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Monorails...Why the heck not??

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  • Monorails...Why the heck not??

    50 years ago, Disney set up an operating monorail system around Disneyland. We have the technology. So why not use it? Nothing else seems to be working.

    For over a decade, Los Angeles has been trying to create a viable public transit system...that is, better than the city bus.

    Part of our system is a hugely expensive subway system. At one point, buildings along Hollywood Boulevard started collapsing as the subway was dug underneath. The westward leg is barred by federal law from going any farther because of methane deposits.

    There are grossly ugly light-rail lines (trolleys): the blue line to Long Beach, the Green Line, the Gold Line to Pasadena. Residents hate them because they're noisy. Cars try to beat them to the crossings...and sometimes lose.

    We just opened up the Orange Line, a special street dedicated to a high-speed bus that races across the San Fernando Valley. My thought was that would work until some law-abiding citizen decided he wasn't going to be so law-abiding and try sneaking down the road or some intelligent kid decided to jettison his intelligence. There were two major accidents the first week it was opened.

    And none of these routes goes to the airport, to Dodger Stadium, to the Collisium, to the Rose Bowl, to the Forum or to the beach (don't want to lose that parking revenue ).

    So what's wrong with monorails?? We have the technology. We already have the right of ways (e.g. the area above the streets). They're nifty looking , they're clean, they're quiet, they're fast, and they go above the traffic so the only accidents will be with low flying pigeons.

    Can anyone give me insight as to why more monorail systems aren't working throughout the world...or even here in LA, for that matter?

  • #2
    /me points to that Simpsons episode.
    “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
    - John 13:34-35 (NRSV)

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    • #3
      Monorails are OK for limited lines, but as a replacement for other modes, they are probably not cost effective nor practical.
      If you don't like reality, change it! me
      "Oh no! I am bested!" Drake
      "it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong" Voltaire
      "Patriotism is a pernecious, psychopathic form of idiocy" George Bernard Shaw

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      • #4
        Monorail! Monorail! Monorail! Monorail!
        Tutto nel mondo è burla

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Boris Godunov
          Monorail! Monorail! Monorail! Monorail!



          To us, it is the BEAST.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Boris Godunov
            Monorail! Monorail! Monorail! Monorail!
            Mono... D'OH!

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            • #7
              Originally posted by GePap
              Monorails are OK for limited lines, but as a replacement for other modes, they are probably not cost effective nor practical.
              What makes you conclude they are probably not cost effective or practical? They're certainly going to be a lot cheaper to build that subways. And I see nothing which would make them especially expensive to operate.


              BTW: If you have one monorail line running off in one direction and a second running off in a different direction, then you have monorails.

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              • #8
                Trolleys aren't that ugly, IMO. Or at least, they're cheap enough to be tolerable.
                I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

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                • #9
                  ZK, you might be interested in this discussion on the matter.

                  Another one: What are the prospects for a three-tiered rail transit system in the U.S.?

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                  • #10
                    Why, thank you JohnT. And...uh...sorry for that "Texas" crack in the other thread.

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                    • #11
                      What crack in what other thread?

                      BTW, I'm from Tennessee. You can crack on Texas all you like.

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                      • #12
                        Zkrib,

                        That methane restriction is going to get lifted here pretty soon.
                        We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. - Abraham Lincoln

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                        • #13
                          JohnT That explains your claim to civilization.

                          That was a really great link!

                          The clear drawbacks, it seems, are the difficulties in track switches (and with that, in changing the number of cars per train to accommodate rush hour), the non-standardization of track sizes (and with that, higher production costs), the difficulty in evacating trains when problems occur and the added expense caused by all stations having to be elevated.

                          Some people claim they are noisy, but it's argued that rubberized wheels solve that problem.

                          With the possible exception of the switching problem, I'm still of the opinion that a monorail is preferable to light-rail and subways.

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Ted Striker
                            Zkrib,

                            That methane restriction is going to get lifted here pretty soon.
                            Yeah. I heard that Beverly Hill's frustration with trying to drive down the Wilshire Corridor is beginning to outweigh its fear that "darkies" will invade its sacred territory.

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                            • #15
                              you guys thinking about monorails should look to Las Vegas.

                              We needed 50,000 riders a month in order to break even. Right now we have 30,000 riders a month.

                              'nuff said.

                              not to mention it's ugly and takes up our skyline.

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