The Victorian Government’s SRL Northwest & Airport Metro projects could be delivered for $100 Billion less as a monorail.
| Reliable cost estimates would require an official RFI request from the State Government to the manufacturers demonstrating interest in the concept. |
Large Monorails as Transit
Large flat-floor monorail trains offer a similar passenger experience to regular trains or large trams, except the view is better. Like any metro system, headway can be down to 120 seconds.
Proposed Routes
This route places the dual-track monorails above major road and rail easements. See Google Map for more detail.
A single-track loop is suggested at the ends of the lines to keep trains moving continuously.
| Monorail SRL | Km | Estimated $Billions |
| Northwest | 61 | 8.5 |
| Airport | 31 | 4.2 |
| TOTAL | 92 | 12.7 |
Proposed Northwest SRL Route
To avoid the cost of acquiring private property the monorail needs to follow major roads, rail lines or transmission lines.
- Box Hill terminating loop
- Station Street & Tram Road (south)
- Main Street & Prospect Street (west)
- Elgar Road (north)
- Manningham Road
- Banksia Street
- Bell Street
- M2 Tullamarine Freeway
- M79 Calder Freeway
- M80 Ring Road
- Albion – Jacana freight train line easement?
- Fitzgerald Road
- Point Cook Road
- Point Cook Aircraft Museum terminating loop
This is slightly different to the original SRL proposal but connects to all the same rail lines.
The system can easily be built in stages from Box Hill.
Overhead power lines would need to be undergrounded on the above roads allowing more street trees and improving the appearance of the roads.
Major SRL Northwest Stations
| Major Stations | 11 Rail Interchanges |
| Box Hill SC | Belgrave Line Lilydale Line SRL East109 Tram |
| Box Hill Hospital | |
| Doncaster SC | |
| Heidelberg (Austin Hospital) | Hurstbridge Line |
| Bell (Preston) | Epping Line |
| Coburg | Upfield Line |
| “Thompson” NEW Metro Station | Broadmeadows Line between Pascoe Vale and Strathmore stations |
| Essendon DFO | |
| Mathews Avenue | 59 Tram |
| Keilor East NEW | Airport Line |
| Sunshine Hospital | |
| “Sunshine North” NEW V/Line & Metro Station | Sunbury & Bendigo Line (Under transmission line) |
| “Collenso” NEW V/Line Station | Ballarat Line (Under transmission line) |
| Laverton | Werribee Line |
| Point Cook RAAF Museum |
Minimal Road Traffic Impacts
More than 90% of the monorail would be built on road or rail reservations without impacting traffic lanes.
Box Hill Interchange
Using a monorail for SRL Northwest would add one more interchange option at Box Hill. Alternatively, SRL East could continue to Doncaster SC and the SRL Northwest could start there.
A large number of lifts would quickly transport passengers between the different modes.
| Mode | Lift button |
 SRL: Northwest | 5 |
 | 4 |
 | 3 |
 | 2 |
 SRL: East | 1 |
New Median Strip for Station Street and Elgar Roads
Station Road and Elgar Road would need to have a central reservation added for the pillars. This would reduce these roads to 1 lane each way. Right turn lanes could be added, improving safety.
The new North East Road link to the M80 should mitigate this minor impact.
New Median Strip for Bell Street West
Sections of Bell Street West have no median strip.
Adding a median strip and reducing the road to one through-lane each way solves this problem and allows the addition of right-turn lanes, improving safety.
Roundabouts should be considered for some intersections, allowing a monorail pillar in the middle and removing the need for a right-turn lane at the intersection.
This would also push through traffic to the M80.
Removal of the power lines and the reduced traffic flow would improve the very poor aesthetics of this road.
Voluntary Acquisition
The government should offer to buy properties at current market value near the SRL route.
Ideally large numbers of properties could be acquired allowing useful redevelopment.
A ‘distressed’ section of Bell Street, Coburg. Removing the power lines and adding a vegetated median strip would help improve the street appearance.
Bringing Forward SRL Airport
Haneda Airport Station, Tokyo. This monorail transports 140,000 people per day. (Reddit)
A 30 km express monorail could be used to take passengers from Southern Cross to the Airport in under 30 minutes at up to 100 km/h.
This could just run from Southern Cross to the Airport with a few key stops:
- Southern Cross (optional terminating loop around the Marvel Stadium)
- Sunshine (over rail lines)
- Keilor East (change for SRL Northwest)
- Airport (over M80, Airport Drive, optional loop around Departure Drive)
This would remove airport trains from the Metro Tunnel increasing the maximum frequency of services to the Airport and Pakenham – Sunbury.
Rolling stock could be transferred between the monorail lines at Keilor East as needed.
Monorail System Options
Flat Floors, Driverless Operation, Multiple Fail-Safes
All modern large-scale transit monorails would have these characteristics:
- Flat walk-through floor allowing movement between carriages
- Possibility of six or more carriages
- Sufficient battery back-up to move the train to the next station if mains power is lost
- Multiple fail-over to allow the train to move if one carriage is defective
- The usual fail-safe door locking used for any train
- Driverless operation (train security staff recommended)
- Climate control for zero to fifty degrees Celsius
- Platform screen doors
- Wrap-around stations to protect passengers from wind, driving rain and high heat.
Please disregard experience of small amusement park monorails such as the old Sydney tourist monorail.
Robust Track Switches
All large monorail systems use track switches continuously. I have designed the SRL Northwest is designed as a loop so switch use is minimized.
| Suspended monorail track switch | Straddle beam track switch |
 A baffle moves quickly to switch the suspended monorail vehicle. |  A segmented section of beam moves quickly as required. |
Suspended Monorails
This design protects the guideway from weather and is easier to place over busy roads.
Manufacturers
| Company | Example systems |
| CRRC | Optics Valley Monorail, Wuhan, China (10 km) Hancheng Monorail System, China (55 km) Chengdu, China. See also glass train option. |
| Mitsubishi | Chiba monorail, Japan (15 km) Shonan monorail, Japan (7 km) |
Straddle Beam Monorails
Large straddle beam monorail systems are in use across north Asia and the Middle East. These follow the ALWEG design. Chongqing has over 75 km of large monorail in their metro system.
Straddle Beam Monorail Manufacturers
| Company | Example systems |
|---|---|
| Hitachi | Tokyo Monorail, opened 1964 Kitakyushu Monorail, opened 1984 Osaka Monorail, opened 1990 Tama Toshi Monorail Line, opened 1998 Okinawa Urban Monorail, opened 2003 Chongqing Rail Transit (Line 2 & Line 3), opened 2005 & 2011 Palm Jumeirah Monorail, (Dubai) opened April 2009 Daegu Metro Line 3, (Daegu, South Korea) opened April 2015 Panama Metro (Line 3), opening 2025 |
| Intamin | Moscow Monorail, Russian Federation Ashgabat Monorail, Turkmenistan Calabar Monorail, Nigeria Marconi Express, Italy Plus some theme park monorails |
| Bombardier | Jacksonville Skyway, United States AirTrain Newark, Newark Airport, United States Las Vegas Monorail, United States Line 15 (Silver), São Paulo, Brazil Monorail line 1 & 2, Wuhu, China MRT Yellow Line and MRT Pink Line, Bangkok King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD), Saudi Arabia Monorail line 1 & 2, Liuzhou, China Cairo Monorail, Egypt Santiago Monorail, Dominican Republic Muang Thong Thani Branch Line, Bangkok, Thailand |
Recent Hitachi Monorail Costs & Ridership
The longer the track the lower the cost as fixed costs such as maintenance facilities, control rooms and track production factories are spread over more kilometres.
The proposed SRL Northwest route does not present any major engineering challenges.
At over 60 kilometres so costs per kilometre should be able to be kept well below A$ M140/km.
| System | Cost (US$M) | Km | Built | Cost / km (US$M) | Daily Rides | Max Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daegu Line 3 | 333 | 24 | 2015 | 14 | 74,000(2018) | 100 km/h |
| Okinawa | 460 | 17 | 2003 | 27 | 50,000 (2017) | 65 km/h |
| Osaka | 846 | 9 | 2018 | 94 | 121,000 (2022) | 75 km/h |
| Panama* | 2,600 | 24.5 | 2025 | 106 | N/A | N/A |
(* Part of this line is to be 60 meters UNDER the Panama Canal adding significant costs.)
Straddle Beam Track Appearance
Like Melbourne’s new skyrail, elevated transit can look as good as the government wants.
Note the Y-shaped pillars and arched guideway.
Kitakyushu monorail, Japan
Maintenance Facilities
Several maintenance facilities would be needed. As the system is likely to be built incrementally I suggest a small maintenance facility should be built at Box Hill and a larger one added in Airport West or Keilor later on.
Safety
Elevated transit systems are inherently safer than underground systems, especially if they are placed over major roads.
Access is easy via using regular emergency service equipment.
The flat-floor walk-through design is crucial as it allows evacuation from a single door. Fire extinguishers should be available in all carriages. Batteries should allow the train to be moved to the next station remotely if power is lost.
There is a 720mm gap between Hitachi ‘large’ trains on dual track allowing train-to-train evacuation with a ramp kept on each train.
Adding a walkway
For the Hitachi Palm Monorail in Dubai a track emergency walkway was required for much of the track. This consists of metal grates suspended between the guideways on dual-track sections of the track.
This was not considered necessary in Japan, China or South Korea but is an option for Australia if required.
Moving passengers to the walkway may not assist with evacuation to the ground and may obstruct evacuation to a rescue train.
Arguably there is no case for a walkway If trains can move to the next station using batteries and evacuation to the ground from the train is reasonably feasible.
Tender process and local content
The RFI, quote and construction process should be broken up as follows:
- Straddle-beam monorail vendor: Trains, power supply system, train control system, track formwork, track specifications.
- Local builders: All track work, stations and foundations. Multiple builders should be engaged to build sections of the vendor-specified track.
- Suspended monorail vendor: In this case the monorail vendor would probably supply the steel guideway and supports as well so the only local content would be erecting the guideway and building the stations.
- Risk: The State Government should carry the risk of unexpected ground conditions or unknown buried infrastructure to avoid quote padding by vendors.
Stations
As far as possible all stations structures would be the same with a modular design to cut costs. Each station would have a central track with edge platforms so lifts can drop to the road sides. Solar panels would cover the roofs.
- Termini: If a single-track terminal loop is used these stations could have a wide platform on both sides of the trains for fast passenger transfers (Airport, Box Hill, Southern Cross). Lots of lifts and escalators.
- Other: Two central tracks with edge platforms and lots of lifts to the road sides.
YouTube & Gallery
I recommend trains, pillars and should not carry advertising.
Stations with edge platforms have a smaller footprint than those with a central platform and use standard pillars up to the station.
