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Elevated railways like monorails aren't more widespread because of the added expense around elevated track and especially elevated stations. Somehow, you've got

Elevated railways like monorails aren't more widespread because of the added expense around elevated track and especially elevated stations. Somehow, you've got to get folks up and down from there. I'm glad because they are pretty unsightly.

zwayhowder 7y ago
All costing I've seen for elevated tracks is actually significantly cheaper than at grade or underground options. I used to be on my local government and worked with the state government on a number of transport projects so I can't cite sources directly. This website has some comparisons, but obviously is biased towards monorails. https://www.monorailsaustralia.com.au/ https://www.monorailsaustralia.com.au/ If you look at countries such as Japan that asides from population density have a very relaxed attitude to multifloor buildings having entrances at different levels you can see successful elevated railway implementations because the stations are integrated to existing large buildings such as malls, hotels & commercial offices. One thing I've noticed in Sydney was people don't tend to look up if their not expecting something, so in Chinatown and Koreatown (We don't really have a Japantown yet but Sydney Central Park is getting there) buildings have advertisements on the other floors to let people know they are upstairs. In the rest of the city you can walk past a building and have no idea who the tenants are on the other floors. This also stopped Sydney from noticing the (in hindsight) blatantly obvious, almost Jetsonesque monorail stations right above their heads.
- teruakohatu 7y ago
  Serious question: do you think The Simpsons hurt the monorail industry?
ihuman 7y ago
> Somehow, you've got to get folks up and down from there How is that different from underground railways? You still need to get people down and up from them
- notatoad 7y ago
  with an overhead railway you have the problem of getting people up and down from the platform, and it's only marginally less intrusive to the rest of the public realm than a ground-level railway is. with an underground railway you do still have the same problem of getting people up and down to the platform, but you have the advantage of the railway being completely out of the way of anything else.

zwayhowder 7y ago

All costing I've seen for elevated tracks is actually significantly cheaper than at grade or underground options. I used to be on my local government and worked with the state government on a number of transport projects so I can't cite sources directly. This website has some comparisons, but obviously is biased towards monorails. https://www.monorailsaustralia.com.au/ https://www.monorailsaustralia.com.au/ If you look at countries such as Japan that asides from population density have a very relaxed attitude to multifloor buildings having entrances at different levels you can see successful elevated railway implementations because the stations are integrated to existing large buildings such as malls, hotels & commercial offices. One thing I've noticed in Sydney was people don't tend to look up if their not expecting something, so in Chinatown and Koreatown (We don't really have a Japantown yet but Sydney Central Park is getting there) buildings have advertisements on the other floors to let people know they are upstairs. In the rest of the city you can walk past a building and have no idea who the tenants are on the other floors. This also stopped Sydney from noticing the (in hindsight) blatantly obvious, almost Jetsonesque monorail stations right above their heads.

teruakohatu 7y ago
Serious question: do you think The Simpsons hurt the monorail industry?

ihuman 7y ago

> Somehow, you've got to get folks up and down from there How is that different from underground railways? You still need to get people down and up from them

notatoad 7y ago
with an overhead railway you have the problem of getting people up and down from the platform, and it's only marginally less intrusive to the rest of the public realm than a ground-level railway is. with an underground railway you do still have the same problem of getting people up and down to the platform, but you have the advantage of the railway being completely out of the way of anything else.