List of monorail systems

Monorail systems have been built in many countries around the world, many of them on elevated tracks through crowded areas that would otherwise require the construction of expensive underground lines or have the disadvantages of surface lines.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Operational monorails

This is a listing of monorails that are presently operating and open to the public. Only true monorails (vehicle wider than track) are included; see people mover for a list of "monorail-like" systems.

Africa

South Africa

• The Expo Centre in Nasrec, Johannesburg (located next to the 2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer City) hosts a monorail that is operated during major events such as the Rand Easter Show
• Sun City casino resort, linking day visitor parking area to main complex.

Asia

People's Republic of China

CRT Line 2, Dongwuyuan station in Chongqing, China

• Chongqing Rail Transit, Chongqing
  • Line 2
  • Line 3
• Shanghai Maglev Train, Shanghai
• Happy Line, Shenzhen, Guangdong
• Window of the World Monorail, at the Window of the World amusement park, Shenzhen, Guangdong
• Castfast Hotel, Fenggang, Dongguan, Guangdong

Japan

Tama Toshi Monorail Line, Tokyo, Japan

Main article: Monorails in Japan

Japan employs monorails in many cities, including:

• Chiba Urban Monorail (Townliner) in Chiba, a satellite city of Tokyo
• Disney Resort Line
• Kitakyūshū Monorail in Kitakyūshū
• Okinawa Monorail (Yui Rail) in Naha, Okinawa
• Osaka Monorail
• Shōnan Monorail in Kanagawa Prefecture, in the southern outskirts of Tokyo
• Skyrail Midorizaka Line, a commuter line in a residential development suburb of Hiroshima
• Tama Toshi Monorail Line in and around Tama, west Tokyo
• Tokyo Monorail is the world's busiest and most commercially successful monorail line, carrying around 100 million passengers yearly.
• Ueno Zoo Monorail which links the two sectors of the zoo in Ueno park, again in Tokyo

Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur Monorail

Main article: Monorails in Malaysia

• Kuala Lumpur Monorail - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Genting Monorail - linking the Genting Outdoor Theme Park with the indoor one in First World Plaza.
• Malacca Monorail - runs along Malacca River in Malacca City, Malacca. Service suspended.

Singapore

• Jurong BirdPark Panorail. Three-station Von Roll monorail in Jurong BirdPark.
• Sentosa Express. Four-station Hitachi "Small" monorail.

South Korea

• Lotte World, two station amusement park monorail.
• Taedok Science Town Monorail, site of the Taejŏn Expo '93.

Thailand

• Chiang Mai Zoo Monorail, Chiang Mai Zoo.
• Dream World Theme Park in the northern side of Bangkok has a monorail attraction in Adventure Land.
• Pattaya Park Resort in Chon Buri province has an operating monorail transit.

United Arab Emirates

• Palm Jumeirah Monorail, Dubai.

Europe

The Moscow monorail

Von Roll monorail at Alton Towers, UK, originally built for Expo 86 in Canada

• Belgium: There are monorails in the Bobbejaanland theme park.
• Finland has a monorail in the Linnanmäki amusement park.
• Germany has several monorail systems:
  • a suspended monorail in Wuppertal, the Schwebebahn Wuppertal, dating back to 1901.
  • Dresden's Schwebebahn uses a similar system.
  • There are monorails in the Europa-Park, Heide Park and Phantasialand theme parks.
  • There is a smaller type of suspended Monorail (H-Bahn, "Hängebahn" or "hanging railway") at the campus of the university of Dortmund.
  • The H-Bahn system is also used for the Düsseldorf SkyTrain, which operates at Düsseldorf International Airport.
  • Panorama Railway de:Panoramabahn, an Alweg train system, which was in use on IGA 1993 in Stuttgart, on Federal Garden Exhibition 1997 in Gelsenkirchen and which is since 1999 in operation in Magdeburg Elbauenpark.
  • There is also the experimental Transrapid Maglev ("magnetic levitation") railway system built in Emsland. This prototype was subsequently developed by a German consortium into the world's first commercial Maglev railway: the Shanghai Maglev Train which runs from the Longyang Road station on the Shanghai Metro to Shanghai's International Airport.
• Ireland: Listowel was the site of the world's first commercial monorail, named the Lartigue system after Charles Lartigue who constructed this railway in 1888. A straddle-type monorail on a triangular beam, it was perhaps the only passenger monorail to also regularly carry freight and cattle. An historical recreation now exists and carries passengers as an entertainment.
• Italy: Mirabilandia Amusement Park in Ravenna, 1 station, 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi).
• Netherlands: there is a monorail located at Drievliet amusement park in The Hague, the Slagharen amusement park and one located at Ouwehands Zoo.
• Russia: The history of monorails in Russia dates back to 1820. The Moscow Monorail opened in 2004 has 6 stations, 4.7 kilometres (2.9 mi).
• Spain: Plaza Imperial Monorail in Zaragoza (Aragon), opened in 2008, 2 stations, 0.6 kilometres (0.37 mi).
• United Kingdom: monorail systems operate at:
  • Chester Zoo
  • Alton Towers
  • Blackpool Pleasure Beach (relocated from 1964 Lausanne fair in Switzerland)
  • Flamingoland theme parks
  • National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, Hampshire.

North America

The Walt Disney World Monorail System.

Monorails can be found in the following places in North America:

• Cal Expo, the home of the California Exposition in Sacramento, has a monorail that runs for more than a mile around their fairgrounds. It is only open during the California State Fair
• Disneyland Monorail System, Disneyland, Anaheim, California - Known as the "First daily operating Monorail system in the Western Hemisphere"
• Walt Disney World Monorail System, Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida - Serves over fifty million passengers yearly
• Zoo Miami, in Miami, Florida - Connects major exhibits at the zoo
• JTA Skyway, in Jacksonville, Florida - Connects the main JTA bus terminal to the convention center and other downtown destinations, as well as a Park and ride garage
• Pearlridge Skycab, Pearlridge Center in Aiea, HI, near Honolulu. Connects the Uptown part of the mall to the Downtown part of the mall. It is the only monorail system in Hawaii.
• Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley, Minnesota
• Las Vegas Monorail, Las Vegas, Nevada - public transit; currently connects passengers to 7 different stations near Las Vegas Strip casinos with plans to extend to McCarran International Airport
• Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey - AirTrain Newark connects terminals, parking lots, and Amtrak/NJ Transit Northeast Corridor rail station
• Hershey, Pennsylvania - amusement monorail at Hersheypark
• Lancaster, Pennsylvania - amusement monorail at Dutch Wonderland [7]
• Ocean City, New Jersey - amusement monorail at Gillians Wonderland Pier
• Memphis, Tennessee - a short suspended monorail connects Mud Island in the Mississippi River to Memphis.
• Dallas Zoo in Dallas, Texas
• Seattle, Washington - short monorail (Seattle Center Monorail) built for the Century 21 Exposition in 1962
• Six Flags La Ronde in Montreal, Quebec - operates Minirail, once part of a larger monorail systems built for Expo 67
• Tampa International Airport in Tampa, Florida - installed in 1991 for transportation between the parking garage and different Airsides. It was the first monorail in that cars are completely computer operated.
• Bronx Zoo in Bronx, New York City to visit Wild Asia exhibit in the Bronx Zoo
• Jungle Jim's International Market monorail in Fairfield, OH brings riders from a remote parking lot to the Oscar Events Center; cars were originally used at nearby Kings Island. [8]

South America

• Poços de Caldas, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais have a monorail since 1990. It has not been successful as a mass transit system, and nowadays is mostly used as a tourist attraction. It extends for 6 km, comprising 11 stations. There is a second monorail in the city of Poços de Caldas that is now decommissioned due to a failure in the track. The train sits on display at the station in the city center.

Australia

Sydney Monorail

• Metro Monorail, Sydney, Australia (to be dismantled in 2014 or 2015)
• The Gold Coast, Queensland has two monorails:
  • The Sea World Monorail System is a 2km Von Roll Type II monorail around the Sea World theme park which was the first monorail in Australia, opening in 1986. It was later expanded using some of the components from the monorail dismantled after World Expo '88 in Brisbane.
  • A Von Roll Type III monorail between Conrad Jupiters Casino and the nearby Oasis Shopping Centre in Broadbeach, using components from the dismantled Merry Hill Shopping Centre in the United Kingdom.

Monorails under construction

Physical construction work has started on the following monorails:

• Makkah Monorail, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
• Marconi Express, Bologna, Italy.
• Mumbai Monorail, India.
• Putrajaya Monorail, Malaysia. Construction suspended in 2004.
• Skybus Metro, Margao, Goa, India. 1.6 km test track built, construction of 10.5 km public track suspended.
• São Paulo Metro of Sao Paulo, Brazil has two monorail lines under construction:
  • Line 2 (East Express Monorail), Monorail extension (23 km) to conventional line, under construction since 2009.
  • Line 17, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
• Qom Monorail, Qom, Iran.
• UP Diliman Monorail, Quezon City, Philippines

Proposed monorails

Africa

• Fez, Morocco (Skybus)
• Lagos, Nigeria
• Port Harcourt / Enugu, Nigeria
• Johannesburg, South Africa
• Cape Town, South Africa
• Accra, Ghana [9] [10]
• Alexandria, Egypt
• Onitsha, Nigeria
• Aba and Umuahia, in Apia state.

North America

• Trens Québec High Speed Monorail between Montréal and Québec. Project has been mostly stalled due to lack of political will. The proposed monorail would use the wheel motor developed by HydroQuébec in order to reach speed in excess of 200km/h.
• Sherbourne Conference Center Monorail, Saint Michael, Barbados
• Los Angeles - Las Vegas - Maglev
• Atlanta - Nashville - Maglev
• Washington - Baltimore - Maglev
• As part of the DestiNY USA project in Syracuse, a monorail from Syracuse University to Syracuse Hancock International Airport via downtown and the DestiNY complexes is planned.
• New York - Stony Brook University
• Pittsburgh International Airport - Pittsburgh - Greensburg, Pennsylvania - Maglev
• Wasaga Beach, Ontario, Canada

South America

• Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil, proposed as part of development plan for the FIFA World Cup 2014. The project has been suspended.
• São Paulo, Brazil has a project (Line 16) to build a monorail that will connect Congonhas Airport to Morumbi and Jabaquara districts.
• Vargas, Venezuela. Proposed. The system would be part of state of Vargas new governor's transportation plan. The project would connect 5 cities: Catia La Mar, Maiquetia, La Guaira, Macuto and Caraballeda. The Swiss corporation Intamil presented the proposal. The trains will ride around 80 km/h and will translate about 60.000 passenger per hour.

Asia

• West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong, linking the WKCD with Tsim Sha Tsui
• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, four new lines in addition to the current one: Petaling Jaya monorail, Subang Jaya monorail, Sungei Buloh monorail and Cheras monorail.
• Malacca Monorail, Malacca, Malaysia
• Penang Monorail, Malaysia
• JB Monorail in Johor Bahru, Malaysia
• Lahore, Pakistan
• Karachi, Pakistan
• Islamabad, Pakistan
• Daegu, South Korea
• Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
• Bangkok Monorails, Bangkok, Thailand. Bangkok Metropolitan Administration plan to build eight monorail lines around the city to support downtown area that have a small road network. And the new monorails also support a mainline metro too.
• Kai Tak Monorail and Kowloon Bay Monorail, New Kowloon, Hong Kong
• West Kowloon Cultural District Monorail, Kowloon, Hong Kong
• Dhaka, Bangladesh

India

Main article: Rapid transit in India § Monorail

• Chennai Monorail, Chennai
• Bangalore Monorail, Bangalore
• Delhi Monorail, New Delhi
• Indore Monorail, Indore
• Kolkata Monorail, Kolkata
• Kozhikode Monorail, Kozhikode
• Navi Mumbai Monorail, Navi Mumbai
• Patna Monorail, Patna
• Pune Monorail, Pune
• Thiruvananthapuram Monorail, Thiruvananthapuram

Europe

• Istanbul Monorail, Turkey
• Birmingham Monorail, United Kingdom
• Preston Monorail, United Kingdom
• Uppsala, Sweden (this proposed monorail only carries 1-5 passengers, and needs no drivers).
• Liverpool Monorail, United Kingdom (to be create as part of the Liverpool Waters project with link to John Lennon Airport
• Thessaloniki Monorail, Greece, proposed extension of the Thessaloniki Metro from Mikra Depot to Makedonia International Airport via monorail.
• MCH Skybus, Herning, Denmark - MCH's 2025 vision includes a monorail system between the exhibition centre and the town centre.

Decommissioned or Cancelled Monorails

Asia

Patiala State Monorail System at National Rail Museum, New Delhi

Hong Kong

• Monorail in Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park, Hong Kong
• Monorail in Kai Tak Amusement Park, Hong Kong

India

• Kundala Valley Railway, Munnar, Kerala, India (1890–1908)
• Patiala State Monorail Trainways, Punjab, India (1910–1927)

Indonesia

• Jakarta Monorail, Jakarta. Abandoned by developers in 2008.

Iran

• Tehran Monorail, Tehran. Project cancelled after completion of 3% of construction work.

Japan

• Himeji City Monorail Line, Himeji, Hyōgo, Japan (1966–1974)
• Odakyu Mukogaokayuen Monorail Line, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan (1966–2001)
• Monkey Park Monorail Line, Inuyama, Aichi, Japan (1962–2008)
• Nara Dreamland Monorail, Nara Dreamland, Japan (1961–2006)
• Drean Land Monorail Line, Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan (1966–1967)
• Nagoya City Higashiyama Park Monorail Line, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan (1964–1974)

Malaysia

• Sunway Monorail, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. Served Sunway City, including Sunway Pyramid mall and Sunway Lagoon theme park and the surrounding. Decommissioned and partly dismantled to allow mall expansion.

Singapore

• Sentosa Monorail, Singapore (1982–2005). Replaced by the Sentosa Express monorail.

South Korea

• Wolmi Galaxy Rail, Incheon. Construction completed in 2010, but never opened to public and now scheduled for demolition.

Thailand

• Fashion Island Monorail, Bangkok, Thailand. Short indoor amusement park monorail in Fashion Island shopping center. Decommissioned due to an accident which killed 2 riders.
• Tuk-Tuk Monorail, Bangkok. Half indoor-outdoor monorail tour operated between LeoLand amusement park and the water park. The track is still located in the 6th floor of Central City Bang Na.

Australia

A monorail train at World Expo 88

• Brisbane, Queensland had a Von Roll Type II monorail built for World Expo '88. Four sets, consisting of nine carriages each, operated in a continuous loop throughout the Expo site. A single train set and some track was sold to Sea World, Gold Coast, in 1989 for expansion of its monorail system. The remainder of the sets and track were bought back by Von Roll.

Europe

• Milngavie, near Glasgow, had an experimental high-speed propellor-powered monorail, the Bennie Rail Plane, built during 1929-30 and abandoned during the Great Depression.
• Butlins Skegness Camp, Skegness, United Kingdom (1964–2003) — the first commercial monorail in the UK
• Birmingham Airport had a magnetic levitation train which had to be closed down due it becoming life expired and a lack of spare parts. It was later rebuilt as a more conventional elevated rail system.
• Merry Hill Shopping Centre, Brierley Hill, West Midlands had a Von Roll Mk III Series monorail which opened in June 1991 but only worked for a short while before finally being sold off in 1996. The rolling stock now operates in Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia. Reasons for the closure of this system include a combination of technical problems and safety concerns (especially the difficulty of evacuation), exacerbated by a dispute between the owners of Merry Hill and The Waterfront which at this time were owned separately.
• Seville Expo '92
• France has two abandoned test tracks for the Aérotrain, which can be considered monorails. One is between Limours and Gometz-la-Ville and the other between Saran and Artenay. France also had a suspended monorail the SAFEGE that featured in the film Fahrenheit 451.
• Russia had one suspended monorail build in 1899 at a leisure park. A horse-pulled monorail was already been built in 1820 in Myachkove near Moscow.

North America

• Busch Gardens Tampa Bay also had a monorail, the Veldt Monorail. It shut down in 1999 due to upkeep cost.
• Busch Gardens Williamsburg had a monorail, Eagle One, that connected the theme park with the nearby Anheuser-Busch brewery. Park visitors could tour the brewery and return via monorail. The setup lost money; the tours were discontinued and Eagle One dismantled in the 1990s.
• Carowinds operated the Carowinds Monorail from 1973 through 1994.
• Expo 86 in Vancouver, British Columbia had a monorail that was moved to Alton Towers in the United Kingdom.
• Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn, Michigan (outside of Detroit) had a shuttle monorail that connected to the Dearborn Hyatt Regency Hotel to the Fairlane shopping mall.
• Geauga Lake operated a monorail from 1969-2006, named the Bel-Aire Express
• Jetrail, a suspended monorail, was the world's first fully automated monorail system during operation at Dallas Love Field (1969–1974)
• The Trailblazer suspended monorail ran from October 1956 until 1964 at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas. The single monorail car was used in Houston for a demonstration prior to its relocation to the State Fair of Texas.
• Kings Dominion near Richmond, Virginia had a monorail as the conveyance for visitors to its Lion Country Safari attraction, which was removed after the 1993 season.
• The Minirail at Expo 67 in Montreal, which joined Pleasure Beach Blackpool in purchasing rail and rolling stock from the monorail system at the 1964 Lausanne exposition, along with new rail cars from the manufacturer.
• State Fair of Oklahoma Monorail, Oklahoma City (1964–2005)
• The Ontario Southern Railway operated one of the earliest North American monorails between the amusement park at Crystal Beach, Ontario and the main line railway station (1896–1898)
• The Pelham Park and City Island Railroad in the Bronx, New York, New York operated a short-lived monorail system in 1910. It ceased operation after an accident.
• The Philadelphia Zoo had a monorail in the 1970s and 1980s, but was discontinued in the 1990s.
• Toronto Zoo Domain Ride, Toronto (1976–1994)
• Miami Seaquarium Spacerail, Miami Seaquarium (1963–1991)
• The Wgasa Bush Line at the San Diego Wild Animal Park near Escondido, California was shut down in March 2007. It was a five mile (eight km) long, one hour tour around the large area devoted to animal environments.
• Flushing Meadow Park New York, New York had a monorail during the 1964 New York World's Fair
• Jungle Jim's International Grocery Store near Cincinnati, Ohio maintained a monorail circulator purchased from Kings Island Theme Park. However, plans are in motion to bring the monorail back online in the future to shuttle people from the grocery store's hotel to the store.
• Six Flags Magic Mountain operated a monorail since the park's opening in 1971 and shut down several years ago due to lack of parts.
• Fairplex operated a monorail built by the American Crane and Hoist company. The middle 90s saw a new station and new cars built by Arrow Dynamics. The new cars were far heavier than the original and caused it to last only a couple of years more until it was dismantled. Today, very little to no traces exist of it.
• Santa's Village in Skyforest had another American Crane and Hoist monorail that shut down when the park went defunct.
• The Hotchkiss Bicycle Railroad ran from Smithville to Mount Holly, New Jersey from 1892 to 1897

South America

• Brazil had a monorail in Rio de Janeiro that linked the large Barra Shopping mall to its parking lot. After its destruction, only one part of the track and the platform still remain in the parking lot (second floor, behind the Fnac dome).

External links

• [11] The Monorail Society
• [12] Light Rail Transit Association fact sheet on Monorails.