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The monorail in Las Vegas might be an exception, but it wasn't placed above the most desirable avenue. Its high cost and low ridership now threaten bankruptcy.
This article undertakes to explain how and why our monobeam is an urgently needed, world-class breakthrough. But it must start with the basics and talk candidly about monorails. Don't go away.
Tracks
Tracks for a train must do all the following; the monorail's guideway must do the same:
• Support the train.
• Guide the train. Precisely.
• Keep the train upright and, if it speeds through curves, make it tilt just right for passenger comfort.
• Be extraordinarily reliable, rugged, durable.
• AND never, ever, fail. Lives could be lost.
Monorails
The very first monorail, a century ago, hung from a single rail; hence the name. Like a pendulum, cars swung out just right in curves. With dual rails for two-way traffic, it has served well for 105 years with never a passenger fatality. But that German monorail's switching arrangement defies description, and monorail switches continue to be a formidable challenge. (More later.)
Subsequent monorails continue above street level, and now have rubber tires. Today they come in a range of sizes; I'll focus on those large enough to carry thousands of passengers (per direction) each hour and are contenders in the enormous urban mass-transit market. All have multiple cars coupled together in a train, generally like those in Disney World or Vegas. Guideways are normally a pair of massive concrete beams, one for each direction, about 12 feet apart.
Now, a monorail switch for one-way traffic is possible with a special combination of guideway elements, typically at least 50 feet long and weighing tons. Not simple. But it's still tougher when switching is wanted for two-way traffic above the same city street. The problem, diagrammed elsewhere, is that one of the first line's diverging paths inevitably meets and must cross one path of the second line. Often a train on one of the lines must stop and wait while another train rumbles through. With red lights and stern discipline, the result is reasonably safe, but passengers don't appreciate the wasted time. Simply put, that intersection can never serve both lines at once. It's strictly either/or.
However, switching for two-way monorails has been installed a few places in the world. The only one I know of in the US is in Jacksonville and illustrated below. A small train rolling westward will continue West or turn South depending on how that switch is set by Central Control. In the first picture a switch is set to diverge South, and you can see that a movable piece of guideway is set to let this train cross the path of any train coming toward us from the West. (Railroad men call that piece "an active frog.")
When this same train returns from the South, it must merge into the Eastbound line, which requires that the long curved member in the foreground be swung into place. That is done by resting it on rugged cross-tracks with a powerful machine, not visible here, to force it back and forth. Note also the power strips alongside the same member, which must mate perfectly when the shift takes place.
The second picture shows how the same switch complex takes care of a train returning from the West. The frog piece has been repositioned to point East-West and is supporting the train right now. Whenever a train wants to pass through going West, the far (straight) member swings into line and the curved member there is parked between the two lines. That requires another set of rugged cross-tracks, another powerful machine, and additional power lines to match up.Maybe this explains why such cumbersome, expensive branching arrangements for dual lines of elevated transit are rare indeed. Other solutions are equally complex, and still can't serve both branches at once. That's the state-of-the-art today. We have walked you through all this so you can appreciate how huge an advance our monobeam will be.
Rail Rapid Transit
The classical form of urban mass transit, generally called subway or Metro, nearly always employs steel-wheel-on-steel-rail and its switches are much simpler because that little flange on its wheel affords guidance that rubber tires just can't. (Steel is many times as efficient, too, because its rolling friction is vastly lower.)
How do Metros allow branching of dual lines without the delay and hazard just covered? That is easy to describe, very expensive to accomplish. They simply make one path cross above or below the other. The term is grade separation, and you see the same thing every day where one freeway route branches into two. It's called an overpass. That, too, costs a bundle and consumes some acreage -- but it is safe and does the job without delaying anyone.
These Metro branches typically entail staggering cost and take up a lot of space, but they are always out of sight, buried underground. That takes a couple of years, but there's no realistic alternative. Again, a safe solution that does the job.
So what?
Now the stage is set to appreciate what a difference our monobeam can make. The monobeam packs two switches and their operating mechanisms into a single steel module, compact enough to build in a factory and to ship out on a single flat car. Those two switches achieve grade separation too, like Metros, to avoid the Jacksonville complexity and delay. Validity of our detail design was established by the 1996 demonstration; the video makes that abundantly clear. And it was observed first-hand by two Secretaries of USDOT as well as their engineers and dozens of other dignitaries.
This configuration was analyzed by two of the nation's foremost engineers (see Giants under Key people) and two of the foremost Urban planners; their letters are in the Testimonials section.
Four of those kudos are dated 1998 or earlier. The fifth, by Prof. Jerry Schneider, probably the best-informed expert on current innovations in transportation, attests that our monobeam is still unique in the world. Its technology has never been faulted and no alternative allows branches for lack of practical switching.
Bottom line
To free cities from addiction to autos and oil, better mass transit is mandatory: more ubiquitous, more attractive, much lower in capital cost, and installable in weeks rather than years. Faster than street traffic, too. That is what monorails seemed to promise, but they fell short by several measures. Our monobeam avoids those pitfalls and is the world's only remaining candidate to satisfy such formidable requirements. Years of additional research aren't needed; outstanding authorities affirm that milestone has already been passed. This monobeam is ready to proceed into full-scale development, and my own record as a leader of two historical breakthroughs, praised by Presidents, suggests that it can get into mass production quickly. Only then can aerial transit begin to heal the climate.
What might you do? First, contact your Senators and Representative, asking them not to propose time-consuming Federal outlays in this field. Instead, urge them to initiate a Resolution to prevent Federal bureaucrats from launching alternative research and development that only waste time and your taxes. Second, if you have access to a billionaire or major corporation that could commit the $75 Million or so to buy out Futrex, demonstrate the system, and launch a profitable, world-dominating industry -- then call their attention to this system. We'll be glad to work with them.
Finally, even if this monobeam is never installed in American cities, remember the prediction that China and India will have 1,100,000,000 more autos by 2050. Consider what that would do to the atmosphere no one can live without. We Americans must somehow dissuade them from repeating our mistakes, or our offspring are toast.
