A few months ago, "Globes" disclosed the skyTran program, a monorail-based service which can reach speeds of up to 250 km/h, making it possible to travel from Holon to Tel Aviv in just three minutes.
"Globes" also reported that the first skyTran, developed by NASA engineers, was due to open in 2015, and can carry tens of thousands of passengers at a time from Ramat Hahayal in north Tel Aviv to the university and the port.
skyTran chairman and CEO Jerry Sanders says that he has already obtained full support from the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Finance, the Prime Minister's Office, the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality, the Export Import Bank of the US, and the US Trade Representative for the grandiose project.
Sanders is trying to raise $50 million, and assuming that all goes according to plan, he still believes that, in 2015, it will be possible to fly over the traffic jams that are such a nightmare for every resident of Tel Aviv or person trying to enter the city every day.
So much for Sanders's optimistic picture. The reality is somewhat different. Israel's reputation in public transport is problematic, to put it mildly, and every project takes decades to move through the bureaucracy and the financing difficulties. Even a new bus line is difficult to introduce in Tel Aviv, let alone a revolutionary new transport concept.
It turns out that the skyTran has not materialized in other places either. Three years ago, the Mountain View city council in California tried to promote the skyTran, but nothing has yet happened on the ground.
Castles in the air are fine, and to be perceived as one of the world's most developed and innovative cities makes everyone feel good, but it seems likely that the skyTran, first proposed in 1990 by inventor Douglas Malewicki (the project changed hands many times before it reached Sanders) will find it difficult to get off the ground by 2015.
What is certain is that we would be more than happy to be the first to eat our hats if, within two years, the skyTran really flies over us from Ramat Hahayal to Tel Aviv University in under five minutes.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 18, 2013
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