Every so often we are confronted with wonderful and mysterious transportation devices (see Chinese Tunnel Bus). Today, we happen to come across the Sistema Monorail Con Funiculares (or the Monorail System With Funiculars) — a conceptual transit system designed by ECOLVIAS from Medellin, Colombia.
There’s not much information about this technology but it does make me wonder what type of advantages/disadvantages one might discover if you fuse monorail technology with cable cars. Perhaps it offers greater stability, capacity and/or speeds? Or maybe it’s as simple as being able to travel in style onboard teardrop-shaped cabins. Without any additional details it’s really anybody’s guess at this time.
But perhaps our engineer readers have a better idea and could provide us with your thoughts!
Big thanks goes out to Guenther for the link.
11 Comments
And its a miracle, why the wheels are UNDER the rope…
I believe, it is the same like an aerobus.
http://www.aerobus.com/home.html.
Only old wine in new bottles.
Or like: http://ecoprt.com/
@ Guenther: I suppose you’re right. It does remind me the Aerobus…seemed like a decent concept but too bad there has been no progress.
@ Sam: Interesting link. Not sure what differences an EcoPRT has vs PRT…
Maybe the big wheels under the guidway are intended for propulsion.
Please show a bit more respect to Aerobus.
It was a great invention unfortunately it was way ahead of its time. Backed by only a small company and without a transit installation in Switzerland its home country it had no chance on the market.
Nevertheless Aerobus transported 2.5 million passengers in Mannheim, Germany. In 1975. So please do not compare it with any concepts that only exist in some animations.,, not even scale models not to speak from full scale prototype installation. Aerobus had a prototype installation with floating pylon on the upper lake of Zurich. AFAIK that is still an unique feaster to this day.
Aerobus was designed by Gerhard Mueller Dietlikon who also invented the detachable chairlift and made many contributions in the development of gondolas.
The basic advantages of a monorail respect a Gondola is the possibility of curves and bends, and the feasibility of many stops and independent control of vehicles.
This animation though, lacks depth and is more a cartoon than an explanation of a working system.
Monorails capables of similar performances – windy curves and ramps and descents exists and are in common use in nearly all underground mines.
Aerobus had a very interesting story, and a very serious technologic base.
@ Matthias: I hope it wasn’t me that was being disrespectful to the Aerobus. In fact, one of the reasons why I first studied gondolas was because of the Aerobus. Unfortunately, it was ridiculed quite heavily during my university years in our urban planning class. I could be wrong but you seem to have much knowledge about the Aerobus. I google’d Gerhard Mueller Dietlikon and really amazed by his achievements and contributions to ropeways. I’d really love to learn more about the Aerobus and Gerhard if you have more information.
@ GiorgioXT: Do you know what happened to the Aerobus technological base and why the proposed systems all failed to materialize? I remember sending an email way back to the manufacturers but never got a response.
And there is another existing system as a Hybrid-Monorail-funicular-cable car, a mixture of a monorail line and a cable liner: Skyrail Midorizaka Line in Japan, described at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyrail_Midorizaka_Line). At the station moved by a linear motor. But this system needs too much iron and the costs must be higher than of a cable-car.
Another Monorail from Doppelmayr: The Monorack “ability to cope with any terrain”. http://www.doppelmayr.com/en/products/monorack/