Why The Monorail Keeps Failing - Cheddar Explains

in this 1993 episode of the simpsons a fast-talking salesman showcased the futuristic wonders of the monorail to the city of springfield i give you the springfield monorail but marge picked up on the scam how much did you see nothing incriminating the monorails he coveted left are the cities in shambles looking back it's easy to see how springfield residents were so easily duped into the monorail concept not only does it offer a better view than your underground subway but monorails require minimal ground space and are usually less expensive to build than a comparable elevator rail line but in america today you'll find that most monorails are only in airports and at disney world some cities in asia use them as part of their public transit system but there are still only 75 in operation worldwide so there you have what many experts say is the train of the future swift and sure it is but one word of caution please do not get off between stations the monorail was a staple of the futuristic depiction of modern transit but it never truly got off the ground what happened [Music] the monorail as its name implies runs on a single rail and is mainly used for passenger transport its most common form is what we see at disney world where it runs on an elevated track by itself despite being a symbol of maternity the concept has been around for a while in fact the first monorail prototype was built in russia in 1820 by yvonne kirilovich ilmanov this primitive monorail consisted of a carriage with wheels on a center rail drawn by horses the first half of the 20th century saw all sorts of proposed designs for the monorail in the us including a 1930 proposal for new york city as a replacement for elevated lines but like most monorail proposals it was never built american cities instead chose to test the types of light rail transit instead of the unproven monorail but the novelty of the monorail is what was so enticing to walt disney in the mid-1950s disney and his wife lillian were on vacation in cologne germany when a hanging monorail swooshed by overhead the wuppertal monorail is one of the first of its kind beginning trips in 1901 but to walt disney it was cutting edge it was the perfect form of transport for his disneyland park and so in 1959 the disneyland monorail became the first daily operating monorail system in the us today you can find a monorail system in both disneyland and his new world the walt disney world monorail carries about 150 000 guests per day it's beloved by visitors and still looks modern 60 years later but the system is more like a ride and was not built with efficiency in mind part of the reason monorails have been less successful is because the technology tends to build like walt disney through the swamps of orlando to build it on pylons above grade as a sort of isolated system and that separates it from a lot of other modes they get structured as you know these you know shiny for-profit enterprises that will pay back their investors etc etc and really you know really it needs to be you know integrated with other modes it actually needs to go places people want to go it needs to have a critical mass around it there it's not a question of the monorail technology itself failing but more the notion of like it was a monorail to nowhere however there are functioning monorails in other parts of the world most can be found in asian mega cities like chongqing shanghai tokyo and mumbai the tokyo monorail has over 300 000 daily riders and the chongqing rail transit with 900 000 reason that asian mega cities i think tend to do better with the monorail is mainly because they have such a crunch of space because their cities are so packed with people so dense with buildings traffic stuff like that they kind of build vertically right so if you can't build out any more because of sprawl you can build up they also have people who are more interested and willing to take public transportation much more so than than in the us and while monorails have seen success in some parts of the world there are just as many if not more instances of failure mumbai india's first monorail opened in 2014 to a disappointing turnout of just only seventeen thousand daily riders the initial projection estimated up to three hundred thousand per day the melaka monorail in malacca malaysia originally opened in 2010 but hours after opening the monorail ground to a halt stranding 20 passengers inside when it reopened in december 2017 a local newspaper criticized the monorail and use of funding this monorail moves at 20 kilometers per hour it's definitely not a mode of transportation that the locals can opt for why would they pay so much to ride on a monorail that travels to nowhere critics told the paper the monorail can be a functional form of transit but its construction is often deterred by these three main issues one the monorail has trouble changing tracks track crossovers are integral to train operations but monorail trains wrap themselves around the track which makes track crossovers expensive to build and slow to operate two it can get expensive take the las vegas monorail for example the 650 million 3.9 mile track was first opened in 2004 and runs parallel to the strip during its initial pitch promoters anticipated upwards of 20 million riders a year the train was built to carry 222 people but only had 4.9 million rides taken in 2016. according to the city's visitor bureau nearly 43 million people visited las vegas in 2016 and the city's population runs at about 632 thousand you do the math and in 2010 the las vegas monorail company filed for bankruptcy in effect the monorail is not popular because it's so expensive and it's so expensive because it's not popular you have to think of how few monorails are in the world and as a consequence of that how much more expensive parts trains the rails themselves like how much more expensive things are when they're scarcer to purchase bombardier which is like a major train maker or like alstom which is an another major train maker based in europe like they they're not like pumping out monorail cars and they're a specialized car but they do make two track cars all the time so you can get a better price for buying those types of trains and finally three it comes down to urban design the us is designed more is an urban sprawl which creates endless suburbs which results in people being dependent on automobiles rather than public transportation like buses subways or light rail lines the u.s public transportation consistently has lower ridership fewer service hours and longer wait times between trains compared to wealthy european and asian countries anything that gets more people using public transit in the us is really critical but the thing with converting people into transit users it's not just making it available you have to also do a lot of education you have to do a lot of work to inform people about how transit works how it will make their lives easier how it will make their lives more affordable and that takes a lot of political will from cities and a lot of cities don't have the political will to do that and regardless of where they're built a monorail can be quite disruptive to everyday city life admittedly monorails are you know much quieter you know than the elves of new york city subway system but i think you know that the unintended consequences can be the same in that they do you know this they can be disruptive to street life you know from a design perspective an elevated rail line yes it's efficient in that it's above the traffic right but now you've taken the inhabitants of a city and put them above where the activity is and that's on the street and that's where the lifeblood of cities are that's you know those are our arteries through our economy and for you know our social life being human beings the monorail system has had cases of success in cities across the world but most of america's monorails remain in theme parks and airports and while their nostalgia may bring people back to their childhood their novelty hasn't resulted in the implementation of functional system in our cities disney's vision for the future might take a bit longer than he thought thanks for watching do you think monorails are the way of the future comment below if you like this video make sure to check out our channel subscribe

Channel: Cheddar

Views: 693,421

Rating: 4.8160276 out of 5

Keywords: Cheddar, cheddar explains, cheddar explores, explainer, monorail, disney world monorail, disneyland monorail, trains, public transit, transit, transportation, urban design, hyperloop, vegas monorail, tokyo monorail, mumbai monorail, monorail fail, subway, railroad, walt disney, rail, infrastructure, design, urban planning, city planning, cities, skylines, city, osaka monorail, commuting, railway

Id: cN-z0fGraDw

Length: 8min 54sec (534 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 01 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/InfiNorth]

This video is pretty mediocre... like most of Cheddar's videos. Poorly researched, very little information in a lot of words.

[u/Brandino144]

*...in the US

As mentioned in the video, the Wuppertal Schwebebahn is still going strong and so are some other monorail systems around the world.

Edit: As mentioned below, there have recently been some issues with the rolling stock, but for a 119 year old system ridership is doing well when it is operating.

[u/Psirocking]

The simpsons episode killed any chance of monorails getting funded in the USA. I’m deadass serious about that take lol

[u/aj2000gm]

Chongqing, São Paulo, Bangkok, Mumbai, Daegu, Kuala Lumpur, etc. Monorails are used well some places. Geography seems to be the most compelling reason to use them well as a mass transit system vs heavy rail, but not just that.

Note in the geographical side: LA may see mass monorail transit on the Sepulveda Pass Corridor because of the difficult terrain. We shall see.

[u/Megaman03]

It doesn’t seem to be failing in Bangkok. Right now two monorail lines are under construction (Pink, Yellow) and a third (Brown) is under planning.

Despite covering the Melaka Monorail, they failed to mention the current operating KL Monorail which carried 34,345 passengers a day last year. Another interesting failed monorail project they could’ve covered is the Putrajaya Monorail which was cancelled in 2004. A tunnel and suspension bridge purpose built for the monorail still sit abandoned, Putrajaya Sentral station still has the monorail tracks for the planned monorail station and attempts to revitalise the project have since been largely unsuccessful.

[u/GlowingGreenie]

The dismal experience of the monorail should be instructive to developing transportation options touting the supposed profitability which will be integral to the financing and construction of that mode. Monorails promised lower capital costs than even the supposed 'revolutionary' low cost touted by advocates of developing modes. As with advocates for emerging modes, supporters of monorails pointed to the possibility of profitable operation. The abject failure to achieve these goals in the face of heavily subsidized automobile infrastructure provides a cautionary tale for developers of mass transit systems.

[u/hamburgermenu]

Chongqing y’all

[u/VideoSteve]

Planned obsolescence

[u/Whisky_Delta]

But Main Street’s still all cracked and broken!