3 ms·

I wish we had more monorails and viaducts. They're useful, leave the ground infrastructure unimpeded, and are honestly beautiful to look at.

ajmurmann 2y ago
I think they are good in limits. I love the occasional one, but as a very common solution I'd prefer elevated walkway systems like in Hong Kong which leaves the sun and view to pedestrians. Of course the occasional monorail is a huge win and, add you say, beautiful
resoluteteeth 2y ago
I think the main problem with suspended monorails is that they're more expensive to build unless the tracks are already going to have to be elevated for 100% of their length due to other constraints. As long as that's the case, it doesn't seem like they really have any significant disadvantages compared to normal trains. But otherwise, by choosing a monorail you're going from being able to run some parts of the tracks on the ground with very little cost/effort to not being able to run any of them directly on the ground for very little benefit aside from looking cool.
- xg15 2y ago
  I think the movie Minority Report had a really cool concept of a sort of "semi-suspended" railway: The machinery that connected to the rails could rotate all around the train car, so depending on the environment, the tracks could go below the car, above the car, or even beside the car, which would allow it to use sheer walls as "ramps". I'm not sure if something like this would in any way be physically feasible, but if yes, it might solve the cost problem, because part of the rails could then be run on the ground. (Maybe a less sci-fi version would be a "hybrid" car that has a second set of wheels on the underside and could switch between ordinary and overhead rails as needed?)
- bluGill 2y ago
  Going all elevated is good as it gets you out of traffic and thus allows for more speed. The problem is sometimes you want to go undergroud. The other problem is while material costs should be cheaper there is no standard and so you but more custom parts and them when something wears out you pay one off prices to replace it. use standard rails and you can buy more mass produced parts which brings your cost down.
bobthepanda 2y ago
Monorails are only really beautiful in jurisdictions that don’t require emergency walkways along the length. If a place requires that, then the visual bulk is no different from a normal railway.
- Animats 2y ago
  Maybe. Compare the Las Vegas Monorail with aerial sections of BART. But BART is heavy rail, with serious speed and capacity.

ajmurmann 2y ago

I think they are good in limits. I love the occasional one, but as a very common solution I'd prefer elevated walkway systems like in Hong Kong which leaves the sun and view to pedestrians. Of course the occasional monorail is a huge win and, add you say, beautiful

resoluteteeth 2y ago

I think the main problem with suspended monorails is that they're more expensive to build unless the tracks are already going to have to be elevated for 100% of their length due to other constraints. As long as that's the case, it doesn't seem like they really have any significant disadvantages compared to normal trains. But otherwise, by choosing a monorail you're going from being able to run some parts of the tracks on the ground with very little cost/effort to not being able to run any of them directly on the ground for very little benefit aside from looking cool.

xg15 2y ago
I think the movie Minority Report had a really cool concept of a sort of "semi-suspended" railway: The machinery that connected to the rails could rotate all around the train car, so depending on the environment, the tracks could go below the car, above the car, or even beside the car, which would allow it to use sheer walls as "ramps". I'm not sure if something like this would in any way be physically feasible, but if yes, it might solve the cost problem, because part of the rails could then be run on the ground. (Maybe a less sci-fi version would be a "hybrid" car that has a second set of wheels on the underside and could switch between ordinary and overhead rails as needed?)
bluGill 2y ago
Going all elevated is good as it gets you out of traffic and thus allows for more speed. The problem is sometimes you want to go undergroud. The other problem is while material costs should be cheaper there is no standard and so you but more custom parts and them when something wears out you pay one off prices to replace it. use standard rails and you can buy more mass produced parts which brings your cost down.

bobthepanda 2y ago

Monorails are only really beautiful in jurisdictions that don’t require emergency walkways along the length. If a place requires that, then the visual bulk is no different from a normal railway.

Animats 2y ago
Maybe. Compare the Las Vegas Monorail with aerial sections of BART. But BART is heavy rail, with serious speed and capacity.