Monorail

Monorails are railroads that run on only one track, as opposed to the traditional two parallel tracks.

Monorail systems have been built in many locations around the world, many of them on elevated tracks through otherwise crowded areas that would otherwise require the construction of expensive surface or underground lines.

Japan has employed monorails for rapid transit in six cities, including Tokyo and Osaka. Jacksonville, Florida also has a rapid-transit monorail. Monorails have also proved useful as people-movers in Walt Disney World and the Tampa and Newark airports. The installation in Walt Disney World is the busiest monorail in the world.

It should be noted that all these systems have switches. Some early monorail systems, notably the Wuppertal monorail 1901, which is still in operation, have cars suspended from above, a design that made it difficult to switch from one line to another. This limitation still figures in discussions of monorail even though the problem has been surmounted.

External Link

As part of their extensive coverage, The Monorail Society presents The Switch Myth, a page which includes motion-gifs demonstrating several styles of monorail switches.