Monorail...Monorail.....MONORAIL!

[MadVlad]

Bill, wouldn't the Science Center/Riverfront and Old State House stops be too close? Maybe make the stop on the East side of State House Square. That way, it's only a block to the Riverfront, and even less to the Old State House...

[Bill Mocarsky]

Bill, wouldn't the Science Center/Riverfront and Old State House stops be too close? Maybe make the stop on the East side of State House Square. That way, it's only a block to the Riverfront, and even less to the Old State House...

I have thought about that they could be close. Perhaps one stop could take care of the two.

With the exception of a few closely placed stations downtown, the idea is to space the stations apart to keep it a fast moving conduit. Buses can be used more locally.

[monsoon]

I've posted this elsewhere on UrbanPlanet, but I thought that I would post it here since it is relevant to the discussion at hand.

This is the Shonan Monorail located in my sister's hometown of Kamakura Japan. It is one of my favorites. This monorail was opened in 1971, and it has operated reliabily for decades with no accidents, deaths, or other dire predictions that are attributed to these systems. 1971 Technology. It was built for relatively low cost, and as you can see provides a reliable and quite unique traveling experience that does not require huge amounts of ROW and demolition to make it possible.

photos from http://www.monorails.org

More here @ Monorails.org

[MadVlad]

That Monorail station looks nice and compact. I like!!!

[Cotuit]

There's something similar to that, but much older somewhere in Germany (I think). I think like Providence, there would be quite an outcry about running elevated rail of any kind through Downtown Hartford. However, these systems can be put underground. There's just a question, if you need to put a portion of the system underground, is this the best option.

This looks like a good option to run to Bradley, but I think it would be better to make Bradley part of New Haven-Springfiled commuter rail.

In the PRT thread, I mentioned the future possibility of running a shuttle from Providence's airport to some redeloped mall areas. I think this could work in an area like that since there would be no concern about disrupting historic areas. A New London to Foxwoods train could utilize this sort of technology as well.

[MadVlad]

Well, in an ideal world, I'd love to have them run in all directions, with less frequent stops as you get further out:

North: through Windsor via I-91 center median, 2 stops in Windsor (town line w/ Hartford being one), stop at Bradley, stop in East Windsor, 2 stops in Enfield.

East/NE: can be run in the HoV lane or the center median of I-84, 2 stops in East Hartford (CT Blvd, and Spencer St/Renschler Field, 2 stops in Manchester (including the Mall), stop in Vernon, one in Tolland (for UConn shuttle)

East/SE: run along Rte 2, stop in East Hartford (Main St near Augie and Rays), stop in Glastonbury, stop in Marlborough, stop in Colchester, stop in Norwich, end in New London or the Casinos (or hit both?)

South: run along the center median of I-91, stop in Wethersfield (near Old Wethersfield), stop in Rocky Hill (West St?), stop in Cromwell/Middletown (Rt 372), stop in Meriden (East Main), stop in Wallingford (Rte 5 exit 13), stop in North Haven, 2 stops and end in New Haven.

West: run along the center median of I-84, 3 stops in West Hartford (Prospect, S Main, and Westfarms), stop in Farmington, stop in New Britain/Plainville, stop on Queen St Southington, end in downtown Waterbury

[monsoon]

There's just a question, if you need to put a portion of the system underground, is this the best option.

The Shonan Monorail does go underground. It has it all.

[Cotuit]

The Shonan Monorail does go underground. It has it all.

I noticed that, but if your looking to building a primarily at grade or below grade line, then this system, which is obviously designed to be elevated may not be the best option. Depends what a city like Hartford decided it's needs were.

New London to the casinos, I could totally see a line like this one working in an all elevated fashion.

[monsoon]

I am not familiar with the area, but one of the problems of building at grade is having to deal with automobiles and pedestrians. This is one of the failings of many light rail systems as often they are crippled in congested areas because of these issues.

[Cotuit]

More crippling is trying to build anything elevated in New England, both Boston and Providence have been removing elevated structures of late. Notably in Boston the elevated Central Artery, but also the Orange Line and Green Line have had elevated sections put below grade (most recently the Green Line). Providence removed the mainline Northeast Corridor tracks which were elevated and put them underground and the elevated Route 195 is being moved away from the Downtown.

What's most likely for Hartford in the near term is traditional heavy Commuter Rail, the rails are in place and it would run north-south from New Haven to Springfield. A mode for Hartford's east-west travel corridor is up for grabs. Monorail would work along I-84 and I-384, but I think the routing would be more difficult through and west of the city as their are more resident's to object, and there's not an open highway corridor to push it through (well there is, but it would make more sense to be north of the highway).

There's also the busway proposal coming in from New Britain. As that is along an old railroad ROW, that could actually use a monorail structure with less objection, than trying to put elevated trains along city streets.

[dpbaker]

I actually love this idea,but would the current residential make a HUGE problem? The only way I can think of making it happen without tearing up the neigborhood is to make it a subway, but then again I don't think they'd want to noise from a subway.

That's the nice thing about monorails; you don't really have to tear things up to the extent of a light rail system during construction, much less intrusive depending on the design of the beam and supporting structure, and they're a lot cheaper than subways.

There's something similar to that, but much older somewhere in Germany (I think).

Yes, here it is, over 100 years old:

Wuppertal Monorail

[GregV]

It appears to me that spending a ton of money on upgrading existing at-grade light rails would be a waste of money compared to a new system that is cheaper to create and maintain, faster and that leads to less congestion. I say scrap the busway, and viva el monorail!

[wanderer34]

A monorail in Hartford is a big mistake and a waste of public money. I wouldn't even be talking about a damn monorail. If I were the damn mayor, I'd spend money on a regional light-rail system and use it to connect DT Hartford with it's immediate suburbs. The monorail is just another ruse. Another city that's very well known with the monorail is Seattle and it doesn't even have an adequate mass transit system, except for it's ferries. Ratehr than worry about getting a monorail, just worry about growing the city and revitalizing it's neighborhoods.

[beerbeer]

The problem with monorails is that one incident backs up the entire system. I have talked to a number of folks who have systems, the person I talked to from Vegas said they really like the system when it's up and running. it's very rider friendly and folks enjoy the system. Reliability is the issue gums up the works.

[GregV]

When this thread started I hated the idea of a monorail, and I'm not sure there are examples in the US of a system that truly works. But we need something and sinking billions of dollars into an antiquated light rail system that virtually ignores the technological advances of the 20th century seems rediculous. The systems we should try to emulate are those of Japan (see earlier in this thread) that use innovative engineering and technology to overcome their transit issues.