Could Ultra Light Rail be a fit for La Gonave

In many of the site's older blogs I talk about rail.  Most of the options are light rail vehicles.  The idea is to either connect the entire island by rail of some sort, and possibly start a leg connecting Anse-a-Galets to Pointe-a-Raquettes first.  Light rail is cheaper than heavy rail.  Think of the New York subway system as heavy rail.   Light rail is the type of rail that forms the backbone to Portland and Seattle's transit lines.  Then you have streetcars which are even lighter in weight than a light rail train.  These can look like San Francisco's iconic streetcar, or the modern streetcar that you see in Portland and Seattle.

There is another option as well that is lighter than the streetcars and even cheaper.  A typical light rail vehicle can weigh 100,000 lbs, and cost as much as $6 million per vehicle.  A Utlra Light Rail Vehicle costs as much at $1 million or less, and weighs about 10,000 lbs.  Many tourist resorts and destinations have these types of vehicles.  See below

Ultra light rail - could be used for inner city transit.  Photo from severn-lamb.com

Ultra light rail rapid -  could be used for longer distances and is faster.  This would be used to connect cities with each other. Photo from severn-lamb.com
The Ultra light rail and the Ultra light rail rapid systems are both ran by private companies.  While the rapid one hasn't been officially built yet, it is currently being designed for a private developer in Turkey.  In fact some American cities and universities are looking at these type of systems to move their people.

The track for installing these systems is much easier and doesn't require heavy equipment to install them.  No need for massive amounts of concrete, special crossing systems, sub-stations, etc.  A developer could easily get such a system started for very cheap, but still have a strong product.

Finally take a look at what London uses to connect two train stations.  This again is ultra light light rail.  They designed this train to run on regular standard train rail, since that is what existed.  Photo from parrypeoplemovers.com

Again, this system exists and has been running for many years.  It would be a more expensive system for La Gonave due to the type of track system that would be needed.  The track would even be capable of handling large freight trains, so as a result heavy equipment would need to be on the island to do the work.  Logistically it would be a nightmare.  These rail track installation systems are massive and expensive to operate.  So the Parry People Move, while considered Ultra Light Rail, it carries an expensive cost when you don't have the proper infrastructure.

A company called TDI, also is building what they call Very Light Rail, or VLR, which is still the same as Ultra Light Rail.  Again these trains weigh less than a semi-truck.  Some very large pickup trucks that are loaded in the back weigh as much as some of these trains.  See below what type of trains that TDI is constructing.  Photo from www.tdi.uk.com

Again this type of train may be better suited connecting cities on the island vs connecting different neighborhoods of Anse-a-Galets.

So in short, La Gonave could easily have one of the many types of Ultra Light Rail systems that is extremely affordable to the developer.  It makes transporting cheaper, which allows companies to run and build the system as opposed to the city doing it.  Here you can build a system for $2 million including vehicles and this could cover the entire city of Anse-a-Galets.  In Seattle where I live the light rail system is about $15 billion US and will connect many neighborhoods and cities.  So I think the ULR is a good system for La Gonave.

Let's Dream!

Go Gonave!



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