Greenville wants to build elevated rapid transit system

At first it sounds implausible, and it just may be, but a Greenville County-affiliated board has asked for bids to build a personal rapid transit system filled with tiny, futuristic-looking electric podcars on an elevated line that could stretch across 20 miles to connect high-traffic locations in Greenville.

At least two Greenville County councilmen believe it's going to happen. And soon.

Four companies said they plan to file a proposal to design, build and privately finance the system, which, if built, would become one of five in use in the world.

The immediate plan would likely cost north of $50 million to build a 4.2-mile line off Laurens Road from Verdae Boulevard to East Washington Street.

Councilman Fred Payne envisions small four-or-six person driverless electric pods connected to a line that would whisk passengers through the air above a new section of the Swamp Rabbit Trail that the county plans to build off Laurens Road.

Eventually, it could connect to downtown Greenville, the county's hospital systems, Clemson University's International Center for Automotive Research, Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport and other major manufacturing sites, he said.

If it gets built, Greenville's system would become the second automated, driverless network in the U.S. and the first one built with current technology. The federal government helped fund a similar system using 20-passenger vehicles that's been in operation in Morgantown, West Virginia since 1975.

Payne believes Greenville's system will get built in the next two-to-four years.

This idea can succeed where other public transportation ideas have failed in Greenville, because "it's more private than public," he said.

"The podcars are more personal and private," Payne said. "They're on demand. They're on my schedule. They are driverless and they are direct, from my origin to my destination."

The four companies that plan to file a proposal include 2getthere of the Netherlands, Micro Transit Systems of London, SkyCab International from Sweden and Taxi 2000 based in Minnesota.

Robbert Lohrmann, commercial director for 2getthere, said his company has a vested interest wherever personal rapid transit projects are being considered, but his company would only be able to make a proposal if it could find a financial partner.

The other companies couldn't immediately be reached to comment Friday.

Bids are due May 1 to the Greenville County Economic Development Corporation, a non-profit county-created corporation Payne chairs that's responsible for acquiring, caring for and developing new transportation services to promote economic development in Greenville.

The GCEDC could give a notice to proceed to a winning company in June, according to its procurement schedule.

How it works

It works like this: small, enclosed vehicles run along a cable or a track in an interconnected loop with stops at high-traffic areas. Riders can call for a podcar to pull off-line at drop-off and pick-up locations along the route. The average wait for a ride would be about 30 seconds.

The podcars would pull out of formation and into the pick-up site, then pull back in line to take passengers non-stop to their destination.

It could save time and money for companies to move employees from one campus to another, or for residents to make a trip downtown without having to pay to park, Payne said.

Payne refers to it as a "horizontal elevator."

It will likely cost $10-$20 million per mile to build, he said.

The system would be supported by fares.

The county could create a Tax Increment Financing district to pay back investors who build the system with additional property and business revenues it creates over time, the proposal says.

Greenville needs a mass transportation solution if it wants to attract company headquarters and to keep the image the area is gaining as an innovative, cool place to live and work, Payne said.

The county group eventually wants companies to build 20 miles in phases into its interconnected network, its proposal says.

The GCEDC was first developed in 1999 to purchase the old Norfolk Southern railroad line that became the Swamp Rabbit Trail.

In recent years, the GCEDC sat mostly dormant. It didn't hold a meeting for two years until Payne took over as chairman, guided by one of the key reasons the corporation exists: to promote economic development in Greenville County through transportation advances.

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The group had studied and rejected a plan to turn the abandoned railroad into a rapid transit line for buses. A study showed the plan wouldn't expand ridership enough for it to be profitable.

But a study of personal rapid transit options commissioned by the GCEDC in June 2014 showed something else: a PRT system would likely attract four times as many riders as a bus, enough to make the annual costs work, according to the report created by a Colorado consultant.

The report estimated ridership on an elevated PRT system from downtown Greenville to CU-ICAR as 676,000 a year.

Will it work here?

Councilman Joe Dill said it absolutely could work in Greenville.

"It's futuristic but I think it'll go," said Dill, who's also on the GCEDC. "You've got to stay ahead of the curve."

He likened it to when community groups wanted to build the Swamp Rabbit Trail. He was opposed to the trail, which runs through his Travelers Rest district, at the time, but now has seen how the trail transformed Travelers Rest and brought economic development with minimal taxpayer money invested in it.

"We're not going to use any taxpayer money on this," Dill said.

If no one will privately finance it, then the plan will go back to the drawing board, but "I think people would enjoy it and I know there's people out there who want to invest in it," Dill said.

Joachim Taiber, a research professor at CU-ICAR, has been involved in the plan from its inception after he saw an automated PRT system at London's Heathrow Airport that takes passengers from parking decks to the airport via 21 electric podcars, but he doesn't believe it will work unless many improbable pieces fall into place.

"How are you going to finance this?" Taiber asked. "The private financing only works if the business pays its part. You can put out a request for proposals, but that doesn't mean that anyone will respond to it."

"This only makes sense if a company that develops a PRT system also wants to do (research and development) in Greenville and also wants to build a manufacturing site," Taiber said. "But just as a deployment project, it would not make sense because the market is not big enough."

PRT systems have also come online in South Korea and Abu Dhabi. In the U.S. cities like Austin, Texas and Santa Cruz, California are studying the potential for PRT.

"Technologically they are feasible," Taiber said. "Economically, they need to pay off."

Payne said he has no vested interest in the project. His interest is in creating and connecting communities to make Greenville sustainable, he said.

"There are always naysayers," Payne said. "Usually they don't understand. They have not investigated it."

The following video is provided by 2getthere.

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