Section 7: Monorail Transportation:

Monorail, distinct from subways, light rails, and trams, uses a single track to support, stabilize, and guide vehicles. Vehicles either straddle (cross-seated) or hang below the track.

Cross-seated monorails feature prestressed reinforced concrete beams with steel tracks, composed of beams, pillars (T, inverted L, or gate types), and switches. Vehicles, typically electric trains in four, six, or eight-car formations, use two-axle bogies with nitrogen-filled rubber wheels (16 per train) for running, guiding, and stabilizing.

Hanging monorails suspend vehicles' wheels above the carriage, supported by overhead tracks, driven by traction motors.

Advantages include simplicity, speed, ground traffic independence, minimal space occupation, smooth operation, low cost (1/3-1/4 of subways), easy maintenance, strong adaptability to geography, minimal ground area usage, high elevation (7-19m), ability to utilize median strips, strong climbing ability (100m radius curves, 60‰ slopes), suitability for urban-satellite city travel, airport/port connections, and tourist routes.

Disadvantages include higher energy consumption (15% less than buses but 50% more than subways) and rescue difficulties due to elevated locations. However, safety measures and its significant advantages outweigh these issues.