A railway using a single rail for the support of the train. The rail may be above or below the train, and the train may be stabilized if necessary by guide wheels and gyroscopes. The rail may be made of steel or concrete. Considerable research has gone into investigating non-wheeled methods of support, such as using air cushions and magnetic levitation. Monorails are used almost exclusively for public transport, with the two best-known systems running in Tokyo and Seattle.
The Wuppertal monorail described below is the only surviving monorail of this type. When The Walt Disney Company placed a monorail in their Disneyland theme park in 1959, it exposed large numbers of visitors to the transportation form in a credible though miniature transit setting. At the same time, however, the Disneyland monorail and others built at other Disney properties and amusement locations have tended to identify monorails with amusements rather than practical transportation.Types and technical aspects
Modern monorails depend on a large solid beam as the vehicles' running surface.
The most common type of monorail in use today is the straddle-beam monorail, in which the train straddles a reinforced concrete beam in the range of two to three feet (~0.6-0.9 m) wide.
Power
Almost all modern monorails are powered by electric motors fed by dual third rails, contact wires or electrified channels attached to or enclosed in their guidance beams.
Magnetic levitation
Magnetic levitation train (maglev) systems by the German Transrapid were built as straddle-type monorails, as they are highly stable and allow rapid deceleration from great speed.
Switching
Switching has been a perennial issue with monorail systems since simple switching mechanisms associated with other systems are usually not feasible. Some early monorail systems--notably the suspended monorail of Wuppertal (Germany), dating from 1901 and still in operation--have a design that makes it difficult to switch from one line to another. Some other monorail systems avoid switching as much as possible, by operating in a continuous loop or between two fixed stations, as in Seattle, Washington.
Current operating monorails are capable of more efficient switching than in the past.
Straddle-beam monorails require that the beam structure itself be moved to accomplish switching, which originally was an almost prohibitively ponderous procedure.
In cases where it must be possible to move a monorail train from one beam to any of a number of other beams, as in storage or repair shops, a traveling beam not unlike a railroad transfer table may be employed. A single beam, at least long enough to carry a single monorail vehicle, is aligned at an entry beam to be mounted by the monorail cars.
Advantages and disadvantages
Advantages:
The primary advantage of monorails over conventional rail systems is that they require minimal space, both horizontally and vertically. Monorail vehicles are wider than the beam, and monorail systems are commonly elevated, requiring only a minimal footprint for support pillars. They are quieter, as modern monorails use rubber wheels on a concrete track (though some non-monorail subway systems, like certain lines of the Paris metro and all of the Montreal metro, use the same technique and are equally quiet) Monorails are capable of climbing, descending and turning faster than heavy rail systems, though not light rail systems. Unlike conventional rail systems, straddle monorails wrap around their track and are thus not physically capable of derailing, unless the track itself suffers a catastrophic failure, which is why monorails have an excellent safety record.Disadvantages:
Maglev monorail systems require a highly dedicated track and cannot be directly integrated with any other transport system. A monorail switch by its very design will leave one beam hanging in mid-air at any given time. In an emergency, passengers cannot immediately exit because the monorail vehicle is high above ground and not all systems have emergency walkways. Newer monorail systems resolve this by building emergency walkways alongside the entire track, at the expense of visual intrusion.Partial list of monorail systems
Monorail systems have been built in many countries around the world, many of them on elevated tracks through crowded areas that would otherwise require the construction of expensive underground lines or have the disadvantages of surface lines.
Asia
Kuala Lumpur Monorail - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Sentosa, Singapore. Will be replaced by a new larger-capacity monorail system that linked Sentosa with Singapore, the Sentosa Express. South Korea - Lotte World, two station amusement park monorail.China
Shanghai Maglev Train in Shanghai, China - Completed in 2004, the Shanghai Maglev Train is the first commercial monorail based on the German Transrapid maglev-monorail and runs for 30 km between Pudong International Airport and the Shanghai Lujiazui financial district. Chongqing metro line 2Japan
Japan has employed monorails in many cities, including: Chiba Urban Monorail (or Townliner) in Chiba, a satellite city of Tokyo Kitakyushu Monorail in Kokura, north Kyūshū Monkey Park Monorail Line which links the Monkey Park in Inuyama, Aichi prefecture to the nearest railway station Okinawa Monorail in Naha city, Okinawa Osaka Monorail Shonan Monorail in Kanagawa, in the southern outskirts of Tokyo SkyRail, a commuter line in a residential development suburb of Hiroshima Tama Toshi Monorail Line in Tama City in west Tokyo Tokyo Disney Resort Monorail Tokyo Monorail is the world's busiest and most commercially successful monorail line, carrying around 100 million passengers yearly. Ueno Zoo Monorail which links the two sectors of the zoo in Ueno park, again in TokyoEurope
Belgium: There are monorails in the Plopsaland and Bobbejaanland theme parks. Moscow Monorail, Russia, partially open Listowel, Ireland was the site of the world's first commercial monorail, named the Lartigue system after Charles Lartigue who constructed this railway in 1888. A straddle-type monorail on a triangular beam, it was perhaps the only passenger monorail to also regularly carry freight and cattle. The United Kingdom has monorail systems at Chester Zoo, Birmingham International Airport and the Alton Towers theme park.North America
Monorails can be found in the following places in North America:
Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida - The Walt Disney World Monorail System is one of the world's best-known monorail serves over five million passengers yearly. Disneyland in Anaheim, California - The Disneyland Monorail System is known as the "First daily operating Monorail system in the Western Hemisphere." Seattle, Washington - short monorail (Seattle Center Monorail) built for the Century 21 Exposition in 1962 Hershey, Pennsylvania - amusement monorail at Hersheypark. Lancaster, Pennsylvania - amusement monorail at Dutch Wonderland . Las Vegas, Nevada - public transit Memphis, Tennessee - a short monorail connects Mud Island in the Mississippi River to Memphis. Newark International Airport in Newark, New Jersey - people mover connecting terminals, parking lots, and to Amtrak/NJ Transit Northeast Corridor rail station Six Flags La Ronde in Montreal, Quebec - once part of a larger monorail systems built for Expo 67 Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley, Minnesota San Diego Wild Animal Park near Escondido, California. It is the only monorail system in Hawaii. This a fully-operational, homebuilt, backyard monorail was constructed by monorail enthusiast, Kim Pedersen Dallas, Texas - Amusement ride at Dallas Zoo Miami MetroZoo, in Miami, Florida - Connects major exhibits at the zoo.Oceania
Australia
Sydney, Australia has the Sydney Monorail originally designed as public transport but has found more use as a tourist attraction. The Gold Coast, Queensland has two monorails: A 2 km monorail around the Sea World Theme Park which was the first monorail in Australia. It was relocated to the Sea World Theme Park to form part of it's monorail system at the completion of Expo. Although the AirTrain is elevated and may look like a monorail, it is a conventional train line operated as part of the QR CityTrain heavy rail network.Monorails under construction
Construction has started on the following monorails.
Sentosa Express, linking Sentosa, Singapore to the main island Jakarta Monorail, Jakarta, Indonesia Putrajaya Monorail, Malaysia
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