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Phoenix Sky Harbor tweeted yesterday that its new PHX Sky Train will open April 8th.
The Sky Train will ferry visitors from parking lots, the car rental area, the light rail stop on 44th Street and to the various terminals. So far, workers have completed 1.7 miles of track. But there are two more portions to be completed. The next .7 miles should be finished sometime in early 2015, and the last 2.5 miles will be finished sometime “in the future,” according to Phoenix Sky Harbor. (Hopefully for Sky Harbor this happens before the entire Valley turns into an arid martian landscape due to global warming, see recent L.A. Times article.)
The estimated project cost for the Sky Train was originally $1.2 billion but that increased to $1.58 billion because of what officials cited as the rising cost of materials and labor – that’s around $336,000,000 per mile of track.
The Sky Train was funded with airport revenues and the maximum $9 passenger fees it adds to tickets, according to Sky Harbor.
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There will be 18 driverless cars in groups of two or three that average a speed of 23 mph. The trains run on electricity, and will pass over a taxiway bridge that can fit a 747 underneath and its stops will be LEED certified.
