Excerpt:

Most interesting is news that monorail research still lives in the Pacific
Northwest. There's a report from the Missoulian in November saying that
scientists at the Montana Technology Enterprise Center are working on a
futuristic monorail "spider web" system

Imagine getting out of bed, walking outside and climbing into a
hydrogen-powered magnetized monorail pod, only to be shot 150 miles
per hour down a track to your destination. No need for cars, gasoline
or even concentration...

Their personal rapid transit system would run down arterial streets
and interstates, with pods waiting at each station to take individuals
to their destinations, so there would be no wait and each pod would go
directly to the desired stop.

The project is funded with a grant from the U.S Department of
Transportation. The secret ingredient is hydrogen power:

On Friday, the team of researchers gave a public demonstration of
their monorail system on a working model about a fifth of the size of
a real monorail.

The pod hangs down from an enclosed track, and a rack above the pod
hovers atop opposing magnets. When it passes through a gate, the motor
senses its presence and releases an electrically charged magnetic
pulse, powered by hydrogen fuel cells, which then pushes the car
along.

"Hydrogen is the answer," said R. Paul Williamson, the team's leader.
"It's the only thing we have enough supply of to solve our energy
needs in the United States or the world." Williamson said the monorail
would cost about $1 million per mile.

Seattle decided not to build the Green Line, but the Montana researchers
expect "to have a full-size monorail by the end of their four-year grant
period, which they are now halfway through," says the paper.

Crosscut: Monorails: the idea that will not die
http://crosscut.com/2009/01/06/mossback/18740/

Of course, 150 mph speeds need not be required; 40 mph for a nonstop
public transit system seems quite adequate for many urban environments,
with faster speeds possible in less dense areas; at nearly constant speed
it would be faster than cars for most trips, to say nothing of
large-vehicle public transit.

Either way, the idea of a Personal Rapid Transit system, with or without
the maglev component used in this Montana application, seems particularly
well-suited for many urban applications: cost-effective,
energy-superefficient, and fast, safe, and convenient enough to entice
people from their cars.

Note that it would also operate quite well in inclement weather; a
suspended system like this would be virtually immune to snow, ice, and
flooding, and less vulnerable to power outages due to its low power
consumption. Even supported systems with linear electric motors like
Vancouver's SkyTrain, which do not rely on the friction between wheels and
rails or roadway for propulsion and braking, or other systems which use
grated guideways that snow would mostly fall right through, would be
relatively unaffected.