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Virginia reports put on hold pair of lofty transportation proposals
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WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Virginia officials dashed lawmakers’ hopes this week for two lofty transportation projects: One, a futuristic system of automatic cars that would carry commuters across a series of guideways, the other a set of toll lanes spanning much of the eastern seaboard.
Neither plan is realistic currently, top Kaine administration staff concluded in two reports.
The General Assembly last year ordered the study of “personal rapid transit” and how it could be put in place in the state.
Such a system is planned for Heathrow Airport in London, and officials there hope it will carry 8,000 passengers each day and replace the existing bus system, according to the report from Matthew Tucker, director of Virginia’s Department of Rail and Public Transportation.
The $5.95 million project at the airport involves small, four-person cars set on tracks similar to the Washington area’s Metrorail that would carry riders directly to their destinations.
But while personal rapid transit theoretically could work in some of Virginia’s more dense urban areas or airports, Tucker concluded the technology isn’t ready and that “significant time and funding” would be needed to develop a test system.
“It wouldn’t be wise for us to be the first state to try to engineer and work through the bugs of making it work,” he told The Examiner on Wednesday.
The second report, issued by Virginia’s secretary of transportation and the commonwealth transportation commissioner, offered dim prospects for creating a “controlled-access” highway or toll road that would span from Delaware to South Carolina and follow U.S. routes 13 and 17. After consulting with each state in the path of the envisioned road, officials found little interest anywhere but Delaware, the report said. Entities within Virginia — including Accomack and Northampton counties — also said no to the road.
“Currently, key local and regional government entities in Virginia oppose, do not support, or are not interested in the proposed concept,” the report said.
The lukewarm reaction appeared to be based largely on funding constraints.
wflook@dcexaminer.com
Comments from Examiner Readers
8:11 AM MST on Tue., Jan. 22, 2008 re: "Virginia reports put on hold pair of lofty transportation proposals"
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5:38 AM MST on Fri., Jan. 18, 2008
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11:49 AM MST on Thu., Jan. 17, 2008
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Examiner Reader said:
It would be nice to know who the report analyzed. Here at Taxi2000, we were never contacted. This is significant since we have over three times the capacity of ULTra, which is being installed at Heathrow.
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Examiner Reader said:
Note that the article PRT supported the basic concepts of PRT, and even mentioned application in various Virginia environments. The only 'hold' put on the basic idea was due to the relative early tech cycle it is in. The report even suggested pilot projects to minimize early deployment risks. Stan Young
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Examiner Reader said:
If nobody wants to be the first, when will it ever happen? The Heathrow system is not "planned", it's under construction. I'd like to know on what basis Tucker concluded that the "technology isn't ready".
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