Not surprisingly, most of the cost of all fixed-guideway transit systems is due to the guideway.  In turn, the biggest factor in guideway cost is the load it must carry: the smaller the load, the lighter the beam and the less it costs.

Here our extremely small, light vehicles give us a huge cost advantage, since the maximum "point load" in our design will be less than 1000 pounds, compared to about 50,000 pounds for so-called 'light rail' systems.

This relatively small load enables us to use simple, pre-cast concrete double-tee sections for most of the guideway.  This cuts the cost by around 90 percent compared to poured-in-place construction, because concrete double-tees (you've probably seen them in parking garages) are made at ground level with automatic equipment.  They're so common as to be virtually a commodity.

As a result, the double-tee is amazingly cost-effective: last time we looked, a 60-foot length of 8-foot-wide double-tee--the size used for a single lane--cost about $60 per linear foot!  Of course this is for the bare structural section only; the complete guideway includes supporting columns, bump strips, windbreaks, power conductors and the guidance antenna--all of which obviously add substantially to the total cost.  Still, the figure gives an idea of the huge cost advantage of this approach.

The second major economy of our guideway design is the simplicity of the guideway:  Because our vehicles are self-steering,  they don't need any moving parts on the guideway to take an exit.  This enables us to use a completely flat, featureless running surface--the 'natural' concrete surface itself--rather than having to install rails.  The result is a huge cost saving compared to rail-based designs.
 

Assuming a typical "pinched loop" layout consisting of two separated lanes running in opposite directions, a mile of "reach" outward from city center would use two miles of single-lane guideway.  The bare sections for a mile of reach would then cost roughly $120 per foot of reach.  Thus the cost of the bare guideway sections needed for a mile of reach would be less than $800,000.

Again, this is just for the bare structural section.  But with such a low cost for the structural heart of the guideway, then even after adding all the other necessary components, the total cost of the guideway should still be only a fraction of that of standard light-rail systems.

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