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Sep 30, 2007 4:35 pm US/Mountain
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Transportation Company Says Maglev Could Help CDOT
Written by Andrea Lopez
by Andrea Lopez
(CBS4)
The congestion on Interstate 70 has diminished the quality of life for some Coloradans. Some people from the Front Range and Denver have said that they no longer travel to the mountains to recreate, especially during peak travel times on the weekends, due to the bumper to bumper traffic that's particularly common during the winter season. Some mountain businesses have said that guests are choosing to fly into Summit County, Utah where they can enjoy winter recreation without the congestion.
How would the quality of life change for those people and other visitors to the mountains if they had a train to ride? American Maglev Technology is a company that produces magnetically levitated propelled vehicles, hence the term "maglev." It suggests this technology is the answer to the skyrocketing congestion problems that are affecting cities and different areas all over the world, and that it can be used for short hauls or long distances. (
See video clip at right for a demonstration of how it looks.)
"Maglev monorail is ideal for the I-70 corridor because of the lower energy requirements (if speeds are not over around 150 mph when they escalate) and because it is nearly quiet," said Anne Callison, the Rocky Mountain Consultant for American Maglev Transit out of Marrietta, Georgia. "The system built must at least meet, or exceed, the time needed to travel from DIA to Vail, but there is no reason for some of the fast systems, rail or maglev -- by that I mean the TGV that just went 324 mph. We want travelers to be able to see and enjoy the mountain vistas, not see them as a blur."
According to The Colorado Department of Transportation, this technology, if used on the mountain corridor, would be a fully elevated system that would provide higher speeds than other transit technologies being studied. There is no surface or contact friction to slow down a maglev train so it can speed up and slow down easily with little maintenance. These vehicles are considered high-speed vehicles, and AMT said they are not affected by adverse weather.
"Because a maglev monorail is built on columns, and because CDOT controls almost all of the rights-of-way along I-70, this can be built with minimum intrusion into existing traffic," said Callison. "There will not be the 10-15 years of disruption on I-70 that a road-widening project will have."
Maglev technology has been used in Germany and Japan for years. AMT said the cost to build one of its systems would be approximately $13 to $19 million per mile and that it could support itself without government subsidies after its in place. It said its systems have more simplistic tracks than other forms of rail, that the vehicles are lighter, and that the cost of travel can be as low as 17-cents per mile.
Callison estimates that it would cost anywhere from $4 to $6 billion dollars to build a system like this on the mountain corridor, and that this alternative is well worth the money. She also said this system could carry six to eight times the amount of people that wider lanes would accommodate.
"Widening the highway is not the solution," said Callison. "Look at I-25 and TREX. The travel the widening has induced has already brought it back to pre-construction congestion levels.
"The monorail will serve both recreationists and commuters. I know some are worried that more housing will be built in the mountains and folks will use it to commute to Denver. One, the housing is going to be developed anyway, and two, few will commute two hours. What I do suspect is that you will see the resorts being able to entice people living in Denver to commute west and sleep on their way to a job at the resorts. This would help with the resort towns' need for affordable housing -- it's in Denver metro.
"As for recreationists, we'll see a new paradigm in travel. For skiers going to Breckenridge or to areas where the monorail can not stop near the lifts, the "last mile" will need to be covered. Skiers will have to transfer to extended motorized walkways, buses, another monorail segment, or the like.
"For hikers and bicyclists, I foresee additional taxis and "jitney" buses waiting to take hikers to trailheads. The hiking party will be dropped off and a pickup time arranged for. Cell phones will be used for earlier pickups.
"Imagine the benefit for Keystone and Vail. You arrive at the station at the resort, take a chair lift up, hike the tops of the ski hills and dine at one of their great mountaintop restaurants. Then hike down or take the chair back to the monorail station.
"For national and international tourism, the value will be multi-fold. First, the engineering and transportation planning and construction communities will flock to see what will be the world's longest maglev system in the world. Then you'll have tourists from around the globe who will love not having to rent a car - their maglev ticket will be code-shared with their airline ticket. And if we build a passenger rail line along I-25 we'll soon make Colorado one of the world's best destinations."
Callison said they would like to make a presentation to CDOT if this alternative is chosen and once funding is found for it. She argues that a maglev monorail could also be used for cargo.
"Let's say from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. the monorail is used for freight," said Callison. "A bulk facility is built somewhere near the line at DIA, a break-bulk facility is built in let's say Silverthorne. Restaurants, hotels, retailers will all learn a new way of ordering so that items can be placed on palettes and wrapped. Using the 'Hawaiian Airlines' model, the monorail cars are used to carry freight in the non-passenger hours, then returned to passenger service at 6 a.m.
"Already we're seeing a new paradigm in skier's luggage. At least 6 companies now offer to ship, overnight, your bagged skis and your large, heavy piece of luggage. The big pieces leave Thursday night, you fly on Friday with a small bag and your ski boots. When you get to your hotel room or condo, your luggage and skis are waiting for you. This luggage will travel by monorail overnight. And this gets the 18 and 24 foot trucks off the highway and should get a fair amount of semis off the road as well.
"It should prove sufficient to provide the relief needed and make adding additional lanes unnecessary," she said. "And this involves the entire trucking industry. We must stop sending trucks across the country and use conventional rail as the way to do long hauls. Let the trucks deliver the last 100 miles. But this means a sea change by the trucking associations. Lots of shipping firms are making the decision themselves; the associations will come along -- hopefully.
"If CDOT is allowed, through categorical exclusions, to begin the widening, then it will be a foregone conclusion and I believe they will use up most of the right-of-way with paving, thus making the alignments and construction of a monorail difficult, if not impossible."
Additional Resource• To learn more about maglev technology, visit
American Maglev Technology's Web site.
(© MMVII CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)