Light Rail Vehicles - LRT, ICTS, Monorail, and more

[ijmorlan]

Sorry, too many years on the defensive with all the monorail haters out there (it's exhausting).  Every transit technology has advantages and disadvantages.  Jamincan's outlined them perfectly.  I've been following the Rennes ligne b project for years because it's exciting to me; I think the vehicles are very attractive, and I like rubber tires.

Thanks, and no problem. His points do make some sense. I very much appreciate the photos and will definitely have to ride the system if I visit some day. I wouldn’t call myself a monorail fan exactly, but I’m also far from being a hater. My opinion of the appropriateness of monorail has improved in recent years with the large installations going in place like Malaysia — the fact that they are building large systems make it look less like a gimmick and more like serious transportation. If I remember correctly, in 2011 if our system had been built as monorail it would have been the 2nd longest in the world, and all the way to Cambridge would have made it the longest. I don’t believe that’t the case any more. People are funny about overhead structures though — I’ve seen “view obstruction” given as a significant downside of monorail. I mean, OK, I guess there is some overhead structure, but as you’ve pointed out, it’s really quite slim compared to the alternatives.