Monorail proposal to link Melbourne airports

[Justin L]

Interesting. But don't CityLink have some sort of exclusivity for transport to Tullamarine with their freeways which is one of the reasons an airport rail link was knocked back?

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...-23349,00.html

Monorail proposal to link airports
Rick Wallace, Victorian political reporter | July 18, 2008

AT the risk of turning Melbourne's transport woes into a song and dance routine, a European consortium has proposed building a monorail that will run between Geelong and Frankston as an alternative to an $8.5billion, west-east rail tunnel being considered by the state Government.

Transrapid, a joint-venture between German industrial giants Siemens and ThyssenKrupp, has advocated the revolutionary idea in a submission to the Victorian Government's review in the wake of Rod Eddington's study on Melbourne's transport needs.

While the plan is certain to be mocked for its echoes of a famous The Simpsons plot line, Transrapid general manager Peter Hatcher is serious about the idea.

He said for half the price of the planned rail tunnel -- which is intended to run between the inner suburbs of Footscray and Caulfield -- Transrapid could build a high-speed monorail more than 100km long.

Transrapid claims the monorail would link Melbourne's two airports and travel at speeds of up to 250km/h suspended above the track using magnetic levitation technology, cutting the travelling time from the CBD to Frankston to just 12 minutes.

"The system's high acceleration rates allow significant reductions in travel time over even short distances, and relatively high operating speeds in the order of 250km/h can be achieved in built-up areas with virtually no noise emission," the submission says.

The only commercial Transrapid train operates in Shanghai, where it links the city with Pudong Airport at speeds of about 430km/h.

However, the system has a chequered history in Germany, where in 2006 a Transrapid train operating on a demonstration track crashed into a maintenance car, killing 23 people.

[NickN]

Monorail!.... Monorail!......... Monoraillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!

[Ash W]

Originally Posted by NickN

Monorail!.... Monorail!......... Monoraillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!

And your point is?


As for the proposal where in the article does it mention the airport? All I see is it talking about Geelong to Frankston. This seems to be a reaction to a report by Rod Eddington (ex Ansett, ex BA) to build some new lines in Melbounre including a new tunnel under the city. People need to stop and think why the Transrapid Maglev only has one customer so far? The reason is because in theory it is good, but in practice not so easy, not so cheap and not as reliable as more traditional forms of transport. Funny how now they are quoting a speed of 250KM/h, when they were proposing Syd/CBR/Mel and SYD/ Wollongong the speed was 500km/h. Traditional steel on steel can do 350KM/h+ on a properly designed track, and on non dedicated tracks can do 200km/h again if designed right.

[Justin L]

Originally Posted by Ash W

And your point is?


As for the proposal where in the article does it mention the airport? All I see is it talking about Geelong to Frankston. This seems to be a reaction to a report by Rod Eddington (ex Ansett, ex BA) to build some new lines in Melbounre including a new tunnel under the city. People need to stop and think why the Transrapid Maglev only has one customer so far? The reason is because in theory it is good, but in practice not so easy, not so cheap and not as reliable as more traditional forms of transport. Funny how now they are quoting a speed of 250KM/h, when they were proposing Syd/CBR/Mel and SYD/ Wollongong the speed was 500km/h. Traditional steel on steel can do 350KM/h+ on a properly designed track, and on non dedicated tracks can do 200km/h again if designed right.

Ash, the airport is mentioned in the sentence I highlighted in bold (Transrapid claims the monorail would link Melbourne's two airports.) Presumably a Geelong-Frankston monorail would go via Avalon. They'd need a brach line from the city to Tullamarine I suppose. And Nick's monorail reference is to a Simpsons episode.

[NickN]

..... and one of the best Simpsons episodes too btw, although they are all tops.

[Bill S]

250km/h for a maglev is very slow - I went for a ride in the one in Shanghai a while back. It's still throttled-back from what it can really do, but is still very fast.

[D Chan]

high operating speeds but also high operating costs!

[Bill S]

Originally Posted by D Chan

high operating speeds but also high operating costs!

So what are the exact costs?

[Kelvin R]

I thought it was the other way round, high construction cost but low operating costs.

[Greg M]

Originally Posted by Justin Lazaroff

Interesting. But don't CityLink have some sort of exclusivity for transport to Tullamarine with their freeways which is one of the reasons an airport rail link was knocked back?

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...-23349,00.html

['Transrapid claims the monorail would link Melbourne's two airports and travel at speeds of up to 250km/h suspended above the track using magnetic levitation technology, cutting the travelling time from the CBD to Frankston to just 12 minutes.']

Earth to Transrapid??? Are you there???
The article can only be a PR stunt, the Germans have been experimenting with maglev for ages....

Munich was going to build a maglev train as a solution to airport to city woes, I have done the 45+ minute, train trip a number of times, and can confirm it is needed.

However the idea has become unstuck when the price tag increased from €1.85 to €3.4 billion for the 40 kilometre track...

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/03/maglev-project.html

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbi...n_id=rss_daily