Teddy
Sep 23, 20181 min
Shonan monorail is a 6.6 km, connecting Ofuna station and Shonan Enoshima station, and there are 6 other stations between them. The operation started in 1971 and it is the one of the major routes from Tokyo to Enoshima island.
There are 10 monorail lines in Japan but Shonan monorail is the only company belonging to the Japan Private Railway Association.
Monorail can by divided into two types; Suspended System and Straddle-beam System. Shonan monorail is suspended system which the train is hanging from the single beam and Tokyo monorail which is connecting Hamamatsu-cho and Haneda airport is straddle-beam system which the train straddles on the beam.
Actually straddle beam system is much common than the suspended one and monorail itself is not so common in Europe. However, the oldest monorail is located in Wuppertal, Germany.