On 8 April 2021, Let's Get Wellington Moving made a couple of startling announcements (see this Stuff link:
"Light rail to Island Bay before the airport mulled as officials consider Wellington transport package").

Hidden in this announcement was a  striking detail. This was the admission by LGWM that the airport route for Trams/’Light Rail’ would have an  undesirable benefit-cost ratio - because it requires a major tunnel from zoo to Kilbirnie. This echoed what FASTR-Wellington had been saying for more than a year. It appears that LGWM (which at that time was yet to meet with FASTR-Wellington representatives) might at least have been reading our website…. Yet LGWM are unwilling to subject Suspension Monorail to a cost benefit analysis, even though it is our belief this would be more favourable than for Light Rail (whether for  an airport route or an Island Bay route)

The more obvious point was their consideration of an Island Bay route. In view of ongoing uproar about the Island Bay cycleway, this seems unlikely to go down well with Island Bay residents - particularly since LGWM favours Trams (' Light Rail'), which would have a heavy footprint and would also involve prolonged disruption of the one major route in and out of Island Bay.

Also hidden (but quietly revealed in their map HERE) is that more than 50% of the route – the part running from Newtown to the Island Bay foreshore – will be entirely shared with other traffic because of its narrowness, and   exposed to greater risks of collisions in the same way that Sydney and Melbourne trams are. See our Homepage for videos and comment regarding this risk and inherent slowness and delays. If MRT to Island Bay is truly to support greater housing density there, it needs to be Swifter, Safer, Surer and Sooner! Without that, urban development there would be a failure and would contribute to Wellington’s downward sprial...

Although Island Bay residents may shudder at Light Rail down their main route, there is a more viable possibility...

...SUSPENSION MONORAIL –

LESS DISRUPTION DURING CONSTRUCTION: This is a route with no suitable bypass options, so Suspension Rail would be far less disruptive during construction than would Light Rail. There are explanations elsewhere on this website (see COST, DELAY, & CONSTRUCTION).

SAFER & MORE EFFICIENT: Moreover, once constructed, Suspension Monorail is the only MRT option that would actually be a viable fast link to the city because of major advantages from not being restricted to road speed limits, and not being affected by (or creating) traffic snarl ups!  We estimate that travel time from the Island Bay coast to the Wellington Central Railway Station would be around 20 minutes and this would be reliably achieved.

Compare that to times achieved by buses and trams! In Sydney trams take around 50 minutes for a 12 km trip...

Edinburgh does call its system a Tram system, where a similar route takes 40 minutes. This has been a costly failure and led to an ongoing Edinburgh Tram Inquiry since 2014, whose outcome was yet to be announced in 2023...

- See links at upper left explaining how Suspension Monorail can be SAFER, SWIFTER, SURER...

Once constructed, the footprint of Suspension Monorail is considerably less than for Light Rail; and it is markedly less disruptive to ground-based motor transport as well as to pedestrians, mobility scooters, cyclists, etc.