page_title: Suspension railway
section_title: 1950s
hierarchical_section_title: Suspension railway / History / 1950s
context_page_description: A suspension railway is a form of elevated monorail in which the vehicle is suspended from a fixed track, which is built above streets, waterways, or existing railway track.
context_section_description: In 1947, Lucien Chadenson became interested in the Bennie Railplane experimental line, and the Paris Metro Route 11, which uses rubber tyres. A test track operated in Chateauneuf, south of Paris from 1958, but attracted no further interest in France.  However, the Japanese have built two successful SAFEGE lines, the Siemens Company of Germany has developed a smaller scale system similar to the SAFEGE Monorail. and Aerorail of Texas and Sky Train of Florida are promoting steel-wheel versions of SAFEGE as well. Japan would later adopt the Alweg and Safege monorail systems and build more transit monorails than any other country in the world.
  The Ueno Zoo Monorail is a 0.3 km (0.19 mi) long suspended monorail operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation (Toei). It is similar to the Wuppertal Schwebebahn, but has rubber tires rather than steel wheels. The line began operating on December 17, 1958.
caption: The Ueno Zoo Monorail
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