Apr
21
From the Niagara Falls Review:
The monorail dream is dead.
The city’s people mover system will be a rubber-tired bus system as a result of a council decision Monday to abandon the decades-old idea of building a fixed-link public transit system to serve the tourism areas.
“This thing has been going on so long, I think we’re all tired of it. We want something to happen,” said John MacDonald, the city’s former chief administrative officer who’s now managing the people mover’s development.
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Tags: bus, chief administrative officer, city council, john macdonald, monorail, people mover, public transit system, tourism
I don’t think this is a bad thing at all. The monorail would have been nice from a prestige and marketing angle, but would not have been practical. It could only have been run in specific areas and would have been totally inflexible. The raodway system will be much cheaper, can service a greater area, and can change routing at any time to accomodate demand or even road repairs. If they purchase a unique type of bus, have routes throughout the tourist areas and can come to an agreement with the NPC to have full coverage, I think it could turn out to be much more efficient and useful than a monorail.
I was always under the impression that the monorail might have used the old railway path, and so that’s why no one did anything with it. Now that this option is gone, maybe there will be a nice walkway made from the Fallsview Casino (starting at the pedestrian bridge) over to the Victoria Ave/Clifton Hill intersection.
I thought the monorail plan had been axed a long time ago and that a rubber tire system had already been decided on. Btw, Drafty I totally agree with you.
Actually Graham, city council has big plans for the old railway. In fact it has even been named the “Grand Blvd” and will connect the two tourist areas together with a nice walking pathway. Due to the cost involved in transforming this area, it is like the monorail/rubber tire people mover system and shelved for the time being.