Why monorails are bad as public transport - Monorails

In todays video, we take a look at monorails, why they're bad for public transport and what they're actually good for

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[drakabeko]

I used to work with the Yui Monorail in Okinawa Japan. There are some specific cases where monorail was the better option. in the Naha area, there's tons of narrow but busy roads, and the landscape is hilly. Its also a coral island, so digging a subway is not feasible. Monorail was chosen because of its ability to more easily climb hills. It looks "futuristic" as you said, which gives it more public support. the rail is thin, so it doesn't impact the skyline as much, and for the many tourists that visit Okinawa, they get a nice view of the island. Also, due to how dense the city is and how difficult developers could acquire land, they chose to build a large portion of the monorail over the river. Okinawa also has a ton of powerful typhoons and there has been no major issues yet. Had they went to to a grade level Tram or Light rain, while the infrastructure would be cheaper, there certainly would have been a ton of operational issues. There would be far more traffic as it would have taken an existing street lane, and given the amount of tourists that can't drive well in Japan, drunk drivers (its an issue in Okinawa), etc, there probably would have been more accidents and even fatalities.

[adeerdoes]

Though limited, there's a really good example of how a monorail system was the best option for a cities public transit. Take a look at Wuppertal's Schwebebahn in Germany. There, the unique geology, plus the cities unusual design characteristics, meant the monorail, or suspension railway, was the best choice. Surprised you didn't use that as a good example at the end. It's been in existence since 1897-1903, only really halted by war and refurbishment. You showed pictures, but I'd say that's a good example of how monorail can be used well for mas/commute transit where other systems would not.

[namenamename]

4:08 that is a bizarre sight. It is the most obvious way to get track ballast to tracks, but seeing a freight train on the Underground, especially a deep level line, is still odd.

[shadow_wolfen]

I actually enjoyed the Sydney Monorail... But I was twelve at the time

[MrJoeyWheeler]

Monorails have the appeal of simply looking futuristic. They're that kind of thing that you stand in and go "man, I'm living in the future." Especially those ones that dangle from an overhead rail.
Even though the technology is really old now, it still maintains that sort of...retro-future appeal, aesthetically.

[skywardlp]

My favourite monorail is the Shonan Monorail, located on the edge of the Greater Tokyo Area. It's a suspended monorail that I think stands out for achieving absolutely insane space efficiency in terms of its ground infrastructure, which I think proves that there is still a bit of underutilised potential with the mode.

[awesomecronk]

There is a monorail in the Orlando, FL airport. That airport also has a hotel inside it the monorail is used to connect multiple terminals together, making what would be a 45min-1hr walk roughly a 5min or less monorail ride. Definitely useful there, but again, very limited.

EDIT: I stand corrected, I stand corrected! 😂

[rosswhite-chinnery]

Used the monorail all of twice between moving to Sydney in 1995 and the thing being shutdown. The second time was really just for the sake of riding it with someone from out of town. Sydney is one of those places that is vast by area but poorly joined up. So finding out there was a city-wide tram network ripped up more than 30 years before I moved here taught me what it means to grieve something you never knew!

[abrr]

Actually, worst case scenarios for standard points include...
• Derailment
• the train attempting to go both ways at the same time
• breaking the points if ran over while pointing the wrong way. (because they position lock to avoid the above)

[traingoddess]

The stations from the Sydney monorail are still there. They even have the advertisements from when it closed, it just has no track.

[andrewgray]

Disappointed that the monorails of Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook were not discussed

[SynchroScore]

"Despite their futuristic reputation compared to trains, light rail, or even buses, they tend to be over-engineered and gimmicky and, in the long run, less efficient at their job compared to more conventional forms of public transit."

*Elon Musk:* "Hold my beer..."

[j-train]

I'd love to see a followup video discussing the Wuppertal specifically, cause I know it gets brought up a lot when people hype up monorails. So I'd be curious to see what the specific circumstances were that just make the German monorail _work_ when in most scenarios it just isn't practical.

[eastpavilion-er]

Although Chongqing has stopped building monorails, another city in China, Wuhu, has finished two monorail lines in recent years. Judging by the passenger numbers, the new monorail is pretty successful there.

[carrieann]

Visit Seattle, Washington and enjoy a trip on ours. Built in 1962 for support of the Century 21 Exposition, it connected downtown with the Exposition grounds. It runs the same route today, though the downtown platform was relocated some years ago. The trip is a little less than a mile, and there is no stop. Great fun.

[redwolfcorprevamped]

They're pretty useful in specific isolated cases (airports and resorts), but when it comes to a serious mass transportation network, other options are much more appealing.

[C-gf]

The Sydney system was quite odd compared to other von-roll systems around the world. It tried to be an automated people mover but unfortunately the technology wasn’t there at the time for the trains to run automatically. Also of note is that the von-roll mk2 and mk3 systems were only really used as theme park transport with Sydney, merry hill and an airport line in the USA as systems with public transport in mind.

[cz.gazz.]

I cross the bridge at 0:12 to get to work every day, and the old monorail station is still there. The Sydney monorail was an absolute gimmick that pretty much no one used for the reasons laid out in this video, but we still mention how we miss it. We eventually got a lightrail.

[TaronTT]

I think the Wuppertal monorail is the only exception to this, as it was mainly built above a river, using space which would otherwise have gone to waste - which in turn also saved multiple historical building from being bulldozed.

[azuma]

In Asia Monorails are way more prevalent and they seem to function fine as low to medium capacity metros.