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Monorail to MEM


Bears

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This forum has been quiet lately. No really exciting developments have been announced. Heres an article about a monorail study between MEM and the Tunica Airport.

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/13708836.htm

I remember hearing something about a monorail from Horn Lake to Olive branch but after the Circle G plan folded I dunno what the status of that is. According to the article, its gonna be about 20 years till construction starts. I think it would be a good idea to go along Swiennea thru the woods south of Shelby Drive and back to Swiennea to the MS state line. Good thing is, not much construction will be needed on the TN part of the line so this will be a majority MDOT project. Maybe MEM will be mainly international flights while Tunica deals with domestic. .

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I'd really love to see Tunica become a major urban area so that you have a Memphis-Tunica thing going on...similar to Dallas-Ft. Worth, Sea-Tac, etc. I could imagine that if things went well, Tunica could become the largest city in Mississippi within 50 years and have a population of 200,000-300,000. This monorail sounds like something that could enhance the city as a good job/residential market. At the same time, it permits a bond to Memphis. It'd be nice to have Tunica's airport become the low-cost one with Southwest (i.e. Dallas Love) while MEM remained the big airport with the glamour attached to it with all the frills of being a hub and having upscale low-cost carriers (i.e. Jet Blue). Hope to see this monorail happen in 30 years!

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The monorail would be a great catalyst for smart growth instead of more sprawl. I'm happy to see that the planners in both states are at least thinking along these lines instead of only highways and endless, formless, sprawl. If Tunica and DeSoto Counties are carefully guided, the future for the whole area could be amazing.

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I hope some level of reciprocated cooperation can be achieved between the two states. The rhetoric here is at least encouraging, but past performance doesn't inspire a whole lot of faith. I hope I'm wrong though. I'm not so sure how much the folks in Mississippi (or Tennessee for that matter) are interested in avoidiing sprawl. That major project pending in Desoto is interesting (I forgot the name of it), but I don't know how legitimate it is in its density/urbanity/smart planning.

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I think Desotos opinion will change about Memphis once they realize (or admit) how dependent they are on the city. Here's a story from WMC with a video about the monorail...

http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4412488

The guy says he wants it to use a ROW on I-69 and I-55, then I guess to Shelby Drive, up Airways then to the Intermodal Terminal which I think is under construction now. I think its weird that they want it only to go along the interstate thru Desoto but obviously nothing is set in stone.

BTW does anyone know what the Intermodal Terminal does or will look like? According to the MATA website "The project consists of a bus transit center for selected MATA bus routes, the main Greyhound terminal (to be relocated from downtown Memphis), and a possible future light rail station. The facility will also be able to accommodate parking, taxis, shuttle services, and other tenants."

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