Among the many reasons why voters should overwhelmingly reject this raid on the Public Treasury is the consistent, persistent falsehood perpetrated by the CIFGA and the monorail proponents. Listed below are the most grievous claims together with the true facts:

Claim: The proposed monorail is based on existing technology.

FACT: It isn't, any more than one could claim that a manned mission to Mars is based on existing technology.

Claim: The monorail motor and vehicle has been tested.

FACT: Absolutely none of the critical components of their system has been tested or even designed. This includes the motor, the running gear, the control system and the guideway. They refer to tests conducted in Spain over a decade ago. That vehicle bears no resemblance to their magical mystery machine. And if the tests of this Spanish invention were successful why didn't Spain adopt it? Instead, Spain has and continues to invest heavily in high speed rail.

Claim: The monorail is needed to save space.

FACT: The monorail with its elevated double track and four track stations is by far the biggest space hog of any alternative to the I-70 highway. (Read SMARTrans for the details.)

Claim: The elevated monorail will save wildlife such as Elk.

FACT: The state has a surplus of elk in spite of a hunter harvest of over 60,000 animals last year.

Claim: Conventional railroads can't climb grades over two percent while the monorail will do 7%.

FACT: They persist in this falsehood despite the facts that Colorado has had railroad grades up to 7 1/2 % on adhesion and 25% on cog/rack.

Claim: Their system will operate in ice and snow.

FACT: Absolutely no proof for this claim. In fact, the new monorail at Newark Airport was closed for months precisely because it could not operate in ice and snow.

Claim: "Only" $50 million dollars will prove the safety and reliability of their system.

FACT: Last year, when they attempted to get on the ballot through the Legislature, that figure was $25 million, Actually, hundreds of millions of dollars will be required possibly even billions. Japan spent $3 billion trying to develop a high speed monorail and then canceled the project when they discovered, through testing, what and energy hog it was.

Claim: Once they have "proved" their system at Pueblo (and they are the only judge) they will then seek funding to build a line from DIA to downtown Denver.

FACT: They were created to propose a line along the I-70 Mountain Corridor, why would they seek authority to build the airport access line. Are they afraid to build into the mountains? RTD has passed a resolution that the airport accesss line must be based on existing technology. this eliminates the monorail.

Claim: They state that their complete line from DIA to Eagle County Airport can be built for $3.9 billion, which is slightly under $25 million per mile.

FACT: The four most recently constucted, building or proposed monorails range from $60 million per mile (Vancouver), $80 million per mile (Bangkok), $100 million per mile (las Vegas) to $200 million per mile (Newark). None of these lines penetrate mountains and none go over 55 miles per hour. If CIFGA's system could be built for $100 million per mile (which is doubtful because of the special requirements on mountain topography and weather and the precise aerospace tolerance required for high speed) the system construction cost would be $16 billion; or $4000 for every man, woman and child in Colorado.

Claim: A fair competition was conducted before selecting the current candidate.

FACT: An $10,000 entry fee eliminated all major engineering firms in America. Not that they couldn't afford that sum, but rather that it was not the way any reputable state authority conducted business and was insulting. Those proposing conventional surface rail were told they were eliminated from the competition because they ran on the ground.

Claim: Colorado will receive royalties from out-of-state sales.

FACT: This claim is meaningless without defining how much. 1%, 5%, 10%? And if the concept is as good as they claim, why would any reputable company give this money away?

Claim: Politics requires them to ask for public money rather than the private sector.

FACT: They are asking Colorado to fund part of their product development because the private sector recognizes the fallaciousness of their claims and refuses to invest in such a speculative and money wasting venture. If "only" $50 million were required before deploying a $4 billion system, the promoters would have no difficulty raising those funds from the private sector.

Claim: The monorail is necessary because conventional rail is too slow.

FACT: Modern rail vehicles on a sensible alignment will allow timings of 40 minutes from Golden Car Park to Winter Park and Keystone; one hour and a quarter to Vail. Why would anyone want to go faster than this?

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Author Wright will address the Arapahoe County Men's Club at 7:00 a.m. on Wednesday, 17 October, at the Metropolitan Club on Belleview. The meeting is open to the public and admisssion is $10.00, including a hot breakfast.