VALLEY OF THE SUN RAPID TRANSIT

Valley of the Sun Rapid Transit

The Valley of the Sun Scammers are at it again, with the advent of the “Light Rail” system, they have managed to put the Tax payers money in their own pockets for a system that has already requested more than a Billion dollars more than was previously predicted for the complete system.

Not only is the “Light rail” system not a rapid transit system but it starts in Mesa and proceeds to the Old “Cristown” Mall by rails placed in the middle of surface streets. Not only do the rails take roadway away from vehicular traffic, but it requires the “Light rail” riders to cross active streets to board the “Light Rail” cars and to disembark into street traffic. It effectively goes from nowhere to nowhere in a very expensive manner, making money for a small group of people and saddling the Tax payer with the costs of building and running it and costing hundreds of people their property and businesses and jobs.

The “Light Rail” system is an old system that was slowly phased out as unprofitable during the last half of the Twentieth Century. Those systems that survived the Twentieth Century either went up, as elevated trains, or went down, as subways. The newer systems that have been built toward the last two decades of the Century were Monorail systems built in Seattle, Disneyland, Japan, and China, to name a few places.

With the desire to decrease traffic on the surface streets of Phoenix and the rest of the Valley of the Sun the Planners had a chance to lead the country into this the twenty-first Century by building a rapid transit system that ran from Williams Gateway Airport across the Valley to Buckeye, transiting through ASU Main campus, Sky Harbor Airport, Down town Phoenix at the Sports Complexes and Hotels and on to ASU West and then to the Cardinals Football Field then onto the Phoenix International Raceway and finally to the Hotels in Buckeye. This transit system could have been built with support stations in the turn lanes of the streets and through empty land from one end to the other with a minimal displacement of people and businesses. This could have happened if a monorail system had been chosen, better yet a Magnetic Levitation (MagLev) system. No Ugly power lines hanging over the streets, no room hogging train cars on the city streets and graceful overhead rails designed to not be eyesores. Rider for the system could be lifted by escalators from the side walks on either side of the street to get on the Monorail and would exit the same way.

This system would have moved people from the major airports to the hotels and the sports venues quickly and safely. Students at any of the four ASU campuses could have easily attended classes at several different campuses as required. Then when Phoenix realized that it would be impossible to expand Sky Harbor any further the system could have been expanded south to the new site of the Airport, which could then combine both of the International Airports, Phoenix and Tucson. At this time the old airports could be used for commercial purposes and for Airport parking and then use the Monorail to ride to the new airport. The Sports Venues and the Hotels could even have entrances from the Monorail directly at the monorail elevation allowing patrons to enter directly into the facilities without having to battle the foot traffic at ground level.