Asuspension railway is a form ofelevatedmonorail in which the vehicle is suspended from a fixed track (as opposed to a cable used inaerial tramways), which is built above streets, waterways, or existing railway track.
The British engineerHenry Robinson Palmer (1795–1844) filed a patent application for a horse-drawn suspended single-rail system in 1821, and constructed a demonstration atWoolwich Arsenal, in England soon afterwards.[1]
German industrial pioneer, thinker and politicianFriedrich Harkort built a demonstration track of Palmer's system in 1826, in Elberfeld, Germany, at the time commercial centre of the early industrial areaWupper Valley. The steelmill owner had the vision of a coal-carrier railway between Wupper Valley and the nearby coal-mining region ofRuhr, which would connect his own factories in Elberfeld and Deilbachtal. Due to protests from mill owners that were not integrated along the line and from the transporting branch,[clarification needed] this idea could not be executed.[2]
The first suspended railway was opened atCheshunt, England, United Kingdom on 25 June 1825, using Palmer's patent. It was built to carry bricks, but as an opening stunt it carried passengers.[1][3]
A work,Description of the suspension railway invented by Maxwell Dick: with engravings By Maxwell Dick, published inIrvine, Scotland, in 1830, refers to anaerial tramway/cable car system.[4]
The Enos Electric Railway, an electric-powered monorail with wagons suspended from an elevated frame of open steelwork, was demonstrated in the grounds of theDaft Electric Company inGreenville, New Jersey, in 1886. It was built out of lightweight steel construction and worked well, but was never expanded.[5][6] In July 1888 a 1.2 mi test track made of wood with a maximum incline of 1:14 and a minimum radius of 12 yards was opened in South Park nearSaint Paul, Minnesota. It was planned to build a 25 mi double tracked line from St. Paul toMinneapolis within two years by costs of 2.9 million USD per mile (current purchasing power).[7]
The design of the rail-frame appears to have influencedEugen Langen, as hisWuppertal Schwebebahn framing bears a remarkable likeness to the Enos construction.[citation needed]
In March 1895, Russian engineer Ippolit Romanov (originally fromTbilisi, Georgia) built a prototype of an electric monorail inOdessa, modern-day Ukraine. In 1897, he presented a functional model of his monorail at the meeting of Russian technological society. This idea was approved by the society, and an experimental electric monorail was built in 1899. In 1900, Empress Maria Fedorovna approved the building of an 0.2 kilometres (0.12 mi) long electric monorail in Gatchina. The monorail was tested on 25 June 1900. The monorail carriage could be loaded with up to 25 kilograms (55 lb) and moved at a speed of 15 kilometres per hour (9.3 mph).
During the 1880s the German businessman and engineerEugen Langen experimented in his Cologne sugar factory with a low one-track suspension railway system for the transportation of raw materials.[8] He was a business partner ofNicolaus Otto, the inventor of theinternal-combustion engine, and probably knew the Palmer Railway. In the nearby expanding industrial zone of Wupper Valley, entrepreneurs and governors were looking for a modern urban transportation system. A cooperation between politicians and businessmen from the Barmen-Elberfeld industrial area around 1890 led to the implementation of an electric powered elevated railway system from the factory of Otto and Langen, nowDeutz. The official name wasAnlage einer elektrischen Hochbahn (Schwebebahn), System Eugen Langen Köln orElectrical Elevated Railroad ("Floating tram") Installation, System Eugen Langen Cologne.[9] The installation and stations were built by three companies, among them the company of Friedrich Harkort.
In 1901 the first track of theWuppertal Schwebebahn opened, and still runs today. In 1903 it was extended to the final length of 13.3 kilometres (8.3 mi). This system is still in operation as a means of public transport, moving over 20 million passengers each year.
Langen also designed theDresden Suspension Railway, a short funicular railway using the same suspended monorail technology, which opened in 1901 and is still in operation.
A unique demonstration electrically poweredsuspension line was built by the Scottish engineer George Bennie nearGlasgow. Two propellers delivered 240 horsepower (180 kW) in a short burst for acceleration to the cruise speed of 160 km/h.[3] It was not a true monorail as it used an overhead running rail and a guide rail below.
In 1947, Lucien Chadenson became interested in the Bennie Railplane experimental line, and theParis Metro Route 11, which uses rubber tyres. A test track operated inChateauneuf, south of Paris from 1958, but attracted no further interest in France. However, the Japanese have built two successfulSAFEGE lines, the Siemens Company of Germany has developed a smaller scale system similar to the SAFEGE Monorail. Aerorail of Texas and Sky Train of Florida were promoting steel-wheel versions of SAFEGE as well but both appear to have ceased trading without having installed a system. Japan would later adopt the ALWEG and SAFEGE monorail systems including theShonan Monorail and build more transit monorails than any other country in the world.[3]
In 1956Monorail, Incorporated built a short test track of their suspended system at Arrowhead Park in Houston, Texas. The single 55 seat car was called "Trailblazer". Its promoters claimed it could reach speeds of 160 km but no installations were ever built. The system was unusual because the driver's position was on top of the bogies, not in the same cabin as the passengers. After eight months of testing, the track was dismantled and rebuilt at the Texas State fairgrounds where it ran until 1964[10][11]
TheUeno Zoo Monorail is a 0.3 km (0.19 mi) long suspended monorail operated by theTokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation (Toei). It is similar to theWuppertal Schwebebahn, but has rubber tires rather than steel wheels.[12] The line began operating on 17 December 1958. After 60 years of operation service was suspended on 31 October 2019, with the operator citing the high costs of replacing the aging trains.
In the 1960s in the United States a large number of suspended monorails systems were opened but none were for transit. These included 1962 at the LA County Fair (closed late 1990s),[13] 1964–1965 at theNew York World's Fair,[14] in 1964 at Houston International Airport (closed 1966)[11] and in 1966 at two Busch Gardens parks at Van Nuys in California (closed 1979),[15] Tampa in Florida (closed 1999).[16]
At the end of the decade, in 1969, a prototype test track of track of the VeroMonocabpersonal rapid transit was built in Texas. This design was sold to and developed by Rohr, Inc. as theROMAG system with a new test track built in California.
Based on another new design using small capacity cars, theJetrail system opened in 1970 atDallas Love Field Airport taking passengers from a carpark to the terminal. It closed in 1974 whenBraniff International Airways moved most of its operations to another airport.[citation needed]
Based on the SAFEGE design, theShonan Monorail opened in 1970 inKamakura, Japan—part of the Greater Tokyo area. It continues in operation today.[citation needed]
TheChiba Urban Monorail, also in Japan, is the world's largest suspension railway; it is owned and operated by Chiba Urban Monorail Co. Ltd, established in 1979, and the monorail began service in 1988.[citation needed]
Two furtherH-Bahn suspension railways were built in Germany in 1975, atDortmund University campus andDüsseldorf airport. TheMemphis Suspension Railway was opened in the United States in 1982.[citation needed]
TheSkybus Metro was a prototype suspended railway inGoa, India. The system consisted of an elevated track with the cars suspended below the track, like the Wuppertal Schwebebahn or H-Bahn systems in Germany. A 1.6-kilometre (0.99 mi) test track in Margao, Goa started trials in 2004, but on 25 September, one employee was killed and three injured in an accident.[17] No progress was made after the accident.[18] In 2013, the metro was dismantled.[19][20]
Four new SAFEGE style suspended railway prototypes, with test tracks and vehicles, have been developed since 2010. In China three have been created, byCRRC Qingdao Sifang in Qingdao,[21][22] byChina Railway Science and Industry Group in Wuhan[23] and by Zhongtang Air Rail Technology in Chengdu.[24] A SAFEGE based test line was also constructed in Glukhovo in theKrasnogorsk District, Russia in 2016.[25] As of 2025 just one new system inWuhan has been completed in 2023, another short one began construction in 2020 inEnshi City China.[26] There are a number of other projects have been considered in both China and Russia.[citation needed]
 |
| Name | Location | Country | Service | Started operations | Status | Technology | Track length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schwebebahn | Wuppertal | Germany | Public | 1901 | Operating | Eugen Langen design | 13.3 km (8.3 mi) |
| Schwebebahn | Dresden | Germany | Public | 1901 | Operating | Eugen Langen design | 0.274 km (0.170 mi) |
| Ueno Zoo Monorail | Ueno Zoo,Taitō, Tokyo | Japan | Public | 1957 | Not in service since 2019 Officially closed in 2024, currently being dismantled | Eugen Langen design | 0.3 km (0.19 mi) |
| Higashiyama Park Monorail [ja] | Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya | Japan | Public | 1964 | Dismantled in 1975[27][28] | SAFEGE | 0.5 km (0.31 mi) |
| Shonan Monorail | Kanagawa Prefecture | Japan | Public | 1970 | Operating | SAFEGE | 6.6 km (4.1 mi) |
| H-Bahn | TU Dortmund | Germany | Public | 1984 | Operating | SAFEGE-derivative SiemensSIPEM | 3.16 km (1.96 mi) |
| Memphis Suspension Railway | Mud Island, Memphis | United States | Public | 1982 | Not in service since 2018 | Eugen Langen-derivative | 1,700 feet (520 m) |
| Chiba Urban Monorail | Chiba | Japan | Public | 1988 | Operating | SAFEGE | 15.2 km (9.4 mi) |
| Sky train | Düsseldorf Airport | Germany | Public | 2002 | Operating | SAFEGE-derivative SiemensSIPEM | 2.5 km (1.6 mi) |
| Skybus Metro | Margao, Goa | India | Public1 | Never | Dismantled in 2013 | Rajaram/KRCL design | 1.6 km (0.99 mi) |
| Strela Monorail | Glukhovo nearKrasnogorsk | Russia | Test track | 2016 | Abandoned | SAFEGE-derivative, STRELA | 0.9 km (0.56 mi) |
| SkyTrain | Chengdu | China | Test track | 2021 | Operating | SAFEGE-derivative Zhongtang Air Rail Technology | 1.2 km (0.75 mi) |
| Red Rail | Xingguo | China | Test track | 2022 | Operating | SAFEGE-derivative | 0.8 km (0.50 mi) |
| Optics Valley Suspended Monorail | Wuhan | China | Public | 2023 | Operating | SAFEGE-derivative | 10.5 km (6.5 mi) |
| Qingyunya Sightseeing Little Train Project | Xiajiaba nearEnshi | China | Public | ? | Under construction[29] | SAFEGE-derivative | 2.1 km (1.3 mi) |
Note 1: Skybus Metro used the track as a test track, but it was planned to become part of the public line.
Aside from a multitude of indoor uses in factories, suspended railways are also used for number of outdoor applications other than passenger transportation.
In the 1920s thePort of Hamburg used a petrol-powered, suspended monorail to transport luggage and freight from ocean-going vessels to a passenger depot.[30]
Very small and lightweight systems have been used widely on farms to transport crops such as bananas.[31][32]
In the mining industry suspended monorails have been used because they can descend and climb steep tunnels using rack and pinion drive. This significantly reduces cost and length of tunnels, by up to 60% in some cases; they otherwise must be at gentle gradients to suit road vehicles or conventional railways.[33][34]
A suspended monorail capable of carrying fully loaded 20 foot (6m) and 40 foot (12m) containers has been under construction since 2020 at thePort of Qingdao, the first phase of which was put into operation in 2021.[35][36][needs update]
Media related toSuspended rail transport at Wikimedia Commons