nfitz
Superstar
Oh well played!
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- Thread starter ssiguy2
- Start date
CapitalSeven
Senior Member
The Moscow monorail (which I rode once) was ill-thought-out. It ran above a well-established tram line that had more stops and cost half as much to ride. Basically it had no reason to exist.
nfitz
Superstar
So your saying that it's been demonstrated that LRT is a better option than monorail, even when burdened with extra stops?
ssiguy2
Senior Member
You had to pay extra to pay for the monorail which was overhead of the tram line. The Moscow monorail was also VERY slow. I saw a youtube of it and I couldn't believe how slow it travelled, never seen the likes of it. The Moscow monorail was not by any stretch of the imagination rapid transit and it was more expensive to boot.
Johnny Au
Senior Member
The advocates for monorail in Moscow must have never watched The Simpsons (after all, the show is banned there quite recently), especially the episode "Marge vs. the Monorail."
ssiguy2
Senior Member
Possible true. Of course with their big Metro system the Kremlin must have also banned the movie "Throw Mama from the Train" or "Planet of the Apes" to see what their stations will look like in a few years.
CapitalSeven
Senior Member
What I am saying is what I said, and I meant it to apply only to that particular situation. Any mode of transportation can be done well or badly. Had they put a monorail between two branches of the metro where there was high density and no convenient, existing local transit link, it could have been a great success. The cost of the ticket was also a factor. A lot of folks in suburban Moscow are relatively poor.
ssiguy2
Senior Member
I've always found it odd how so many transit systems make monorails more expensive than standard transit fares and then wonder why they fail.
ssiguy2
Senior Member
I decided I had to bring this thread back to life, again.
Hard to believe I wrote that more than 2 years ago, doesn't seem possible. I'm just writing to give you an update on how things are going and I guess the answer would be remarkable. # huge segments are already well under construction and the first 24 km will open later this year and will have 1000 passenger capacity trains running every 90 seconds with potential of every 75 seconds. These are the Bombardier Monorail ART trains. By 2015 Sao Paulo will have 54 km of monorail which is expected to carry over 500,000 passengers growing to well in excess of a million passengers per day by 2025. Deagu S. Korea is going to be opening it's new Hitachi 18km line hopefully later this year and will have capacity of approx 17,500 pphpd. It is the first Hatachi heavy monorail system outside of Japan and ridership is expected to be approx 150,000 passengers per day by 2020.
Chongquin just opened an huge extension and now has 2 complete lines with the longest now being 55 km and with another extension so to open by fall of this year the system will be 80 km long and expected to carry up to 800,000 passenegers per day. Even before the expansion that just opened a few weeks ago the monorail system was already carrying 400,000 passengers per day which does not include the standard subway system of the city. The Qon Iran system is well under construction with all the pilons now completed and the over head rail is beginning to be placed. Mumbai is opening it's new 18 km line in just 3 months with a total of 26 km by late next year. Kuala Lumper's system is currently being extended and it just got new cars to double the capacity on it's current length.
All this in jsut the last couple of years.
Sao Paulo will have 55km of monorail before Toronto even opens it's big 8 km Spadina extension yet they started construction at the same time.
Hard to believe I wrote that more than 2 years ago, doesn't seem possible. I'm just writing to give you an update on how things are going and I guess the answer would be remarkable. # huge segments are already well under construction and the first 24 km will open later this year and will have 1000 passenger capacity trains running every 90 seconds with potential of every 75 seconds. These are the Bombardier Monorail ART trains. By 2015 Sao Paulo will have 54 km of monorail which is expected to carry over 500,000 passengers growing to well in excess of a million passengers per day by 2025. Deagu S. Korea is going to be opening it's new Hitachi 18km line hopefully later this year and will have capacity of approx 17,500 pphpd. It is the first Hatachi heavy monorail system outside of Japan and ridership is expected to be approx 150,000 passengers per day by 2020.
Chongquin just opened an huge extension and now has 2 complete lines with the longest now being 55 km and with another extension so to open by fall of this year the system will be 80 km long and expected to carry up to 800,000 passenegers per day. Even before the expansion that just opened a few weeks ago the monorail system was already carrying 400,000 passengers per day which does not include the standard subway system of the city. The Qon Iran system is well under construction with all the pilons now completed and the over head rail is beginning to be placed. Mumbai is opening it's new 18 km line in just 3 months with a total of 26 km by late next year. Kuala Lumper's system is currently being extended and it just got new cars to double the capacity on it's current length.
All this in jsut the last couple of years.
Sao Paulo will have 55km of monorail before Toronto even opens it's big 8 km Spadina extension yet they started construction at the same time.
drum118
Superstar
Yes you can built monorail faster than subway for less than haft the cost of a subway.
The problem is people refuse to look at overhead systems since they see them being a blight on the street scape as well line of sight. Also, having people looking in their windows from the trains.
Once the precast columns and beams are formed as well the number of erection companies working on this project, You should be able to install 10-15 miles of track per year. In the first year of construction, crews would be core drilling and pouring foundations for the columns and this will mess up traffic badly to a point at pinch point.
Riverdale Rink Rat
Senior Member
Just came back from Paris, and I have to agree on the elevated trains -- monorails or not. Elevated anything creates dead zones underneath and lots of street noise. I'm sure that the good people of the districts the monorails of Sao Paolo are going through are/were not as happy as the commuters.
JayBeeGooner
Active Member
I'll be in Vegas in a couple of weeks, and I'll be riding the monorail. The location of the monorail was always a mystery to me, and I understand why it's located "behind" the resorts. It's the visual obstruction. If the monorail was placed on the Strip, the amazing view of the themed resorts would be blighted by the columns, and station structures. I bet the resorts fought tooth and nail against any sort of transit on the strip other than bus, and surface rail.
ssiguy2
Senior Member
I agree with the visual intrusion argument which is why I have never endorsed elevated transit along inner city areas except when goind thru areas suchas Hyrdo corridors, rail corridors, and industrial/commercial stripes. An excellent example of the later is of course Eglinton's Golden Mile where the trains should be elevated from DM to Kennedy. Vancouver also did it right by only elevating along suburban stripes, roadways, rail corridors but people pay a fortune to be right up against the line.
For elevation there is no option better than monorail as it has a smaller footprint than any of the other technologies, it isn't one solid track so there is little shawdow, is much easier to build at the site due to most of the infrastructure being built off site, and it is the quitest of all the systems with the best manuverability and incline/decline abilities which is essential in many crowded cities.
drum118 ........... It is interesting you should mention the point of people looking in the window at elevated heights. The new Deagu S. Korea system built by Hitachi has many unique features, They have inside sprinkler systems in case of fire and emergency shuts for safety but also a "misting" technology. I'm not exactly sure how it works but the what it does is "mist" the windows when going by residential areas so privacy is ensured for those who have just such a concern. I have absolutely no idea how this tinting technology works but is very interesting and address the valid concerns of those who already live near the line and have privacy concerns. I have not heard that Bombardier or Scomi have this technology or whether it has ever been applied. These of course are concerns of any elevated system regardless of technology but the monorails have the benefit of not having near the noise level of the other systems.
For elevation there is no option better than monorail as it has a smaller footprint than any of the other technologies, it isn't one solid track so there is little shawdow, is much easier to build at the site due to most of the infrastructure being built off site, and it is the quitest of all the systems with the best manuverability and incline/decline abilities which is essential in many crowded cities.
drum118 ........... It is interesting you should mention the point of people looking in the window at elevated heights. The new Deagu S. Korea system built by Hitachi has many unique features, They have inside sprinkler systems in case of fire and emergency shuts for safety but also a "misting" technology. I'm not exactly sure how it works but the what it does is "mist" the windows when going by residential areas so privacy is ensured for those who have just such a concern. I have absolutely no idea how this tinting technology works but is very interesting and address the valid concerns of those who already live near the line and have privacy concerns. I have not heard that Bombardier or Scomi have this technology or whether it has ever been applied. These of course are concerns of any elevated system regardless of technology but the monorails have the benefit of not having near the noise level of the other systems.
G
gabe
Guest
The monorail is expensive if you use it every day, all the stops are a long way from anything of interest, some stops you need to walk for miles through the casino to get to the strip. The only time i use the monorail now is to it get from MGM to The Las Vegas Hilton. For getting around town the best deal is still The Deuce Bus. $7 pass is good for 24 hours and it runs all the way to downtown, and the bus runs 24 hours a day. Some casinos offer a free connecting tram similar to the one at Pearson airport, try to find the tram stations, it will save your legs from a lot of walking.
ssiguy2
Senior Member
The LV monorail is not associated with the regular LV transit systen at all. Even if you buy an LV monorail fare you can't even use it as a transfer onto the regular system. It's basically a tourist ride.