The Sad Fate Of Gadgetbahnen
Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.
Build a more expensive and complicated transit system and politicians, bureaucrats, and academics will fall all over themselves beating a path to your door; so is the sad story of proprietary transit systems.
What many people, who advocated for unconventional or proprietary transit systems do not tell you is that many fail because they cost too much to operate or maintain and/or embarrassingly did not attract the ridership as promised.
The allure of a “different”Ai?? transit system is one of political, bureaucratic, and academic prestige, where it is perceived that to have something different and more expensive transit system operating in “our” city is better than transit systems in “their” city.
Sometimes it just not works out that way.
The Short Life of the Abandoned Sydney Monorail
In Abandoned & Urbex / By Tom /
(Image: Hpeterswald; defunct steel guide way on the abandoned Sydney Monorail)
Monorail systems are staples of amusement parks and rapid transit between airport terminals. Along with suspension railways, they can also be found weaving their way through the streets and blocks of major cities. The single rail transportation system, which often straddles an elevated guide way, can trace its roots back to 1820s Russia. But as our recent article coveringAi??11 Abandoned Monorails, Suspension Railways, Railplanes & Hovertrains suggests, their popularity has been mixed. One recent example is the abandoned Sydney Monorail in Australiaai??i??s most populous city.
I do really miss the old monorail at the Metro Toronto Zoo “The Animal Domain Ride”, I know part of the reason why the zoo abandoned the monorail was that the company which was the sole source of spare parts for their unique vehicle, went bankrupt in the early 90’s. The “Zoomobile” that replaced it just doesn’t have the same charm.