Gadgetbahn

To cite a favorite example of gadgetbahnen enthusiasts, automated train operation is as easily applied to conventional rail as monorails, as demonstrated by the Vancouver, BC, Skytrain (which uses standard railroad technology, not monorail as some Seattle monorail boosters apparently believe). […] To some extent, the promising concept of bus rapid transit (BRT) has also suffered from the "gadgetbahnen" mentality.

Ken Avidor, a Minnesota transit advocate and critic of similarly proposed systems, called the project the latest iteration of "gadgetbahn," a play on "autobahn" the German word for freeway. Gadgetbahn refers to highly technological transport systems relying on untried innovations. "All of these gadgetbahn projects always rely on totally unrealistic cost estimates," he said.

In transit communities, projects that sound complicated and unnecessary go by the German epithet "gadgetbahn." If early gondolas are successful, advocates hope gondolas can shake this label.

Have you heard the word "gadgetbahn"? It's a portmanteau coined to describe transport proposals that, to all intents and purposes, ought to be delivered using proven railway technology … and yet go out of their way to be anything but a railway.

[I]t is important to remember that we have to design the railway now on the basis of current engineering possibilities, as opposed to unidentified and untested technologies – sometimes referred to as ‘gadgetbahns’ – that may or may not be available, suitable or safe in the future.