The Monorail Alternative
Monorails cost 10% - 15% of Rail Subways and can carry 60,000 passengers / hour. (Image: www.cqmetro.cn) |
In 2008 the Victorian State Government announced its intention to spend $16.5 billion building:
- A road tollway under Melbourne from East to West.
- A rail subway from Footscray to Caulfield.
As part of this process the government called for public submissions to this proposal.
East West Link Needs Assessment Submission
Click above image to download (1.4 MB PDF) |
Given that it is possible to build eight times as much high-capacity Monorail as rail subway per dollar we proposed using Monorails to rapidly expand Melbourne's public transport network.
Our proposal was:
- Build a high-capacity Monorail from Highpoint Shopping Centre to Ashburton via Footscray, CBD, Domain, Windsor, Caulfield, Chadstone SC & Holmesglen ($1.4 Billion)
- Build a high-capacity Monorail from Docklands to Doncaster and Nunawading ($1.2 Billion)
- Build a two kilometre rail subway from north of Southern Cross Station to near Batman Avenue to alleviate the key CBD rail bottleneck. ($0.8 Billion)
- Use the remaining $13 Billion of spending recommended by Sir Rod Eddington on other public transport and level-crossing projects around Victoria.
Notes:
- Based on overseas experience both these Monorail systems could be completed before the next election and certainly well before petrol hits $8 / litre as predicted by the CSIRO.
- Both monorails are to be built above the median strips of major roads - not peoples backyards!
- The proposed monorails run on rubber tyres - so will be inaudible over the traffic noise.
Time Line
- 9th May 2008: Initial Draft.
- 25th May 2008: Review by Monorail Society received.
- 17th June 2008: Limited review by Hitachi received.
- 25th June 2008: Victorian Parliamentarian submission.
- 3rd July 2008: Submitted to enquiry.
- 9th July 2008: Latest Update to submission.
- 15th July 2008: Enquiry submission cut-off.
- 22nd July 2008: Mail-out to Politicians with an affected electorate or portfolio.
- 8th Dec 2008: East-West Rail-Tunnel Project announced for completion in 2018.
No formal response was ever received to this submission.
The joke's on us
11th Dec 2008: Ken Davidson explains the padding of the cost of public transport in the latest Transport Plan. more...
Rail Tunnel Delayed
8th Dec 2008: The hugely expensive East-West Rail Tunnel has been delayed with the first Footscray-Domain section not due to be even started until 2012 and then take six years to build.
Questions remain about how this would be financed or if it will ever happen. more...
The Monorail Society
Visit the Monorail Society for more
information about monorails.
- Why Monorail?
- Monorail Cost.
- Monorail Types.
- Tokyo Monorail - a low visual impact monorail.
- Okinawa Monorail.
- Shonan Safege Monorail.
- Seattle Monorail showing the benefits of a walk-through design.
Hitachi Monorail Systems
Hitachi Rail is the leading manufacturer of high-capacity ALWEG monorail systems with over four decades of experience.Privatising the Tunnel
"A PROPOSED $7 billion rail tunnel from Footscray to Caulfield could be privatised under funding options being considered by the Brumby Government and being backed by Metlink.
The Government has also refused to rule out fare increases to help pay for the tunnel. "
more....
Skyrail Transit
Visit the Skyrail Transit for more
information about monorail proposals in other Australian cities.
Transrapid Proposal
30th July 2008: For half the price of the planned rail tunnel Transrapid can build a high-speed monorail from Geelong to the Airport to Frankston - more than 100km.
However, maglev track takes up far more space than a conventional ALWEG monorail so should only be routed down existing freeway easements. The CBD - Frankston section of a Maglev could only run down St. Kilda Road and Nepean Highway which is likely to be unacceptable. See HeraldSun article for more.
Chongqing Monorail
18th Jun 2004: Stunning Chongqing monorails opens ahead of schedule. All for ~$A72 Million / km! Click here or here for photos taken from the chinese language www.cqmetro.cn (Translate using Google).
See also 15MB MPEG Video.