Posts Tagged ‘Monorail’

Gliding smoothly on a track high above the city streets in the tropical city of Kuala Lumpur is the KL Monorail. The monorail links the Golden Triangle sector of the city with the Sentral transport hub and stops at 11 stations. After a bit of a shaky financial start the system opened in 2003 and today over 21 million people use the 8.6km system every year. For the visitor to Kuala Lumpur the monorail offers a unique and easy way to visit some of the major attractions of the city and is in easy reach of many of the huge shopping malls including the massive Times Square shopping complex. The two carrige train can carry up to  244 people although fairly tightly, with 48 people sitting and 196 standing. There are 10 units of 2 car trains in service.   The KL monorail is one of a number of monorails in Malaysia others include the Sunway Monorail at Sunway Pyramid Mall just outside KL, and several other new or under construction systems in Malacca, Penang and Putrajaya.  There have been proposals to extend the KL monorail line but no firm funding or plans have been announced.  One interesting highlight of the system is special animal conservation at each station. Each station has been given the responsibility to look after an endangered or precious animal. You will see some pretty fancy birds and reptiles at many of the stations.

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Sydney is not only home to the Harbor Bridge, the Opera House and what is probably the world’s most beautiful waterfront city, it also boasts a monorail  The monorail links the entertainment districts of Darling Harbor and China town with the shopping and business precincts of the city. The loop  is elevated above the city streets offering a great way to get around and a different perspective on this amazing city. The monorail is ran by the city’s Metro Transport and operates from around 7 am until 10 pm in the evening. There are eight stops along the 12 minute loop and a monorail usually comes past each station within about five minutes.  The monorail system commenced operation in 1988 in what at the time was a fairly controversial project, but over the 20 plus years of service the monorail has become a familiar and much loved form of transport around Australia’ s largest city taking thousands of passengers every day.

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The Osaka monorail holds the Guinness Book of Records award for the world’s longest monorail with a track spanning 21.2km. The elevated train runs between Osaka International Airport and Kadoma-shi Station and also has an offshoot to Saiito-nishi . Opening between Senri-Chuo and Minami-Ibaraki in 1990 the monorail track has had several extensions over the last 18 years. The entire trip takes about 36 minutes and stops at 14 stations. As with most of Japan’s public transport system the cost is fairly reasonable the entire trip only costs a little over Y500 which is about $5, but fares start as low as Y200 and kids can use the system at half price. The monorail can get quiet busy with over 70,000 people riding on it every day. Each monorail has 4 carriages and is made by Hitachi and uses 1500 volts of power to glide along the concrete track. Read the rest of this entry »

Well we thought being Christmas Week we should feature stories on the happiest place (or places) on earth- Yes Disneyland’s around the world. Our first story celebrates new monorails at the Anaheim Disneyland. We were reading on one of our favorite blogs that the monorails at Disneyland are getting a huge overhaul. As the photograph shows they are going to look pretty flash, word is they will have fancy blue glass and red strips which change colours in sunlight- a bit like one of those hypercolour t-shirts I suppose. The cabins take on a real futuristic retro look which should look great zooming around the Disneyland park. It looks like the first passengers will be able to ride on these sleek machines around February, so there’s not much time to wait. There should be plenty of new fun at the park during 2008 with a huge multi million dollar upgrade underway at both Disneyland and the Californian Adventure which will both see new attractions and fun for all over the next few years.

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Well unlike Ogdenville, North Haverbrook, and Brockway Sydney didn’t quite need a monorail to put it on the map but they have one anyway and it is a great way to get around the city. The Sydney monorail first opened in 1988 as a way of getting people to the city’s new playground Darling Harbor. Today it is an important form of transport moving thousands around the city every day. The monorail links many of Sydney’s entertainment complexes including Paddy’s Market, China Town, Darling Harbor, The Exhibition and Convention Centres, Aquarium and IMAX with the downtown shopping and business district of the city. For a few small dollars you can loop the city gliding high above the traffic and pedestrian flow for a great view of Sydney.

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