Lititz / Lancaster Monorail System

I'm not sure how many heard about this...

Pfizer Monorail Proposal to Be Reviewed
Thursday, August 26, 2004

By PHILLIP LANGE

REPORTER

Responding to downtown businesses and preservationists, Pfizer and Lititz Retailers Association monorail planners agreed last night to reconsider how a new system should serve downtown on West Lincoln. Members of the Elevated Transportation Co. board agreed to study running the new monorail with Pfizer’s new security fence. The action was a response to businesses that were unhappy with Lititz Route 501 Bypass Project because it would bypass Wilbur Chocolate and other existing main street tourist ventures.

Steve Koehler, representing the Lititz Retailers Association, told board members that a monorail is a key part of the downtown area that includes the Lancaster Queen Street stop -- "one leg of a stool that supports an urban experience."

Board members asked staffers to study the effects of the option on noise, traffic and views and to judge its cost effectiveness. The matter will be discussed at a public hearing in December and at an upcoming board meeting November 22. Board member Craig Norsen said he likes that proposal but voted for the new West Lincoln study to see how that would work and how others react. In another move, board members also agreed to set aside $25 million as a reserve fund for off-street parking and traffic-relief measures as part of the $1.2 billion system they will propose to voters this fall.

The whole monorail system would be financed with a citywide motorvehicle excise tax of 1.4 percent. The reserve money would include $15 million for 1,000 spaces and $5 million to improve access to the 4 stations along the 7-mile route from Lititz to downtown Lancaster. The number of spaces near each station would be determined by planners once voters approve the total system, company spokesman Ed Stone said. Company staffers estimated that about 6 percent of monorail riders would need long-term parking, or about 3,600 each weekday. The parking proposal, which must yet receive final approval along with the system plan in January 2005, assumes a new monorail authority would provide parking-management plans for each station, possibly sharing use of lots at parks, churches or theaters, according to a staff report.