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Masdar PRT pods take a hit |
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Written by Will Wilson
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Thursday, 02 December 2010 04:22 |
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As indicated in earlier articles following Masdar City's progress, a recent article has confirmed PRT podcars will not be running as previously planned. They will only run as a pilot project from the gate to the recently opened building that houses the Masdar Institute, a post-graduate university with a focus on clean energy.
It would appear the PRT program is a victim of cost cutting. Savings of some $2.5bn have resulted from a recent review that abandoned the PRT pod transit system, removed a raised podium design for the buildings and scrapped a plan to instal solar panels on all roofs.
As the article noted
"Dropping the podium on which the community would be built above a layer of infrastructure and settling on a plan to bury utility cables and pipes "has allowed huge savings on realising a city of the same size", said Mark Bone-Knell, the intellectual property manager of Masdar's property development unit. "None of the original aims of the city have been diluted."
A non polluting transit system certainly appeared to be a major aim of this city. For this reason Masdar's PRT efforts have been widely touted. While plenty will be read into this move (by both pro and anti PRT camps) it seems the cold hard reality of funding in today's economic climate is that the lowest cost option wins.
Read the full article here
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Last Updated on Friday, 17 December 2010 13:51 |
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