Mixed fortune for monorails globally

Globally, there are 40-42 operational monorail networks, including those providing connectivity for airports and amusement parks. The experience with this transit system has differed across the cities and countries – with few success stories and some routes being permanently shut for varied reasons.

Here's a look at some of the key operational monorails in other countries:

KL monorail, Malaysia

Inaugurated in August 2003, this 8.6-km long monorail system in Kuala Lumpur too has had its share of accidents. The route, initially operated by KL Infra Group, was sold to Prasarana Malaysia Berhad in November 2007 due to financial stress.

During the testing phase in August 2002, a safety wheel fell off the train, injuring a pedestrian. The incident delayed the system's launch. Even in Mumbai, there was a similar incident but fortunately, no one was injured.

In another incident, in January 2005, a pneumatic load tyre burst, injuring women passengers travelling inside the train.

Like a couple of incidents of trains halting mid-way in Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur, too, witnessed something similar. As a result, 183 passengers inside the train had to break the windows for ventilation until a skylift arrived after a couple of hours to rescue them. In August 2012, another such breakdown occurred, trapping 200 passengers.

In March 2015, a tyre of one of the trains in Malaysia caught fire. In Mumbai, friction caused due to a punctured tyre led to a monorail train going up in flames.

Since May 2017, Rapid KL Monorail has been shut for 'safety checks' and for 'safety upgrade'.

Tokyo monorail, Japan

This one in Japan is considered to be commercially the most successful monorail system in the world. The 17.8-km long Tokyo monorail has so far had an incident-free record, barring a freak mishap wherein a crane had hit one of the monorail cars. Around 130 passengers were evacuated and not a single individual suffered any injury.

This system connecting Haneda Airport with Hamamatsucho has been in service since 1964.

Moscow monorail, Russia

The monorail was first planned in 1990 when Moscow faced traffic congestion but was eventually completed only in 2004. Moscow monorail is relatively smaller and covers just 4.7-km.

Here too, the transport system had witnessed an incident involving an electrical system that resulted in a fire near Vystavochny Tsentr station. In few other mishaps, the rail got damaged and the system remained shut for days.

Now, Moscow is planning to shut the monorail forever due to the system being non-profitable and replace it with trams.

Sentosa monorail, Singapore

Since 1982, Sentosa Monorail was the main public transportation mode at Singapore's Sentosa Island. In 2006, it was replaced with a newer version of the same system.

In its long history of ferrying people, only once it has had a power outage due to which around 60 passengers had to be rescued. Otherwise, this route has been incident-free and continues to cater to 4,000 passengers per hour per direction daily.