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An Auckland architect is trying to raise $30 million on the New Zealand Exchange's small company market to build a regional monorail system, claiming it is faster, cheaper and easier than light rail.
Newmarket-based Hugh Chapman is trying to raise the funds on the NZAX to market Skycab - his idea for eight-seater motor-driven cabs which hang from elevated beams. But sceptics do not believe the idea will fly.
"I think it will be quite hard to sell," said ABN Amro head of equities James Miller, although he did not know about the company. "There might be something in it, but these types of things are usually publicly listed for a reason."
Chapman said a "monobeam" system would be more economically viable than light rail, the option favoured by Auckland Regional Council in its plan to have a regional rapid transit system by 2050.
According to Chapman, the standard monorail has one cab on one beam going in one direction. His design, which is patented in New Zealand, Australia, the US and Singapore, has one beam, but cabs either side which travel in two directions. The lightweight cabs, which are hooked onto the horizontal beam and move on wheels via a motor, are designed to travel at up to 80km/h in urban areas and carry 4800 people an hour each way.
The system would be built above footpaths and roads, meaning no land would need to be bought or developed, Chapman said. "We're only talking about posts and beams, it's a fairly constrained system which can be built quickly."
According to the company's initial public offering prospectus, $20 million of the money raised will go towards building a 600m track, three cabs and one two-platform station and a maintenance track, and $10 million towards marketing.
Chapman thought of the idea in 1998 when Infrastructure Auckland was asking the public for alternative transport ideas.
"They liked the idea but never did anything about it," he said.
Also involved in Skycab are Chapman's wife Mary, University of Auckland engineering management Associate Professor Des Tedford, German businessman Klaus Giradet and Tahitian-based businessman Frederic Siu.
