Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but i really like how calm the street scenes are without cars. There’s also a 1902 / now comparison video which is kind of depressing, i thought i’d rather post something nice :)
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It’s certainly an interesting town and monorail. I was there last month and took some footage of the Schwebebahn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpmhPuT_DlkSo beautiful :)
Right? Makes me strangely sentimental watching this.
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Monorails are usually not the most practical solution. In most places where you can build a monorail, a regular train is usually simpler and cheaper to build. Wuppertal has some very specific geography which causes a monorail following the path of the river Wupper to make sense, but that often doesn’t translate well to other places.
Tom Scott made a video about it at some point:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4KZLcvMQWgAnd a video on the Schwebebahn by The Tim Traveller:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IFh6wFTJiQThe situations where such infrastructure technologies make sense as the best option are pretty rare. Wuppertal had the unique combination of circumstances with:
- a decently well-connected inventor and a supportive emperor
- the urban/metropolitan area being in a narrow valley along the river Wupper
- steep hillsides poorly suited for rail
- geology poorly suited for tunnelling with late 1800’s technology
- local steel industry
- the ability to use the river as the right of way
- the relative infancy of electric railway propulsion
This all contributed to a suspended railway making a lot of sense in that case.
Today, an average problem can be satisfactorily addressed with a form of conventional rail in most situations.
