Beating the gridlock on the ground
Monorails as a Cost-Effective Transit Solution
Australia’s congested major cities have no space left at ground level for new public transport and rail subway systems are very expensive.
High Capacity Monorails
- Urban Monorails: Large straddle-beam ‘ALWEG’ monorails have a capacity close to heavy rail systems with service frequencies of under two minutes. They are ideal as urban transit in our congested cities.
- High-Speed Monorails: Maglev monorails are ideal for high-speed intercity transit at up to 500km/h.
Low Capacity ‘Theme Park’ Monorails
These include the former Sydney tourist monorail, the Sea world theme park monorail and the Oasis-Jupiter monorail.
None of these allow passenger walk-through so are inadequate for serious public transport applications so are not recommended.
Why add a Monorail?
- Monorails are independent. A new monorail system would be completely independent of existing transport modes and so unaffected by problems on other networks.
- Monorails are cost effective. Retrofitting a subway to a crowded city is usually prohibitively expensive. Great uncertainties usually exist as to the full cost of dealing with the myriad underground services (sewers, storm water, mains water, electricity & gas.) as well as geological challenges such as rock and mud. Often subway systems are below sea-level creating many expensive challenges during construction and maintenance. A high-capacity dual-beam Monorail system costs less than 10% per km as much as a two-track subway.
- Monorails are proven. Many monorail systems are in use as high-capacity public transport systems carrying thousands of passengers a day at up to 80 km/h. The Tokyo-Haneda monorail transports over three hundred thousand people per day on 500 train services.
- Monorails are safe. Being totally grade-separated monorails are one of the safest forms of transport. All the monorails advocated here allow passengers to move along the train and be evacuated to another monorail train. In almost all cases rescue from a monorail will be easier than rescue from a subway.
- Monorails don’t flood. Subway systems are typically below sea-level and so subject to flooding in serious weather events.
- Monorails can be automated. Monorails can easily be automated allowing them to affordably run 7 days a week for 22 hours per day. Two hours is sufficient for guide way maintenance tasks. (We recommend an attendant be placed on most services to provide customer service, security and to ensure safe door closure.)
- Monorails are environmentally friendly. As well as having the energy-efficiency of other mass-transit systems, monorails are far less energy-intensive to build than a subway while having a much lower footprint than surface rail. Monorails can be installed with a minimum of disruption on the ground. Monorails have a lower visual impact than other types of elevated rail systems. Monorails don’t stop at traffic lights providing an excellent alternative to cars in crowded cities.
- Reduced visual impact. Monorails have the least visual impact of any high-capacity elevated transit system.
- More Express Rail Services. As well as expanding the whole public transport network Monorails can relieve the rail network of some inner city stops allowing rail express services to better service the outer suburbs and regional centres.
- The High-Speed Rail Solution. Maglev can provide a rapid transit system where speeds between 100 and 500 km/h are needed with a minimum of expensive tunnelling.
Existing high-capacity urban monorails
An incomplete list of high-capacity monorail systems with currently available patronage numbers or estimates.
| System | Inception | Type | Length (km) | Patronage / Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo-Haneda Airport (Hitachi) | 1964 | ALWEG | 17.8 | 120,000 per day |
| Shonan (Mitsubishi) | 1970 | SAFEGE | 6.6 | 30,000 per day |
| Kitakyushu, Japan (Hitachi) | 1985 | ALWEG | 8.8 | 31,700 per day |
| Chiba (Mitsubishi) | 1988 | SAFEGE | 15.5 | 45,000 per day |
| Osaka, Japan (Hitachi) | 1990 | ALWEG | 28 | 100,000 per day |
| Tama, Japan (Hitachi) | 1998 | ALWEG | 16 | 92,700 per day |
| Naha, Okinawa, Japan (Hitachi) | 2003 | ALWEG | 12.8 | 35,000 per day |
| Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Monorail Malaysia) | 2003 | ALWEG | 8.6 | 45,000 per day |
| Palm Jumeirah, United Arab Emirates (Hitachi) | 2003 | ALWEG | 5.4 | 40,000 per day |
| Las Vegas Monorail, Nevada (Bombardier) | 2004 | ALWEG | 6.3 | 30,000 per day |
| Chongqing Monorail (Hitachi) (More images) | 2005 | ALWEG | 74.6 | 30,000 per hour |
| Mumbai, India (Scomi) | 2014 | ALWEG | 20 | 125,000 per day* |
| São Paulo, Brazil Lion 15 (Bombardier) | 2014 | ALWEG | 26 | 48,000 PPHPD* |
| Daegu, South Korea (Hitachi) | 2015 | ALWEG | 24 | N/A |
*Estimated rider-ship or capacity for systems under construction. (PPHPD = passengers per hour per direction.)
Japan has led the way with using monorails to service congested urban areas. More and more cities are now turning to monorails to solve their transit problems.
ALWEG straddle beam monorails
At around 10% of the cost of underground rail subway these high-capacity monorails should be considered for Australian cities.
SAFEGE suspended monorail
Advantages:
- The floor is always flat
- Vehicle automatically leans into curves
- Bogie and guideway are protected from the weather
- Track and supports are all steel and are easier to construct.
Monorail myths
- Monorails switches are a problem. One of the more persistent myths about monorails is that there is a problem with switches. In reality all commuter transit monorails use switches as much as conventional rail systems. Sections of the support beam move in seconds to effect the track switch. For more on ALWEG and SAFEGE monorail switches including videos see The Monorail Societies Switch Myth page.
- Monorails can’t run at ground level. The above picture shows a monorail running just above ground level. The whole point of a monorail is that there is no space for a ground level transit system.
- With Monorails you can’t have level crossings. Surely the dumbest of dumb criticisms! Monorails are built so you don’t have any level crossings.
- Monorails can’t go through tunnels. Many monorails run through tunnels for part of their length due to the difficult terrain. The Tokyo monorail used to run through a tunnel under a runway. Chongqing Monorail has several tunnels with underground stations.
- Monorails are not standardized. This means care needs to be taken to avoid being locked into one manufacturer’s product indefinitely. In reality these Monorails are not that high-tech and a wide range of manufacturers could build new monorail carriages to fit on any particular track.
- Monorails are slow. 80 km/h is suitable for an urban transit system. If you need fast then High-speed maglev monorails can run at any speed up to 500 km/h.
- Monorails are low capacity. Large Hitachi monorails carry 900 passengers in a six-car train. The Tokyo monorail has carried millions of commuters for decades.
- Monorails cannot be used as they have been in a Simpson’s Episode! Even worse Godzilla regularly trashes the Tokyo monorail. However, back in the real world the cost difference between monorail and subway construction still carries some weight. (But incredibly the most frequent criticism of monorails still reference the Marg vs. the Monorail episode.)
