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Elevated railway#Modern systems

{{Short description|Rapid transit railway with the tracks above street level}}

{{Redirect|Elevated|the film|Elevated (film){{!}}Elevated (film)}}

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File:20220113 03a CTA Green Line L near Congress St.jpg train]]

An elevated railway or elevated train (also known as an el train or el for short) is a railway with the tracks above street level on a viaduct or other elevated structure (usually constructed from steel, cast iron, concrete, or bricks). The railway may be a broad-gauge, standard-gauge or narrow-gauge railway, light rail, monorail, or a suspension railway. Elevated railways are normally found in urban areas that would otherwise require impracticably many level crossings. Usually, the tracks of elevated railways that run on steel viaducts can be seen from street level.

History

File:Liverpool Overhead Railway - Every boy's book of railways and steamships (1911) (14572313920) (cropped).jpg, 1911]]

The earliest elevated railway was the London and Greenwich Railway on a brick viaduct of 878 arches, built between 1836 and 1838. The first {{convert|2.5|mi}} of the London and Blackwall Railway (1840) was also built on a viaduct. During the 1840s there were other plans for elevated railways in London that never came to fruition.Jack Simmons and Gordon Biddle, The Oxford Companion to British Railway History, Oxford University Press, (1997), p.360.

From the late 1860s onward, elevated railways became popular in US cities. New York's West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway opened in 1868 as a cable-hauled elevated railway{{cite book |last=Brimner |first=L.D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hLTLkPnEZRIC&pg=PA23 |title=Subway: The Story of Tunnels, Tubes, and Tracks |last2=Waldman |first2=N. |publisher=Boyds Mills Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-59078-176-0 |page=23}} and was operated using locomotives after 1871, when it was renamed the New York Elevated Railroad.{{cite web |last1=Harvey |first1=Charles |date=April 8, 2006 |title=New York Elevated |url=http://www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/CandS/dsp-passenger/nyelrail3.htm |access-date=October 25, 2015 |website=Mid-Continent Railway Museum}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TmZuSHXfuRMC&pg=RA10-PA60 |title=Court of Appeals: New York: No.426 |year=1891 |pages=61–62}} This was followed in 1875 by the Manhattan Railway Company, which took over the New York Elevated Railroad.{{cite book |last=Sansone |first=G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6WFHNSXBpocC&pg=PA11 |title=New York Subways: An Illustrated History of New York City's Transit Cars |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8018-7922-7 |page=11}} Other early elevated systems in the US included the Chicago "L", which was built by multiple competing companies beginning in 1892,{{cite book |last=Sadowski |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gVs3EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA7 |title=Chicago's Lost "L"s |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-4671-0602-3 |series=Images of America |page=7}} as well as the Boston Elevated Railway in 1901 and the Market–Frankford Line in Philadelphia in 1907.{{cite book |last=Cheney |first=F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=snRWxEvlJqYC |title=When Boston Rode the EL |last2=Sammarco |first2=A.M. |publisher=Arcadia Publishing Incorporated |year=2000 |isbn=978-1-4396-2741-9 |series=Images of America |page=}} Globally, the Berlin Stadtbahn (1882) and the Vienna Stadtbahn (1898) are also mainly elevated.

The first electric elevated railway was the Liverpool Overhead Railway, which operated through Liverpool docks from 1893 until 1956.

In London, the Docklands Light Railway is a modern elevated railway that opened in 1987{{cite book |author=American Public Transit Association |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kz3D7qMwTdEC&pg=PA38 |title=Seventh National Conference on Light Rail Transit: Baltimore, Maryland, November 12-15, 1995 |publisher=National Academy Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-309-06152-0 |series=Conference proceedings (National Research Council (U.S.). Transportation Research Board)) |page=38 |issue=v. 1}} and has since expanded.[http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/modesoftransport/dlr/1538.aspx "DLR History Timeline".] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140122175945/http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/modesoftransport/dlr/1538.aspx |date=22 January 2014 }} Transport for London. The trains are driverless and automatic.[http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/modesoftransport/dlr/7126.aspx "Where are the drivers?"] Transport for London. Another modern elevated railway is Tokyo's driverless Yurikamome line, opened in 1995.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uvJHAQAAIAAJ |title=The Japan Architect |publisher=Shinkenchiku-Sha |year=1996 |isbn=978-4-7869-0129-4 |page=106 |issue=v. 24}}

Systems

=Monorail systems=

Most monorails are elevated railways, such as the Disneyland Monorail System (1959), the Tokyo Monorail (1964), the Sydney Monorail (1988–2013), the KL Monorail, the Las Vegas Monorail, the Seattle Center Monorail and the São Paulo Monorail. Most maglev railways are also elevated.

File:Schweb02012006-008.JPG trains]]

=Suspension railways=

During the 1890s there was some interest in suspension railways, particularly in Germany, with the Schwebebahn Dresden, (1891–) and the Wuppertal Schwebebahn (1901). H-Bahn suspension railways were built in Dortmund and Düsseldorf airport, 1975. The Memphis Suspension Railway opened in 1982.

Suspension railways are usually monorail; Shonan Monorail and Chiba Urban Monorail in Japan, despite their names, are suspension railways.

=People mover systems=

People mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of driverless grade-separated, mass-transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems that serve as loops or feeder systems, but is sometimes applied to considerably more complex automated systems. Similar to monorails, Bombardier Innovia APM technology uses only one rail to guide the vehicle along the guideway. APMs are common at airports and effective at helping passengers quickly reach their gates. Several elevated APM systems at airports including the PHX Sky Train at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport; AeroTrain at Kuala Lumpur International Airport; and the Tracked Shuttle System at London Gatwick Airport, United Kingdom.

Modern systems

=Rapid transit, light rail or commuter rail systems=

== Africa ==

File:Roosevelt-avenue-queens-nyc cars driving-under-elevated-railway-line 1980s.jpg in New York City, under the IRT Flushing Line (used by the {{NYCS trains|Flushing}}) in the 1980s]]

File:Chinatown-la-metrostation2.jpg station in Los Angeles]]

File:Monotrilho de SP (2).jpg, São Paulo]]

==Americas==

==Asia==

File:BTS Skytrain 20190825 03.jpg

File:Beautiful Kochi Metro Train.jpg

==Europe==

File:Kantstr s-bahn upper-west waldorf-astoria 2023-01-29.png]]

File:DSC08757 Frankfurt Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße und U-Bahn als Hochbahn.jpg:U1 near Ginnheim]]

==Oceania==

  • Metro Trains Melbourne, mainly built by the Level Crossing Removal Project{{cite web |last1=Whitelaw |first1=Anna |last2=Choahan |first2=Neelima |title=$1.6 billion elevated rail project to replace level crossings on Dandenong line |url=https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/16-billion-elevated-rail-project-to-replace-level-crossings-on-dandenong-line-20160207-gmnj0p.html |website=The Age |access-date=27 July 2023 |date=7 February 2016}}
  • Sydney Metro Northwest Line in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (between Bella Vista and Tallawong)

File:Forest Hills El 1910.jpg in Boston (1910). The line was rebuilt in a cutting by 1987.]]

==Disused==

File:H bahn dortmund1.jpg in Dortmund]]

=People mover=

Proposed designs

  • Phnom Penh SkyTrain (Cambodia)
  • Managua Metro (Nicaragua)
  • San Salvador Metro (El Salvador)
  • Ljubljana Metro (Slovenia)
  • Transperth's Armadale line will be partially elevated by the Victoria Park-Canning Level Crossing Removal Project{{cite web |title=Victoria Park-Canning Level Crossing Removal |url=https://www.buildingfortomorrow.wa.gov.au/projects/victoria-park-canning/ |website=Building for Tomorrow |access-date=27 July 2023}}

See also

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References

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Category:Railways by type