# High-speed hydrogen rail: For you or you and your car.



## Whiteeclipse (Mar 31, 2005)

*High-speed hydrogen rail: From Grand Rapids to Detroit in 40 minutes?*









The public gets a chance next week to comment on a plan to build a futuristic high-speed rail system along Michigan's interstates, allowing people and cars to travel from Grand Rapids to Detroit in less than an hour.

The Michigan-meets-"The Jetsons" concept is being studied by a bipartisan state panel holding meetings around the state in an attempt to gauge public support.

"To somebody born in 1900, they didn't know they'd watch a man land on the moon, but we believe that (a rail system) does have possibilities and certainly is worthwhile to us to continue to investigate them," said state Rep. Mike Huckleberry, D-Greenville. "We're in such economic shape that no stone should be left unturned."

The project was proposed by the privately owned Interstate Traveler Company, located just north of Ann Arbor. Company officials are asking the state to provide free use of the right-of-way along Michigan's interstate freeway system.

The railway's cars would levitate on top of an elevated hydrogen-based track and be propelled by energy from magnets. Cars holding people, freight and vehicles would cycle at high speeds, stopping in Grand Rapids, Lansing, Ann Arbor and Detroit.

Local business leaders say the concept has the potential to create a new manufacturing base in Michigan and spur economic development.

"Clearly this would bring a competitive advantage to our state if we could move people and freight and cars and vehicles from Grand Rapid to Detroit, and eventually to other Midwestern states," said Jared Rodriguez, a lobbyist with the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce.

It is, however, an expensive proposition.

The project is estimated to cost more than $2 billion, or about $17 million a mile.

Huckleberry said the company is not asking for any state, federal or local funding.
Company founder Justin Sutton has told state officials he has secured private investors for the project, but needs lawmakers to agree to give him free use of the interstate right-of-way in exchange for revenues that will be shared with the state and local governments after three years of operation.

Passengers would pay about 5 cents per minute and $1 per minute to transport vehicles -- with a trip from Grand Rapids to Detroit estimated to take about 40 minutes.

But at least one local transit advocate is not as enthusiastic about the plan.

"The reality is the state is struggling philosophically, financially and politically to advance even the most basic mass-transit technology," said Grand Rapids resident Andy Guy, a mass transit advocate.

"Our communities and economy are better served, in my view, if we focus on and invest in proven and practical transportation solutions such as light rail in Detroit, commuter rail serving Ann Arbor and streetcars in downtown Grand Rapids before we get too excited about gliding around like the Jetsons," he said.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/07/highspeed_hydrogen_rail_from_g.html


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## urbanfan89 (May 30, 2007)

It's a complete joke. The legislators should politely respond that this is simply not grounded in reality.


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## adrimm (Dec 17, 2006)

This is more an experiment of thought (and a radical one at that), but what if the state and federal governments sold off all freeways/highways to private entity(ies), and instead of subsidising/building roads, subsidized high-speed rail networks? Would that not be the ultimate future-proofing?


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