Heehee,
I guess that this could go in many different threads, but I thought that Iād put it here since itās being proposed in another city.
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Yes please! Replace the R-Line with the Sky-Line! 
Iām not extremely creative and no one has ever accused me of thinking outside the box, but I really really like the idea of a skylift from a few areas of downtown to Dix. I even like the idea of the cars being shaped like acorns.
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I actually think a monorail from North Hills through DT connecting DoSo, Mr. Kaneās corridor, makes a ton of sense.
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I have read that each mile of a monorail could easily cost 100 to 150 million dollars to build.
Their claim is ~$50m/mi.
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If you read the linked article, it tells you that the cost is estimated to be $48M per mile.
If you follow major roads, youād need about 6.75 miles of it for a total investment of $324M to get from North Hills to Downtown South.
If we just connected Smoky Hollow through to the convention center and to Downtown South, youāre looking at about 2.25 miles at a cost of $108M.
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While I would love a Monorail connecting NH to downtown (especially since I live right near NH). Iām not sure thatās the best use of an already limited public transit budget. But if Kane or other developers throw in some $$, who knows.
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Yeah I have read other articles about Monorails about Las Vegas and Austin and they were more than $48 million dollarsā¦ the Las Vegas monorail cost $88 million per mile (back in 2004). Studies show the Austin monorail would cost $87 million per mile with some claiming it would be $150 million per mile. Donāt get me wrong as I would love a monorail system in Raleigh, but does anybody really believe in the $48 million per mile cost? Not me.
Skyway to Dix has to be cheaper 
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Maybe we can divert money from this project to fund a monorail.
Estimated cost: $450m
Walnut to Wade ave is about 4.5 miles.
Cost per mile: $100m
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I wonder how either one of those projects would correlated to $$$ per person using it. That would be an interesting fact to knowā¦
If we measured everything by that sort of metric, Iād protest investment in schools and things that I donāt use.
The value proposition for all of the suburban drivers is 3-fold.
- Increase the tax base by enabling more urban development. Raise the base, not the rate.
- Take cars of the roads that suburbanites drive.
- Reduce pressure off of development in the SFH neighborhoods.
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Anyone know where I can find ridership stats on Raleighās monorail?
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The thing is roads are free for anyone to drive on, no matter if they drive once per year or 5 x per day. No other mode of transportation works this way. This skews the data towards car ownership and mostly single car commutes.
If they would either let everyone ride the monorail for free, or institute way more toll roads, the number of users will always favor building roads.
With toll technology like they have implemented on 540, where you have the scanners and can drive through them at full speed, it wouldnāt take that much to toll all the major highways in the area. Use that toll money to build out public transit. BRT, commuter rail, monorail, light rail, whatever.
Of course I know any politician to suggest such a plan will be burned at the stakeā¦ unfortunately
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Maybe the same entities who said it would cost $48 million to build. I was just curious as what the projected use of a monorail on that corridor would be.
@Kanatenah Highway travel is not āfreeā. You somehow have to obtain a car and gas in addition to the cost of the highway itself and environmental costs which are huge.
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