Sydney Monorail

The Sydney Monorail ( originally under the name TNT Harbour Link, later Metro Monorail ) was a monorail in the Australian city of Sydney, from 21 July 1988 to 30 June 2013 reversed. In favor of the establishment of the Sydney International Convention, Exhibition and Entertainment Precinct it is dismantled.

History

The idea was born at the beginning of the 80s of last century, when it came to the Darling Harbour - to revive - at that time an industrial wasteland in the west of the city center. The project was controversial, both as to its effect in the urban landscape as well as to its effectiveness as a vehicle of public transport. The aim was to take the train on the occasion of the celebrations for the 200th anniversary of the seizure of Australia by the United Kingdom on 26 January 1988. The date could not be maintained and the train started its operations only on 21 July 1988.

There were continuous protests by local residents, perverted the monorail partly directly via their houses. As a further point of criticism has been said that the Monorail is not linked to the rest of the transport system of the city. In March 2012, was finally announced that the monorail is closed and the circuit will be broken down in the following years. The last day of operation was June 30, 2013.

Route

The train departed from the city center and connected on a 3.5 km long ring route the Central Business District with the Darling Harbour and Chinatown. There were eight stations. A train took twelve minutes for a round trip. The line was always driven on only counterclockwise.

The roadway consisted of a steel beam with a width of 940 mm, which was mounted at a height of at least 5.5 m on columns spaced 20 to 40 m. The curve radius of the track was extremely small at 20 m. The maximum slope was in the ascent 44 ‰, 65 ‰ in the downhill. The only " points " of the plant, there were at the exit to and operation work between stations Convention and Paddy's Markets. It was track pieces that were moved at an angle of 90 degrees to the direction of travel, ie to transfer tables. Then a train was provided for the operation, should be turned off when he drive into the depot or.

It was a monorail type III Von Roll. A railcar was - because of the tight curve radii - from seven very short car, was 32.12 m long, 2.06 m wide, 2.06 m high and weighed 35 tons. The cars were single cabins without connecting doors between them. A train could carry up to 170 people (56 seats). The difference between sitting and standing areas can be explained by the fact that the railway was originally conceived as a public transport modes and put back only short distances. The vehicles rolled on rubber wheels and drove in normal operation automatically, but also could be controlled by hand. At the end of the train, a simplified cab was installed that allowed only emergency or shunting.

Each train was powered by six engines with 37 kW. The power was fed via a side of the track -mounted track. The operating voltage was 525 V AC. When power failure an emergency generator was ready to make the trains run to the next station can.

The maximum speed of the trains was 33 km / h There were six trains, of which, however, as a rule two or three are simultaneously used. In theory, about 5000 people can be transported per hour.

Operation

The management was carried out by Veolia Transportation on behalf of Metro Transport Sydney, which is also the Metro Light Rail ( a light rail ) in Sydney operates. At the stop Convention could be switched.

The system was designed so that it could be controlled by a single dispatcher. This sat in the depot.

Significance for the traffic

The web was used by half the number of passengers, estimated as in their planning. This was mainly due to its not exactly cheap with other transport link, the round course that allowed passengers who want to achieve a certain goal only short distances for the use and the fact that the network card for public transport from Sydney did not apply where: A separate ticket was required. The train was therefore primarily a tourist attraction and had moreover virtually no importance for the transport in Sydney. Thus, the originally longer travel times from Monday to Thursday were reduced to 7:00-22:00 clock, on the remaining days on 8:00-22:00 clock. Every day around 30,000 passengers were transported.