5 FACTS ABOUT MONORAILS
1 More & more monorails
Monorail manufacturers such as Bombardier are set to build over 470 kilometres of new monorail track by 2019, most of which will be in Asia and Latin America.
2 Olympic track
After winning the bid for the 1964 Olympics, Tokyo built a $55-million (over £40-million) monorail system between Haneda Airport and downtown Tokyo in order to improve infrastructure.
3 Turntables
Monorails are not good at sharp corners, so turntables are used to rotate them. The car stops on a movable platform to change tracks, such as when moving from storage to the main line.
4 Longest line
The current record for the longest monorail system is the Chongqing Rail Transit in China, which has a total track length of over 200 kilometres.
5 Safety
Modern monorails have the highest safety record of any transport. Collisions are virtually impossible and the electrical systems are safely contained.