About

History

One of SWIFT Rails founders, Kevin Neumaier, gave a talk at the UN Climate Meeting in Copenhagen in 2009, on the future of transportation, describing what transportation should look like if it was completely redesigned. He was surprised how much and how enthusiastically the global audience embraced the idea. A year or so later, he and Jim Enright began to design the system and tinker around in Kevin’s backyard. They built a monorail at first, then after a couple iterations developed the vehicle and track combination that is now SWIFT Rails. Being an entirely new way to travel, there were many new things to figure out – from switching and vehicle logic to a business model that makes full use of SWIFT Rails technological innovation. The SWIFT Rails team has double and triple checked their calculations. Prototypes have been developed and we have tested key assumptions. We are on version 4 of the system. We hope you get a chance to ride on SWIFT Rails soon.

Eliminates Congestion

SWIFT Rails is an on-demand transportation system that travels on ultra-light rails elevated 12-15′ above the traffic, people and animals. For the SWIFT Rails rider, this means that you always get to your destination on time. The system controls all the vehicles. Use our app to request the vehicle you want, where you want to go, and when you want it. Hop in our vehicle and you will ride above the congestion that may be going on below in your very own express vehicle.

SWIFT Rails also reduces congestion on other means of transportation. SWIFT Rails systems take other vehicles off the road so existing roads can work better.

Kind to the Environment

Transportation can sometimes be a big negative on the environment. Highways and railways can separate neighborhoods; they can be an issue for surface water and wildlife; they take up a lot of space on the ground; and their emissions can damage our lungs and climate. SWIFT Rails is an elevated means to travel. Not only do we go above all the congestion, everything can walk, bike, run, drive, or crawl under our tracks. Where a typical roadway may take 3.7 acres per mile – SWIFT Rails takes 400 times less ground space.

SWIFT Rails vehicles are very energy efficient, quiet, have no emissions, and vehicle batteries are charged with renewable energy. SWIFT Rails was designed to be great for the environment and we are happy to say we are exceeding our initial expectations of what is possible.

Works With Other Transportation Modes

SWIFT Rails relieves congestion from other modes of transportation. It is also well aligned to the future world of Mobility-as-a-Service (Maas). Connections between other forms of public transportation and providers such as Uber, Lyft, Bird, and others will help make you get quickly to where you want to be.

Quick to Construct

Transit can often take decades from design to operating systems – which is a really long time. SWIFT Rails does everything quicker and that includes construction. We can design a line and build it the following year. Disruption time to the other transportation systems is minimal. Where road work or light rail construction will go on for many months disrupting traffic, we can install a road crossing in 8 hours for SWIFT Rails. Additions and extensions to existing lines are easy to do and are often designed in. The small footprint and light design makes it easy to construct in tight spaces or even otherwise difficult areas such as sensitive ecosystems.

Much Cheaper

We went about to build the best transportation system we could and were shocked that we are so inexpensive. Compared to conventional transit where we a typical light rail line is $40 million to $200 million or more, SWIFT Rails all in cost runs $2 million to $ 4 million per mile. Almost all transit systems require significant operating subsidies. We expect that for many routes SWIFT Rails will operate profitably with no operational subsidies ever required.


If you have any questions or comments, please contact us!