The Monorail Alternative

Chongqing monorail
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:

As part of this process the government called for public submissions to this proposal.

NewAustralia submitted this "Monorail Alternative" submission.

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:

Notes:

Time Line

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.

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

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

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.