Re:With Subway in the Sky, Valley Meets Plateau
by jpatokal on Monday August 18, 2014 @12:52AM
(#8191473)
Elevated rail, even monorail, is considerably more expensive, but also provides far higher capacity. You can also increase capacity on a train line relatively easily with shorter intervals and longer trains, while a gondola's carrying capacity is essentially fixed.
Rough comparison between three recent 3rd-world systems:
- La Paz gondola: 3000 passengers per hour per direction (pphpd), ~$10m/km
- Mumbai Monorail: 10,000 pphpd, ~$20m/km
- BTS Skytrain, Bangkok: >30,000 pphpd, >$100m/km (on recent extensions)
Gondolas make sense in hilly locales where hurricanes are not a threat (like La Paz), they'd be a non-starter for both reasons in Miami.
Re:With Subway in the Sky, Valley Meets Plateau
by gaplus on Monday August 18, 2014 @01:06AM
(#8191495)
I'm pretty sure a gondola can hold its own in a hurricane (as long as it isn't running). Most urban systems use the same technology as alpine systems, which have to withstand harsh blizzards.
Rough comparison between three recent 3rd-world systems:
- La Paz gondola: 3000 passengers per hour per direction (pphpd), ~$10m/km
- Mumbai Monorail: 10,000 pphpd, ~$20m/km
- BTS Skytrain, Bangkok: >30,000 pphpd, >$100m/km (on recent extensions)
Gondolas make sense in hilly locales where hurricanes are not a threat (like La Paz), they'd be a non-starter for both reasons in Miami.