Pearl Harbor hydrolley

Saint Groundhog's Day was Tuesday and more than ever I feel a camaraderie for the little critter. When I emerged from the warmth of my Delta bird from Honolulu, what I saw certainly made me want to go back for several weeks: more snow than we've had for years.

Maybe there's a way back.

Audrey McAvoy of the Associated Press wrote on Jan. 31 that the historic naval and air bases, Pearl Harbor and Hickam Field, just merged administratively as a way to cut cost. Airmen and sailors removed some of the fence that had separated the facilities since before The Day That Will Live In Infamy, Dec. 7, 1941.

Several days ago I roamed around both facilities while on vacation, viewing the site on the battleship Missouri where the surrender documents were signed ending World War Two and visiting the aviation museum at Hickam field. The logistics were less than ideal. A modern, green transit system would have made the visit easier.

A big part of the base merger will be facilitating military and civilian personnel movement around the combined facility. That sounds like an ideal application for the hydrolley, the hybrid battery and hydrogen fuel cell urban rail streetcar that Charlotte and a few other cities are now considering.

If you're unfamiliar with the hydrolley, here's the get-acquainted elevator speech: Streetcars are making a comeback as a way to integrate compact urban development that's not dependent on private vehicle trips. With energy prices and related environmental issues becoming ever more problematic, denser land use and the ability to move the same passenger load on steel wheels (with only one seventh of the energy a rubber-tired bus would need) are an inevitable trend.

In it's most likely form, the hydrolley will be an articulated trainset that's a little like the Light Rail equipment on Charlotte's Blue Line, but with important differences. Hydrolleys will be much smaller -- just two permanently joined cars. And instead of requiring a dedicated road bed, hydrolley streetcars will run on rails right in the street, like the old trolley cars.

But unlike trolley cars, hydrolleys will need no external power from overhead wires. That means a huge reduction in construction cost and avoidance of the tacky spider web of tangled wires and poles that can mar the beauty of cityscapes.

In 2006, Mooresville partnered with Appalachian State University and Denmark's Hydrogen Innovation Research Center to host the Second International Hydrail Conference in Herning, Denmark, on the Jutland Peninsula. One of the presenters there was Jean-Paul Moskowitz of France's transit equipment giant, Alstom.

Moskowitz described Alstom's Fulltram concept--probably the first mention of what's since become the generic hydrolley. To most of us there, it was clear that Alstom's concept would very likely become the first hydrogen rail application to be deployed widely.

Next year, 2007, at Catawba College in Salisbury at the Third International Hydrail Conference, the first forum on hydrolley technology was held.

In 2008 at the Valencia, Spain, Hydrail Conference, I coined the word "hydrolley" to facilitate international online discussion of its potential.

This year at UNC Charlotte, virtually the whole conference was given to hydrolley economics and planning.

For at least a year, the US EPA has been in discussions with Mooresville's Hydrogen Economy Advancement Team about the advantages of using hydrolleys to move people around military bases in the Carolinas. The US Military is keenly aware of both energy security issues and the need to lead in introducing new environmental technologies. Including hydrolley lines in the development of military installations, as they are consolidated, is a natural step.

As Charlotte juggles the complexities of possible hydrolley introduction, including the planners of NC's big military installations might save the City and the Federal Government both time and expense.
And if that happens, including the planners of the newly combined Hickam-Pearl facility would be a natural and timely move.

I just hate being snowed-in. If these developments get me back to Hawaii sometime soon, making the necessary introductions will have been well worth the effort.

(Mooresville's Stan Thompson is a retired strategic planner and environmental futurist for BellSouth Telecommunications. His column appears every other week in the Tribune. Email him at: HST2nd@aol.com)