A totally new idea: Solar-powered high-speed rail

Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc.

Solar-fueled bullet train through Pinal partners' goal
By LINDSEY GEMME, Staff Writer April 17, 2009
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ELOY - If you build a solar/electric bullet passenger train from the Grand Canyon to Nogales, they will come. At least that's the hopes retired civil engineer Bill Gaither and partner Raymond Wright cling to as they pitch their idea to area cities.
The two have set up shop as Solar Bullet LLC in Tucson with dreams of a 220 mph solar train to be built through Arizona, its first phase connecting Phoenix and Tucson. With four tracks, the innermost two would be reserved for nonstop travel, going 116 miles in a half hour. The outer two tracks would allow a one-hour trip, with stops slated for Chandler, Maricopa, Casa Grande, Eloy, Red Rock and Marana. The rail could open opportunities for both the white- and blue-collar workers, they say, and give Arizonans the opportunity to reside comfortably in communities outside of the metro areas.

With the gas price fluctuations in the past year and all-day rush hour clogging, cheaper alternative transportation is a tempting concept. Furthermore, transportation that does not pollute the environment and runs on Arizona's most abundant renewable resource - the sun - for power makes it all the more intriguing. It is estimated that the train would require 110 megawatts of electricity to run. With Arizona's sun intensity being the highest in the nation, excess power could be stored to fuel nighttime operation or sold to the local power grid to reduce or eliminate overhead costs.

The pair even imagine the potential of the rail reaching as far as Mexico City someday.

According to Gaither, France and Japan have been utilizing bullet train technology for the last 30 to 40 years. "So, we'd be using proven, state-of-the-art equipment."

Solar Bullet LLC also says stations could provide electric vehicles for rent. There would be two- and four-passenger vehicles with a 50-mile range and 50 mph top speed, built with fast rechargeable batteries. This, the partners say, could help attract "choice riders," those who have cars and could easily make the trip themselves, but choose rail instead due to the ease of transport.

"As a so-called 'choice-rider,' if I know when I get to the Eloy station that I can get an electric station car and I can zip over to Schuff Steel, for example, and come back and get on the train and go back to Tucson or Phoenix, I'll do that," Gaither said. "They would want the flexibility of getting someplace quickly."

Although retired, Gaither says this project called to him for a couple of reasons. One, he says, "This is the kind of project that I just plain find fun." But secondly, the 76-year-old Philadelphia native knows he hasn't many more years to go before he tires of driving, too.

"I'm going to not want to be driving my car, particularly on I-10 with semis and tailgaters all around me. Ten years from now either ADOT will take my license away from me, or I will say, 'Gee, if I could go on public transportation, would that be great!' I'm sort of a stand-in for all those retirees around the state who normally wouldn't think of something like this themselves, and wouldn't have the ability to implement it."

Gaither says this project is very different from the one ADOT has been studying for the last 10 years.

"For their 'high-speed rail,' they're thinking of something very primitive, sort of mid-20th century technology that would try to run some inner-urban cars on the UP [Union Pacific] freight tracks, going 100 mph at best."

But everything comes with a price. The cost for this first phase alone is estimated at $27 billion.

The time line is also a bit of a sticking point. This year's deadline for the Federal Railway Administration to qualify about five corridors across the U.S. is Sept. 14. Arizona is one of two states that does not have a designated high-speed corridor, which would require state legislation as well as a specific authority or organization to step up as the operator for the train system. The soonest that a bill could be submitted for legislation is next year.

And not only are construction costs an economic thorn, but so is the up-front money for an economic and tax revenue analysis before the project moves forward. University of Arizona's Eller College of Management quotes $35,000 for the job, which, according to Gaither, would provide a wealth of economic information that will be important in the business plan that would attract foreign investors.

"So, we want to get that moving as soon as we can."

And so the project principals are looking to city officials at each of the intermediate stations, seven in total, and asking them to put up $5,000 toward the $35,000 study cost.

For more information, or to keep tabs as the project moves along, visit www.solarbullet.com/.