Posted on 03/02/2010 3:58:06 AM PST by Willie Green
With a steady stream of new foreign investors coming to Mongolia, and to UB, in the wake of the recent Oyu-Tolgoi deal, it leads one to think maybe we should spruce the place up a bit.
There’s a definite dearth of public parks, and even in the height of Summer, it’s hard to find many patches of anything even remotely green. There apparently were public parks, but they’ve been replaced now by new condos and shopping centers. There were clean sidewalks left by the Soviets, but they’ve since crumbled into a montage of rocks, and dirt. That leaves us with a dull-dusty city which looks like it had to win its independence from the Soviets in a bitter civil war.
On top of that, if a visitor should visit in the Winter, they’ll be suffocated by the gagging pollution that spews from the outer-lying ger districts, and the leaded-burning gasoline powered cars that are backed up bumper-to-bumper in the city streets.
And if the visitor/investor should need to walk anywhere, especially at night, if he can avoid breaking his ankle by stepping into a pothole or falling into an unsecured manhole cover, he might still find the going difficult in the unlit back alley-ways which litter the cityscape. After all this, it might be difficult for them to really take the place seriously.
So what to do?
How about one cure-all, called a Monorail?
One Monorail line going down Peace Avenue and up around the outer-circle of the inner city, should do the trick.
One company aggressively seeking new bids, internationally, to build such a project, is called Bombardier Transportation. They’ve built several beautiful Monorail systems around the world and have provided beautiful carriages for their passengers to enjoy.
A monorail would be much less expensive than an underground, and with the current heating system in place, and the rock-hard ground that the city sits upon, would be much more pragmatic.
The knock against a monorail versus an underground, is that a monorail travels much slower. But UB isn’t that big, and a Monorail would go plenty fast enough to service an area that size. And an above-ground system would also serve to add a beautifying accessory to the city; kind of like putting on a swank new necklace.
A monorail would also be fiscally prudent. Operating costs are minimal, and fares, even if quite low, would eventually pay off the project, and then anything after that would be pure profit.
It would help solve the parking problems downtown. It would help reduce the traffic flow, and provide a safe, well-lit, and efficient form of transportation for the city’s many pedestrians struggling to manage on icy, un-cleared, un-lit, rocky sidewalks.
It would cut down on pollution, on congestion, and help most of the people get to where they need to go, faster; not to mention, it would make UB look as if it’s a real city ready to take on the world and go places. Not only would the monorail itself be attractive, but by significantly reducing pedestrian traffic, that would also improve the aesthetics of the city. It would be an impressive vista for any would-be foreign investor, who would then be able to see that this place is for real, and he’d better jump on the money train now, or else lose his opportunity.
One company aggressively seeking new bids, internationally, to build such a project, is called Bombardier Transportation. They’ve built several beautiful Monorail systems around the world and have provided beautiful carriages for their passengers to enjoy.
Bombardier makes a very nice monorail system.
But Ulan Bator should make sure the route extends to Chinggis Khaan International Airport.
That way they'll avoid the mistake that Las Vegas made.
You should move to Ulan Baatar, Willie. They’re advanced—they’re getting a MONORAIL! Not to mention the side benefit of not seeing so many train posts from you.
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