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There seems to be some common confusion surrounding the term "monorail". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monorail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monorail Do you
by jessriedel 10y ago
There seems to be some common confusion surrounding the term "monorail".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monorail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monorail
Do you actually mean single rail? Or alternatively do you mean elevated rail and/or maglev?
I'm under the impression that true monorails have essentially zero advantage over standard birails. (Narrower and more elegant support structures casting smaller shadows is of course desirable, but I don't think the number of rails is a confining parameter in modern tech.)
- ianbicking 10y agoMonorails typically use rubber wheels, which DO have a lot of advantages (maximum grade, sound, stopping distance), but I'm also unclear why that couldn't be applied to birails. Monorails might also have a smaller turn radius? Ultimately I feel like the problem with monorail is that public transit is primarily a political, not technological, phenomena, and so while there might be a good idea in monorails, or iterations where it could be combined with birails to make something truly technologically superior, but it just doesn't matter.