Serious Talk of a Monorail Line in Florida

https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/veh ... 1781501H5T

https://en.byd.com/skyrail/

Moderator Note: moved to Florida Commuter Rail.

Impressed by the details. Designing the rails to be low impact visually, and low maintenance. Why more cities ( hey Austin,TX.) not look into this is beyond me.

Interesting, but my question is this: Is there enough business for another "rail" line between these two cities, considering that there already is Amtrak (yes, I know not too many people take Amtrak for such a short trip), TriRail, and Virgin Train (BirghtLine).

Maybe if the monorail line is run very close to the shoreline so it isn't duplicating the routes of the other trains.

Stuart

frequentflyer wrote: ↑Wed Jul 24, 2019 11:45 am Impressed by the details. Designing the rails to be low impact visually, and low maintenance. Why more cities ( hey Austin,TX.) not look into this is beyond me.

One of the largest issues with systems like these is the vendor lock-in. There is usually no way to contract for repairs or parts replacements with anyone but the original builder and the system may have to be torn down and replaced if they ever want to replace the trains. Compare AirTrain JFK to AirTrain EWR. EWR is going to be torn down at the end of its useful life, whereas it will always be possible to get a train running on 750V third rail, 4' 8.5" (even if they abandoned SelTrac and the aluminum propulsion strips).

Interesting point about the Vendor lock in. Shocking to hear about the EWR Airtrain being torn down after useful life, I thought BBD was the project lead on that one?

It is slow, overcrowded, and unreliable. BBD operates it under contract until 2022. They are not involved in the replacement planning, which has not yet selected a mode of transit.

A Ford Pinto or Leyland Pacer would be better than EWR monorail.

Tadman wrote: ↑Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:58 pm A Ford Pinto or Leyland Pacer would be better than EWR monorail.

IIRC, the thing was made by Von Roll,who even told the PA that it wasn't designed for the application. Snowmobiles, inc getting the maintenance contract s no surprise...

I mean, I could fix that stupid EWR train in about six weeks. Open bids to build double-track elevated structure, 4' 8.5", 600-750vdc. Buy 8 retired CTA 2600 cars and refurbish them, or something similar. Or tack on to an order for something new that CTA or NYCTA has on order, maybe 8-10 cars. With spares.

Problem solved. No more monkey business. No more mystery spare parts.

I notice a few comments about monorail slow. How many others have ridden a monorail. There is a historic problem with monorails that has never been solved. Monorails above 30 - 35 MPH are dynamically unstable. That is they will shake them selves apart at those speeds. That is why Disney limits theirs to 25 MPH. Research has shown that active controls can dampen the unstable but what happens if it fails at high speed ? To get an idea of the cost the F-16 has active controls that almost double the cost of the aircraft.

west point wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2020 12:18 pm I notice a few comments about monorail slow. How many others have ridden a monorail. There is a historic problem with monorails that has never been solved. Monorails above 30 - 35 MPH are dynamically unstable. That is they will shake them selves apart at those speeds. That is why Disney limits theirs to 25 MPH. Research has shown that active controls can dampen the unstable but what happens if it fails at high speed ? To get an idea of the cost the F-16 has active controls that almost double the cost of the aircraft.

Ever hear of maglev? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_maglev_train

In all seriousness though, why not bend the curves so that monorails could take on higher speeds, as well as build stable wheels which could stick on to the tracks while moving fast? The Alweg Monorail in Germany used this technique to achieve high speed testing for their monorails in the early 50s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsIgADEw_Ck

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/00/81/f1 ... bb269f.jpg

Yeah, that's impressive. So sad that we don't seem to be able to progress in such things anymore.

west point wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2020 12:18 pm I notice a few comments about monorail slow. How many others have ridden a monorail. There is a historic problem with monorails that has never been solved. Monorails above 30 - 35 MPH are dynamically unstable. That is they will shake them selves apart at those speeds. That is why Disney limits theirs to 25 MPH. Research has shown that active controls can dampen the unstable but what happens if it fails at high speed ? To get an idea of the cost the F-16 has active controls that almost double the cost of the aircraft.

Huh? Everything I can find says Disney runs up to 40mph.

I was there last Christmas, the line to Epcot is deff faster than 25