Can we afford the Skyway? Why it costs 4x BRT?

[Ocklawaha]

From the previous thread on Skyway Questions came the following quotes...

I was reading that Folio Weekly article. I never knew the Skyway cost 200 million. Man I don't know if JTA can even afford to add to it.

Bingo.  Give that poster a cigar!!

Oh they could, IF they had the guts to stand up and tell the truth. Y'all have seen and maybe ridden that Southside extension? Ask why when it was ALREADY converted to a single beam monorail system. (Something quite simple and as cheap as BRT or high end LRT) WHY? WHY did JTA go right ahead and build all the way to King Street Station with the ORIGINAL people mover platform (system one) which they had already scrapped. Then came along and laid the monorail beam on top just like the retrofitted Northside line? In other words, they built both systems all over again, when they aready knew they were sold to Monorail... Want to see how hard it would be to build to San Marco? Stadium? PS-4? Just drive up to the Times-Union, turn into the front of the Skyway Facility, pass it and make a right on the little dead end alley/street alongside the building. Get out of your car and look at the track coming into the Facility... Does this look anything like what they built on the Southbank? NOPE... WHY? Because this is simple, single beam monorail construction, and had the whole thing been done this way, it would already be in Riverside, Stadium and San Marco!

In my opinion, this might even be a criminal act or waste of public funds that could go into court... Someone should pay for this stupidity or oversight. The whole City, it's image, and a possible help to our transit has been wrecked by the same agency that claimed it would save us. What they did is equal to the new Mainstreet project, including the double streetcar tracks (all brand new) then covering the whole thing with new curbs, flowers and roads... WHY? WHY the duplication...

Thanks to the Monorail Society for this little tidbit...

Ocklawaha