Associates to do a preliminary study for a proposed new monorail system. The study is nearing completion and ten out of eighteen bidders have been shortlisted to bid for the project management consultancy. Among those interested in supplying a system to Dubai is Hitachi of Japan. If selected, the Dubai project would be their second overseas urban mass transit project. Hitachi has been showcasing a video of what the Dubai monorail might look like. A model of their two-car Okinawa Monorail train has also been on display. The proposed system is targeted for a 2008 opening. It would parallel the existing road network. ----------------------------------------------------------- Japan team to bid for Dubai monorail. Gulf News, 10/28/02. ----------------------------------------------------------- Surprise endorsement for Seattle Monorail . (10/19/02) -----------------------------------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------- Seattle, Washington. It was beginning to look pretty obvious, the mainstream press was going to beat the monorail mercilously in the last few weeks before the election. Article after article, editorial after editorial proclaimed the evils of the monorail plan. This was with exception of the so-called "alternative" newspaper The Stranger, which has been unwaivering in it's support of the people-popular monorail movement. Just when monorailists were ready to put all of the mainstream press into the category of conspiritors, along comes the Seattle Post-Intelligencer with a glowing endorsement for monorail. On two previous monorail intiatives, the P-I asked for a no vote. This time however, the P-I editorial staff says that "the measure before voters Nov. 5 is no longer pie-in-the sky and what-ifs. This time, monorail proponents have offered a solid plan to carry out the passion that has been the charm of this project all along." The P-I editorial concludes "It's fitting that the people of Seattle will make the decision about whether to build the monorail. It was their idea in the first place. We hope they vote yes." ----------------------------------------------------------- Monorail rises above the grassroots. Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 10/20/02. ----------------------------------------------------------- Architects Endorse Monorail as New Seattle Landmark. KIRO TV, Seattle. Monorail Yes Website Seattle Elevated Transportation Company Website: the plan! Citizens Against the Monorail Website Marge Simpson, Smack Dab In The Middle Of Controversial Seattle Monorail Proposal. KCPQ TV, Seattle. ----------------------------------------------------------- Seattle Monorail endorsements numerous, minus one flip flop. (10/10/02) Seattle, Washington. It's a wacky city and what happens from moment to moment on the political scene is highly unpredictable. The League of Women Voters initially heartily endorsed the Monorail ballot issue, but recently took the unusual step of retracting the endorsement. The League is now "neutral" on the 14-mile starter line proposal due to concerns over cost. Still, as of Sunday KING TV released the latest poll figures, which show support for the monorail at 62%, monorail opponents at 31% and undecided at 7%. If these numbers hold until November 5, even if all undecided voters decide to vote against the monorail, the proposal will pass easily. Despite the topsy-turvy nature of the League of Women's Voters minds, the monorail initiative still has many endorsements including: ----------------------------------------------------------- King County Labor Council King County Democrats Metropolitan Democratic Club King County Conservation Voters Washington State Council of City and County Employees, District 2 Sierra Club, Seattle Group Capitol Hill Community Council 11th District Democrats (Georgetown/Beacon Hill) 34th District Democrats (West Seattle) 36th District Republicans (Magnolia/Ballard) 36th District Democrats (Magnolia/Ballard) 37th District Democrats (Beacon Hill/Rainier Valley/Mount Baker) Aerospace Machinists Industrial District Lodge 751 Teamsters Local 763 Seattle/King County Building & Construction Trades Council Teamsters District Council Mayor Greg Nickels City Attorney Tom Carr Governor Al Rosellini Governor Dan Evans Congressman Jim McDermott Seattle Councilmember Judy Nicastro Seattle Councilmember Heidi Wills Seattle Councilmember Jan Drago Seattle Councilmember Nick Licata State Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles State Senator Erik Poulsen State Representative Joe McDermott State Representative Toni Lysen Hon. Phil Talmadge House Speaker Frank Chopp the MONORAIL society (no surprise here!) ----------------------------------------------------------- Monorail Yes Website League of Women Voters now neutral on monorail. Seattle P-I, 10/10/02 League pulls support for monorail proposal. Seattle Times, 10/10/02. ------------------------------------------------------------ photo courtesy of American Maglev Bumpy ride delays ODU Maglev. (10/10/02) Norfolk, Virginia. American Maglev built an elevated guideway and developed a maglev vehicle in a remarkably short period of time, eighteen months. The one-mile system at Old Dominion University was originally scheduled to begin shuttling passengers across the campus in September, becoming the first operational maglev transit system in the world. An unexpected bumpy ride is delaying the opening until 2003. Thoms V. Radovich, who coordinates the project for Lockheed Martin in Orlando, Florida, says ``we believe we have a way to smooth out the deviations." He said the train is reacting differently to the elevated guideway at ODU than it did on the ground at American Maglev's test track in Florida. Engineers are working to perfect the train's control system to adapt to the ODU guideway. In a worst-case scenario, the guideway would need to be stiffened. Because of the glitches, the project is in need of additional funds. A $7 million loan from the state and $7 million in private investments are mostly spent. Lockheed Martin plans to invest more money and backers are optimistic they'll get a federal appropriation of up to $2 million. ----------------------------------------------------------- Glitches postpone debut of Maglev. The Virginian Pilot, 10/10/02 American Maglev website. ----------------------------------------------------------- photo courtesy of the Star Kuala Lumpur wheel incident not design flaw. (10/2/02) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In a report to the Malaysian Transport Ministry, the KL Monorail System company has stated that the recent wheel incident was not a design flaw. A journalist walking beneath the tracks was seriously injured when a safety guide wheel fell from one of the new trains. Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ling Liong Sik announced the outcome of the company's investigation at a recent press conference. Sik stated "They carried out tests with one screw, three screws and six screws, the safety wheel did not drop. So it is not design failure. So they suspect it was an act of sabotage." KL Monorail is confident that there are no technical faults and they are cooperating with police to determine the actual cause of the incident. The incident resulted in a delay of the system opening to 2003. The system is currently undergoing extensive testing. ----------------------------------------------------------- We Believe It Is Sabotage- KL Monorail. Malaysian National News Agency, 10/02/02. ----------------------------------------------------------- Wilmington Monorail planners establish route. (10/2/02) Wilmington, Delaware. A steering committee made up of Wilmington Area Planning Council staff, residents and politicians has selected a 15-mile monorail route between the northern Delaware communities of Blue Ball and Glasgow as the top pick for a proposed regional rail system. The system would be the first of its kind in Delaware. The group chose the route from among about a dozen other options. The Glasgow route was the best because it would serve people commuting to work in downtown Wilmington as well as the suburbs. It would also ease congestion on heavily traveled roads and cut down on the number of cars contributing to air pollution. State Representative David H. Ennis said that the council's commitment to studying a monorail system is due in large part to the crowded roads and Delaware's urgent need to meet federal clean air laws. To improve the state's air quality, Ennis stated that "We can either do it now and get ahead of the curve, or do it later and play catch-up. ----------------------------------------------------------- NCCo monorail route plan chosen. The News Journal, 10/02/02 Wilmington Regional Monorail Exploratory Committee. ------------------------------------------------------------ Seattle Center Monorail problems concern campaigners. (10/2/02) Seattle, Washington. The Seattle Center Monorail has suffered three shutdowns in the last week, which resulted in extensive press coverage. Two days in a row last week, passengers were evacuated by fire truck ladder because one of the trains stalled. Normally, the sister train is brought up along the other train and passengers are evacuated to the other train by ramp. Unfortunately the other train is undergoing maintenance and is unavailable, which resulted in the need for fire truck ladders. Then yesterday a four-hour monorail shut down resulted from a flat tire. This time the train was able to reach a station with the passengers. One of the evacuation incidents last week was caused by a fraying tire that sliced an air hose. Operations manager Matt Abbey said "I'm just wondering if we got a bad batch of tires." According to Abbey, monorail flats occur two or three times a year. These incidents have some campaigners for the monorail ballot issue nervous, as the election is just a month away. A 14-mile monorail system is being proposed on the ballot, funded by automobile taxes. While the monorail plan is evidently popular, a combination of stall incidents on the Seattle Center Monorail and continuing negative campaigning by monorail opponents may affect the election results. On the other hand, a blitz of pro-monorail activities and advertising is hoped to counter the naysayers before November 5. ------------------------------------------------------------ Seattle Monorail reopens after flat tire fixed. Seattle Times, 10/01/02. Monorail rescue is second this week. Seattle Times, 9/27/02. Monorail again breaks down, stranding 25. Seattle P-I, 9/27/02. ------------------------------------------------------------ Tom Hawley, KVBC TV tMs TV coverage during APTA Expo 2002. (10/2/02)Las Vegas, Nevada. The MONORAIL society received considerable positive TV coverage during the recent APTA Expo 2002 in Las Vegas. KVBC TV reporter Tom Hawley interviewed tMs President Kim Pedersen next to the Sahara Station construction site and did extensive reporting on the happenings of Expo 2002. Hawley broadcast three separate stories on monorail and tMs. Several tMs members attended Expo 2002 and were pleased to see Bombardier, Transrapid and Aerobus on prominently on display. Still, not all major monorail manufacturers were represented. Hopefully at future APTA expos, such as the next major one in Dallas in 2005, other manufacturers such as Intamin, Severn Lamb, Hitachi, American Maglev, Monorail Malaysia and others will show their wares. There were approximately 12,000 attendees of Expo 2002, and some of them were shopping for systems. Our thanks to Tom Hawley for the terrific coverage on KVBC! ----------------------------------------------------------- Monorail coverage on KVBC TV, Las Vegas. (includes streaming video of one of the stories) Latest Construction Pictures from Las Vegas. APTA Expo 2002 Photo Diary. ----------------------------------------------------------- Shanghai Transrapid guideway in place. (9/16/02) Shanghai, China. The track girders are now in place for the Shanghai Maglev. The 30 km route runs from Pudong International Airport to downtown Shanghai. A total of 2,550 guideway girders have been installed, each weighs 190 tons and is 24 meters long. The last guideway girder was hoisted into place recently, eight months after the first girder had been installed. The maglev, using German-developed Transrapid technology, will only take eight minutes to travel between the two stations. Top speed will be around 400 kmh (248 mph). Test runs are scheduled to begin in early 2003. ------------------------------------------------------------ photo courtesy of People's Daily tMs members head for APTA Expo 2002. (9/8/02) Las Vegas, Nevada. It only happens once every three years and over 15,000 transportation professionals attend. The American Public Transportation Association's (APTA) International Public Transportation Expo will be held this year in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Convention Center from September 23rd through the 25th. Known as Expo 2002, the event is the largest transportation exposition in North Amerca. Guess what all attendees will see right in front of the convention center? Why, the Las Vegas Monorail under construction of course! For that reason, some tMs members are planning on descending on Las Vegas for the dual educational opportunity of attending the Expo and witnessing firsthand an American urban monorail under construction. To make attendance even more enticing, anyone can register to attend Expo 2002 for free at the APTA Expo 2002 Website. The huge hall will have displays of many types of transportation vehicles, as well as hundreds of suppliers displaying their wares. Major manufacturers to date have been low-key as far as monorail displays, but since Bombardier is building one right outside the hall this year, there is speculation that their display may include something related to the project. Even if they don't, the construction will no doubt get a lot of attention! Of note to maglev-monorailists, Transrapid International will have a booth at the expo and is inviting tMs members to drop by. For details on a possible gathering of MONORAIL society members at the Expo, please monitor tMs Discussion Group postings. ------------------------------------------------------------ Register to attend Expo 2002 for free! ------------------------------------------------------------ photo courtesy of Düsseldorf Airport/Andrea Wiese Düsseldorf Airport Skytrain open. (8/31/02) Düsseldorf, Germany. We have another new monorail system in the world! Düsseldorf Airport opened their SkyTrain officially on July 1st. The fully automated suspended SkyTrain monorail operates above the airport grounds at a height of 23 meters along a 2.5 kilometer dual-guideway line. Top speed of the Siemens-built monorail is 50 km/h. The SkyTrain operates between a new Düsseldorf Airport Rail Station, where people coming and going to the airport can connect to local trains and high-speed ICE trains too. There is one station along the route at Parking Structure 4 and another at the end of the line is inside the modern new terminal building. Since it is only the second of its type in the world, there have been some unfortunate upstart bugs to work out. During the first two weeks of operation, trains went out of service six times. On at least one occasion passengers were stuck in vehicles for up to 40 minutes and a few even suffered "panic attacks," according to reports in the German press. Siemens provided replacement bus services while bugs were worked out. Various problems surfaced during initial operations. One problem was a defective cable that caused a break in the data transmission between one vehicle ("cabin") and the control station. Also a loose connection in an antenna of the cabin produced problems. Hopefully most of the bugs have been worked out and this mini-SAFEGE monorail will prove to be a popular transportation system for airport visitors. The system is currently back on schedule with operations between 3:45 AM and 12:45 AM. Some wonderful Düsseldorf SkyTrain images have just been added to our Special Features page. Also, more information on the technology behind the Siemens H-Bahn suspended monorail can be found in the Technical Pages. ------------------------------------------------------------ Hitachi Monorail website premier (8/24/02) Tokyo, Japan. This week gave us more evidence of the growing popularity of monorail. We received notice from one of our friends at Hitachi Ltd. that a new website has premiered, the Hitachi Monorail Website. The website has interesting information on the three types of monorail that Hitachi offers, along with a new classification names of each type. Hitachi Monorail Type One (Large), Two (Standard) and Three (Small) designations will make it easier to differentiate the different size systems. Technical data of each type of system is included on the site. Other pages are still in development, including pages on monorail cars, switches, total systems and specifications. Another Japanese monorail website has been updated recently. Be sure to explore the new Tokyo-Haneda Monorail website. ----------------------------------------------------------- The Hitachi Monorail Website. Tokyo Monorail Website. Don't miss clicking on the Japanese version for more pictures! ----------------------------------------------------------- Nevada Maglev progress (8/24/02) Las Vegas, Nevada. For years, organizers in Nevada and California have been working on a plan for a Transrapid Maglev between Las Vegas and Anaheim, California. That plan may be one step closer to reality as support may come in the form of money allocated to important studies. $2 million has been included for the maglev in a transportation funding package for Nevada for the 2003 federal budget. The $2 million will go toward an environmental impact statement for the first stretch of the bi-state line, a 40-mile stretch from Las Vegas to Primm. Primm is on the state border between Nevada and California and features several high-profile casino resorts, visible to thousands of daily motorists entering Nevada from California on their way to Las Vegas. The 18-month study will begin this year. The transportation bill still needs to make its way through the full Senate and House of Representatives before it becomes final. Maglev supporters believe the line could be built much quicker than others planned in the USA, as much of the alignment follows freeways through the desert. Less residents along the route would most likely result in far less NIMBY opposition. 267 mph zipping through the desert, ride 'em cowboys! ----------------------------------------------------------- Funding on track for Southern Nevada train. Las Vegas Business Press, 8/16/02. ----------------------------------------------------------- [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |