All Over Albany

Monorails are deserving of mockery, and the Simpsons clip is a classic. There's an even more ridiculous idea out there for another type of elevated transport system called Personal Rapid Transit, which would bring about disastrous consequences anywhere you imposed it.

But in this case, a monorail type people mover doesn't seem like such a bad idea if it's just bringing people over the river from the train station.

I would oppose any monorail project to extend beyond one stop in downtown, though. For anything beyond that, we would want light rail so that it's integrated with the streets.

Someday I'd love to see a small rail station or platform in Troy.

... said Duncan Crary on May 24, 2011 at 12:08 PM | link

Monorail? Screw that! I want a zip line from the Corning Tower to the train station.

... said Weeee on May 24, 2011 at 12:27 PM | link

Yes, link improvements to our rail system to the new convention center/bus station. Those two clusterf*cks should be joined together.

... said Ron on May 24, 2011 at 12:34 PM | link

Sorry, Greg and Mary, the mob has spoken.

... said LB on May 25, 2011 at 1:00 AM | link

Duncan, you're the last person on earth I'd expect to mock monorails. You do have a point, though; monorail systems likely work better when they're short lines. The Seattle Center Monorail -- seattlemonorail.com -- is a good example of this. It's a one-mile, two-minute ride that connects the Seattle Center (home to the Space Needle and other attractions) and the Westlake Center Mall with no stops in between.

You're absolutely right about light rail, though. That should be the logical next step after BusPlus, though to be honest, we should have skipped BusPlus entirely and gone straight to light rail. However, as long as we insist upon not properly funding mass transit in general and CDTA in particular, we'll have to get by on whatever we can scrape together. I'm sure I'll get disagreement on this, but BusPlus is better than nothing.

Finally, in my opinion, the aforementioned Simpsons monorail episode set mass transit in the United States back at least 20 years. Whenever anyone comes up with an innovative mass transit idea, everyone starts singing "the monorail song" and the idea is quickly shot down regardless of its merits.

... said Tim in Waterford on May 25, 2011 at 10:48 AM | link

Umm, not that I'm anti-monorail or anything, but the bus does go right to the train station, in an only slightly circuitous route (which predates the new bridge).

... said Carl on May 26, 2011 at 12:01 AM | link

I for one am glad that the Simpsons clip was mentioned, because that was the first thing I thought of when I saw the word monorail... But, I also sort of like the idea. Currently, waiting for heavy rail in NYP/NYC... ;) Where is our fast train to/from NYC?! I don't want to wait! :)

... said Andy on May 27, 2011 at 7:44 PM | link

just to clear up a few things the reason why a monorail is a logical mode of transportation is that if you have a structure that is above the road it dosnt interfere with the traffic or pedestrians below wear as light rail does ( light rail system in houston has on average 4 accidents with light Rail ) since they are renovating the dunn memorial bridge it would be a great idea if they took a future monorail system into consideration that way they could easily put one in that goes from Rensselear to albany possibly renovating the abandon warehouse that recently had a fire into a multi-purpose retail, residential, office and Station. As four the BusPlus albanys attempt at a Bus rapid Transit system they completely failed at this a BT is supposed to be a system were buses run in there own separate lane not with traffic preferably in the middle with walk ways from the sidewalks on each side albany did not do this as the buses drive right along with the traffic therefore reducing absolutely no traffic. Now back to the monorail a way to make this system amazing is it would continue in the opposite direction from the Rensselaer train station along the hudson river and over to the over to the old burden iron works company buildings near route 378 and hudson valley by putting a satation here it would drastically reduce the traffic on route 4 due to HVCC also a shuttle bus service from the suggested station to the Campus would be a perfect idea. now there is two possibilities for the next segment either continue on the Troy side however this causes a problem since there is a lot of industrial area there however a monorail could go right over or next to the existing rail tracks however after the tracks end you run into the oneway roads of troy , so the more economical solution would be to either have a bridge made to cross the Hudson and connect to the monorail track that would be running in the middle of 787 from Albany It would make stops in Menands, Watervliet , and Cohoes possible having a station at the new Loft apartments , this could either be the end or it could continue north to Saratoga and even Glens Falls or west to Scheneectedy and Amsterdam. Not only would this be a better mode of transportation it would make the whole capital region a lot closer, it would create thousands of jobs it would help revitalize areas and cities such as Amsterdam , and the area near the burden iron works company in troy if pursued this would be the most influential project in New York Since the Subway System

... said chris on Jun 8, 2011 at 4:41 PM | link