page_title: Monorail
section_title: Types and technical aspects
hierarchical_section_title: Monorail / Types and technical aspects
caption_attribution_description: English: The Wuppertaler Schwebebahn "floats" above an intersection. Deutsch: Die Wuppertaler Schwebebahn "schwebt" zwischen den Haltestellen Robert-Daum-Platz und Ohligsmühle über eine Elberfelder Kreuzung.
context_page_description: A monorail is a railway in which the track consists of a single rail or a beam. The term is also used to describe the beam of the system, or the trains traveling on such a beam or track. The term originates from joining "mono" and "rail" from 1897, possibly from German engineer Eugen Langen, who called an elevated railway system with wagons suspended the Eugen Langen One-railed Suspension Tramway.
  Colloquially, the term "monorail" is often used to describe any form of elevated rail or people mover. More accurately, the term refers to the style of track.
context_section_description: Modern monorails depend on a large solid beam as the vehicles' running surface. There are a number of competing designs divided into two broad classes, straddle-beam and suspended monorails. The most common type is the straddle-beam, in which the train straddles a steel or reinforced concrete beam  2 to 3 feet (0.6 to 0.9 m) wide. A rubber-tired carriage contacts the beam on the top and both sides for traction and to stabilize the vehicle. The style was popularized by the German company ALWEG. There is also a historical type of suspension monorail developed by German inventors Nicolaus Otto and Eugen Langen in the 1880s. It was built in the twin cities of Barmen and Elberfeld in Wuppertal, Germany, opened in 1901, and is still in operation. The Chiba Urban Monorail is the world's largest suspended network.
caption: The Wuppertal Schwebebahn, the world's first electric suspended monorail
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