SEGway Cost and Financing

Initial Cost Estimate

The only guideway system with some similarities to SEGway and headed for its construction phase is PRT 2000. PRT 2000 is being developed by Raytheon and the test track just opened. The first system is planned for Rosemont, Illinois. The system construction cost is $22.5 million per mile. This includes guideway, vehicles, stations, and the control system.

The PRT 2000 elevated guideway is single, i.e., one directional, whereas, whereas SEGway would be two way (two tracks). PRT 2000’s guideway is much more complex than envisioned for SEGway’s. PRT 2000’s guideway has many banked curves and many switches, whereas SEGway would have few of each. SEGway’s double guideway will probably cost about 25% less than PRT 2000s single much more complex guideway.

The PRT 2000 vehicles have cabins with full amenities, whereas smart carts don’t. The PRT 2000 vehicles have similar control electronics to what smart carts will require. Both have electric motors and run on wheels. A PRT 2000 vehicle will probably cost three to four times what a smart cart will.

System control and power distribution for both systems is very similar and should not have a much different cost but are relatively low cost items.

PRT 2000’s stations are far more complex and more numerous than SEGway’s on/off ramps would be, giving SEGway a lower cost.

Construction in developed Rosemont will be much more difficult than in a transportation right-of-way, again giving SEGway a lower cost.

Thus the cost for construction of two track SEGway guideway, smart carts, control system, power distribution system, and interchanges will be well below $22.5 million per mile.

In comparison, the light-rail line built in the early 1990 in Baltimore costed $16 million per mile, much of it was single track and has a through-put capacity of about 10,000 people in one direction per hour. The double track light-rail line between Downtown Los Angeles and Long Beach that opened in 1988 cost $55 million per mile and has a one-way through-put of 13,000 people. SEGway has a through-put of 10,500 vehicles per hour or 13,650 people per hour.

Who Will Pay for SEGway?

Since SEGway is being developed to be profit-making, private sector funding should be possible, which is unlikely for traditional and many advanced methods of adding urban transportation capacity. Since this is an electric transportation mode and electric utilities are being deregulated, the potential for their involvement is real. There is, of course, historical precedence for this. When electric utilities where a new industry, they were looking for demand for their electricity. A state-of-the-art transportation technology had just been invented, the trolley car. Many electric utilities obtained franchises from cities to run trolley cars on certain streets thus creating a demand for electricity. Later when utilities became large regulated monopolies, legislation was passed to make them sell off their trolley lines. Now with deregulation, there is no reason why electric utilities could not get back into the transportation business with the state-of-the- art electric transportation technology--SEGway.

Urban transportation planners have limited options to meet the new particulate matter standards. The most viable option is to reduce vehicle miles via particulate-matter producing vehicles. But what non-particulate producing mode can substitute and not be prohibitively expensive per trip diverted? Today in most urban areas, no such mode exists. Yet SEGway is a technology that can reduce particulate production and be economically viable. This means some public financing may be available.