STRADDLE-TYPE MONORAIL'S CHARACTERS AND ITS APPLICATION IN CHINA

Traffic congestion and exhaust fumes in cities are annoying and stubborn problems. Developing rail transportation system is an effective solution to environmental and crowding problems, and it is now drawing increasing attention of the planners. Comparing with other light railway systems, monorail have such advantages as: low construction and maintain cost, environmental and geographical friendly and higher efficient, so it was the fist choice of mountain city such as Chongqing, China. The paper discusses the transport and technical characters of monorail at first, and then introduces the monorail in Chongqing. The objective of the paper is also to serve as a reference to practitioners who are involved in the planning and design of monorail systems.