From the Detroit Free Press
Detroit was once a place where people with new ideas came to make them happen, especially ideas that involved transportation.
Not anymore, it seems, based on the lack of response to overtures to the city from Jerry Sanders, chairman and CEO of SkyTran.
SkyTran would love to make Detroit the site for its first large-scale project, an overhead mass-transit system that no less an outfit than NASA has said can “revolutionize personal transportation.”
Before the city starts tearing up streets for the $520-million light-rail line up Woodward, which will inevitably cost more and be used less than projected, maybe someone should get back in touch with Sanders and at least invite him to make a presentation. Especially considering that he doesn’t want any taxpayer money to build his new system, just rights-of-way, and would consider manufacturing its components here for export to other cities that SkyTran is sure will want what they see working cheaply and cleanly in Detroit.
“We’re not coming with a hand out; we’re a privately held company,” Sanders said in a telephone interview last week. “We’re simply saying, ‘Give us a chance.’ If we can be accommodated, we can install an exceptionally low-cost, low-maintenance, high-profit system. Unlike other public transportation, we won’t need a subsidy.”
SkyTran is a system of four-passenger cars that zip along on an overhead track powered by a version of the same maglev technology (a term derived from the magnetic levitation that propels the cars) that drives trains in China, Japan and South Korea. The company says each car runs on about as much juice as it takes to power two blow-dryers. Passengers use touch screens to tell the cars where they want to exit the system. You can get the idea at www.skytran.net and watch the Plum TV video to the left. The SkyTran portion is 14 minutes and 30 seconds in.