Maglev for Orlando ?

[blue streak 1]

Georgia company is proposing to build 15 mile maglev from Orlando airport to convention center.  The real kicker is that city is going to lease all right of way to company.   Have to wonder if this is some kind of sweetheart deal.  article says cost will be about  $400M  That is about $26M per mile.  Analysis welcomed ?

 

http://www.myfoxorlando.com/story/25571672/mass-transit-maglev-train-would-link-oia-to-convention-center

Better article

http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/blog/2014/05/fdot-oks-american-maglev-s-orlando-airport-to-i.html

 

 

 

[PNWRMNM]

Streak,

One article says $315 million for 40 miles. The other says $396 million for 15 miles and a 12 minute ride. That is 75 MPH start to stop, so cruise about 80 with max of 90 would be my guess for speeds. I will assume the second report is correct and yes that is $26.4 million per mile.

Proponent says 4 million riders per year, which sounds like a lot, but is 11,000 per day or 5,500 round trips based on a 360 day year, which seems reasonable if corridor is as crowded as the reports indicate. Assuming $400 million investment, proponents need pre tax net operating revenue on the order of $40,000,000 per year, or $10 per head. That implies one way ticket of $12.50 to $15. That seems steep to me.

No mention of right of way cost. I suspect proponents are figuring on free or close to it, since their budget figure is unlikely to cover 75 acres or so of urban real estate. The artist's rendering shows a very small footprint. That rendering looks a lot like Seattle's monorail both in terms of physical structure and the trains.

I wonder if they plan to work same way the monrail does, each train going back and forth on the same track? If so that will limit capacity. Of course switches at each end would be an engineering challenge, but would probably allow roughly double capacity and not confuse customers about where to board.

It looks like a good test case to me, but I would pass on any stock offering. The usual reward of pioneers is arrows in the back.

Mac

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Is there any mention of operating costs with this proposal?  Maglev sounds like the kind of technology that is going to require a lot of electricity to make it work.