The Business Journal (Minneapolis/St. Paul)

Duluth attempts to hail Taxi 2000
By Mark Reilly

Jan. 12- Taxi 2000 Corp., which has labored for decades to gain support for an ambitious personal-monorail system, may have found a believer in Duluth. The Duluth City Council last month voted unanimously to endorse the company's desire to build a test track for its system near the city, which would likely entail the Fridley company moving to the area.
       The firm has raised $2 million in a $24 million fund-raising effort to pay for the testing facility and other corporate needs, according to SEC filings and city documents.
       The council also said it would consider helping the company raise capital to pay for the facility, if funds become available. Direct investment from the city is unlikely, at least for now. There's no money attached to the council's vote, though the city could entice the company in other ways.
       The goal of the company is to build a half-mile "certification track" to demonstrate and prove its design -- a transit system that combines elements of train and taxi. The system, called SkyWeb Express, is a network of three-person cars that automatically ferries passengers directly to their destinations, without stops along the way and without waiting for a car to arrive.
       Much remains undone. Taxi 2000 still faces doubt from investors and the established mass-transit industry, which claims it would be unworkable or too costly.
       The Santa Cruz, Calif., City Council, for example, recently voted down a plan to study the company's system. A city official told the Los Angeles Times that SkyWeb was untried and ahead of its time.
       But company officials, who have labored for decades to get this far, say they're gratified by the interest.
       "We've experienced a lot of skepticism, but we're being looked at a lot more optimistically lately," said Ray MacDonald, vice president of engineering for Taxi 2000.
       MacDonald said the favorable attention was the result of a working prototype of a SkyWeb car, which debuted at the 2003 Minnesota State Fair on a 70-foot-long track.
       "The fair helped enormously," MacDonald said. "I think it helped people envision the idea better."
       For now, proving the concept is chief on the company's to-do list. MacDonald said that the test track would help Taxi 2000 certify SkyWeb and prove its safety and value.
       Where the track gets built, however, is up in the air. The company is also talking with out-of-state cities, such as Long Branch, N.J. "We've said that wherever we can get investment, that's where we'll go," MacDonald said.
       Duluth is among the most aggressive cities courting the company. Taxi 2000 already contracts with local businesses there, and officials said that airplane manufacturer Cirrus Design could make the cars. Public backing could come through giving incubator space or lobbying assistance.
       Supporters in Duluth envision using the system to access the city's waterfront, now separated from downtown by a highway. "We're excited about it," said Greg Gilbert, who chairs the council's community development committee. Though he said the company needed to prove itself financially, he said the idea "is new and innovative and we'd like the city to be part of it."
       Minneapolis could also be a player. City Council member Dean Zimmerman is a proponent of eventually linking a SkyWeb system to the Hiawatha Line light rail system, bringing passengers into the Uptown area.
       Zimmerman said he hopes the council will create a committee to study whether the city can entice the company to stay in the area.
       "This is going to be a major breakthrough in how people move around urban centers," he said. "I'd like it to start here."
       That kind of enthusiasm is surely welcome to Taxi 2000's founder, Ed Anderson. A former University of Minnesota professor, Anderson has been pursuing the technology, called personal rapid transit (or PRT) since seeing a government study of the concept in 1968.
       Catherine Burke, an associate professor at the University of Southern California and the president of the Advanced Transit Association, a group that studies technologies such as PRT, said Anderson's long work has paid off.
       Burke considers Taxi 2000's SkyWeb to be the best PRT design, though other systems are further along: A rival PRT system is being built in Wales, for example.
       "Ed is not a good salesman, but he's a great engineer; he knows what he's doing," she said.
       Taxi 2000 has unfairly suffered criticism because it's so different from conventional transit systems, she said. "The mass-transit people are so convinced it's unworkable they won't even look at the analysis, and the politicians are scared that something will go wrong."
       But Burke thinks PRT will win out. Studies show it's less costly and more flexible than conventional transit systems such as light rail, which don't reduce congestion anyway, she said.
       "The potential is so high, once it's seen and proven, you'll find people clamoring for it," she said. Early adopters could be universities, theme parks or large retail developments.