By this time next year, Plant City will be home to a monorail system that developers hope will help create Florida’s first-ever sky community.
By April 2018, Plant City’s transportation system will be held to higher standards.
On Monday, March 27, developer Myles Manley announced that his rail company, Rilanomo, will be building monorail tracks 75 feet above Plant City’s existing train tracks.
The founder and CEO of Rilanomo, Manley chose Plant City for the system — an investment of about $81.3 million — because of its proximity to the neighboring cities of Tampa and Orlando, and its prime location next to the I-4 corridor.
“I know that revitalization is full steam ahead here in town,” Manley said. “Installing a monorail system will keep Plant City on the right track.”
Manley is a native of Springfield, Oregon. A former salesman, he relocated to Florida and founded Rilanomo in January 1993 after being inspired by the success of the monorail at Walt Disney World in Orlando.
Manley cited the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World as the perfect location to build and further develop the company’s latest line of monorail technology, which is solar-powered.
Tracks will travel both ways above Amtrak #91 and #92, following the A-Line and S-Line.
At 75 feet above the tracks, Rilanomo’s rail will be about 50 feet above the top of a freight car, Manley said. Trains and monorails can run at the same times. Like its locomotive counterpart, the monorail will use horns varying between 10 to 20 seconds long when it comes through town.
Each track will feature a six-car monorail, both of which will be painted to look like a strawberry. Each monorail can hold up to 400 people divided between the six cars, Manley said.
Residents will be able to use the system as a form of public transportation. Due to the cost of solar technology used to operate the rails, the cost of one passenger per year is about $2,500. Per day, riding the monorail once is about $6.85. Roundtrip, the cost is $10 per day.
While the cost isn’t set to decline in the first year or two, Manley said the safety element of the tracks is worth any resident’s investment. An automated conducting system will prevent the cars from sliding off the tracks, even in unfavorable weather.
“We’ve been chugging away at this idea for Plant City for about four years now,” Manley said. “As this expands, we hope to expand tracks through Tampa and Orlando.”
Manley hopes the addition of the tracks will have the added benefit of bringing more residents to Plant City, from Florida and beyond.
“A monorail town in Florida outside of Disney is the first of its kind,” Manley said. “Imagine the possibilities. Once on the map, this town could grow from 30,000 to 300,000 within seven, 10 years. It opens up a world for development, not just in the ground, but above it. Apartments and restaurants on top of the industrial corridor, a community in the clouds.”
But some residents have concerns. At a presentation about the rail system to residents Tuesday, March 28, some spoke against the development, thinking efforts would be better placed into existing infrastructure, especially roads.
“We’ve got to keep people grounded,” Madge Sampson, a Plant City resident, said. “This project is bound to derail. I’m afraid of heights and don’t want to travel 75 feet above the ground. Why can’t we just get a bus system? Or more than three Uber drivers?”
Even so, other residents supported the idea — even Sampson’s husband, Harold Sampson.
“I’ll sell my car tomorrow,” Harold Sampson said. “This is an effort to make our city better. I just hope it’s not some kind of joke.”
GOTCHA!
Did we get you? This year’s April Fool’s cover story was based a 1993 episode of “The Simpsons,” and our sports story was just us horsing around. Did you like our jokes, or did you think we were unprofessional? Either way, we want to hear from you. Email your comments to Managing Editor Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com.
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com.
