Regional Transportation District

                                                                                    Memorandum

To:                  RTD Board of Directors

From:              Clarence W. Marsella, General Manager

Date:               March 10, 2005

Subject:          Request for Support of an Appropriation and Receipt of a  FY 2006 Maglev Development Program Grant for the Purpose of Examining and Analyzing the Spot Specific Inter-modal Connectivity Issues in the RTD District – As Part of a Technology Demonstration Project

This information comes to me from Miller Hudson, former Executive Director CIFGA:

FY2006 URBAN MAGLEV TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM GRANTS

With the assistance of Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell the Colorado Intermountain Fixed Guideway Authority (CIFGA) received $4.3 million in FY2002 to examine the feasibility of deploying MAGLEV technology along the I-70 mountain corridor.  Working with the Sandia National Laboratories and staff from the Colorado School of Mines, CIFGA completed this analysis in calendar year 2003 and its final report was approved for release by CDOT this past December.

Five projects across the country have received FTA Urban MAGLEV development dollars in recent years.  The most mature of these initiatives has been the technology development effort of the Western Pennsylvania MAGLEV Corporation in Pittsburgh, together with their contractor, General Atomics of La Jolla, California.   Since 1992, this program has captured nearly 80% of all available FTA MAGLEV research and development dollars.  Utilizing permanent magnets embedded in their guideway, the Pittsburgh team operates a 700 foot test facility at General Atomics’ research park where the unmanned Predator aircraft was developed.

CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA (CUP) URBAN MAGLEV DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

Although the Bush administration zeroed out the FTA MAGLEV technology development program in its FY2006 budget request, House Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young included a $5 million placeholder for the California University of Pennsylvania MAGLEV Demonstration Project in last week’s transportation authorization bill.  CUP would construct nearly two miles of MAGLEV connecting student parking lots 800 feet above the Monongahela River and the University’s riverside campus.  Ultimately, General Atomics and the Pittsburgh staff will be seeking about $100 million for their technology demonstration that will be matched with $50 million previously committed by the Pennsylvania DOT.

COLORADO MAGLEV PROJECT

Both as a Westerner (Alaska) and as a matter of geographic balance, Chairman Young has made it a condition of funding approval that CUP be paired with a project initiative west of the Mississippi.  Both the FTA as well as most observers agree that the I-70 mountain corridor represents the most exciting and challenging potential deployment application for a MAGLEV technology.  Truly, if it works reliably here, it will work anywhere.

Voter approval of the FasTracks system this past November only makes this opportunity more attractive.  The entire FasTracks system will be in operation a decade before CDOT can complete its proposed six laning of I-70 from Floyd Hill to Summit County.   With the capacity to deliver thousands of riders per hour, but not their vehicles, into the I-70 corridor, FasTracks’ integration with and inter-modal connection to a high-capacity, high-speed MAGLEV or functionally equivalent technology deserves thorough analysis.  Therefore, Congressman Mark Udall is carrying a companion earmark for RTD in the amount of $10 million which is paired with the CUP request.

NON-ENCUMBERED FUNDS AND A SOFT MATCH

The Urban MAGLEV R&D dollars are not a part of “NEW STARTS” and represent funds that would not otherwise come to Colorado.  Neither would their eventual appropriation be offset by a reduction elsewhere in Colorado’s transportation appropriations.  During CIFGA’S analysis of available MAGLEV technologies, CDOT was allowed to use its ongoing expenditures on the I-70 PEIS as a soft match for the FTA Urban MAGLEV grant.  It is expected that RTD’s substantial local investment in FasTracks planning and development will likewise serve as a qualified match for the inter-modal analysis contemplated in this grant.

The final report submitted by CIFGA determined that the existing Japanese HSST MAGLEV technology could be modified for operations in the demanding conditions that characterize the I-70 corridor.  The General Atomics/Pittsburgh technology is the only American system likely to become available in the near future, while the German TransRapid technology is now in revenue service.  All of these are high-speed, elevated technologies that would require a sophisticated integration with the FasTracks system.  However, with nearly three million people living within a fifteen minute drive of a FasTracks station upon its completion in 2016, such an inter-modal connection is deserving of analysis today.

WHAT IS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED

The purpose of the grant will be to study the size, spacing, design and best location for inter-modal stations that could connect FasTracks with a high-speed, high capacity system serving the I-70 mountain corridor.  For example, although the USAC study preserves an hypothetical “envelope” for an elevated entry into downtown, an inter-modal connection may prove problematic at that location.  Whether and when such a system ought to be extended across the metro area to DIA from the western edge of the FasTracks system remains an open question that will not be addressed as part of this grant effort.  Certainly the existing PEIS analysis did not anticipate FasTracks or its capacity to deliver riders, but not their cars, into the I-70 corridor.  The economic implications of this change demand thoughtful consideration.

Interestingly, the current draft I-70 PEIS report has determined that the construction of high-speed transit along the mountain corridor would produce less congestion on the existing 4-lane highway than a 6-lane expansion will experience upon its anticipated completion in 2025 (if transit is not constructed.).

Since both the CUP and Colorado Urban MAGLEV requests are currently paired, RTD is not expected to lobby this issue.  The heavy lifting, as it were, is being performed by General Atomics and the Pennsylvania delegation.  Nonetheless, Congressman Udall is actively involved on the House side on behalf of the mountain corridor counties that he represents.  Senator Allard, who will prove crucial in conference reconciliation, has requested through his staff that RTD indicate its interest in receiving and willingness to administer these Urban MAGLEV grant monies.

BOARD ACTION NEEDED

Therefore, it is requested that the full RTD Board to approve the receipt of grant monies through the FTA’s Urban MAGLEV program.  At this time that would include a request of Senators Allard and Salazar to include a matching $5 million appropriations request for the Colorado MAGLEV project.

These monies would fund an analysis of the inter-modal connectivity issues. The purpose of the grant will be to strictly study the size, spacing, design and best location for inter-modal stations that could connect RTD FasTracks corridor stations with a high-speed, high capacity system serving the I-70 mountain corridor, if at some time, Maglev or such a technology can be shown as a proven technology applicable for revenue service in the I-70 mountain corridor.   RTD will accept these funds provided that our existing planning and development funds on the FasTracks corridors can be used as soft match and will not take away any federal funds from RTD’s FasTracks Corridors.  The scope of this effort will be discussed and coordinated with DRCOG and CDOT.  The scope of this effort will proceed as an independent stand alone analysis and will not impede RTD from implementing its FasTracks corridor schedule as approved by the voters on November 2, 2004.