The was a

monorail A monorail is a Rail transport, railway in which the track consists of a single rail or beam. Colloquially, the term "monorail" is often used to describe any form of elevated rail or people mover. More accurately, the term refers to the style ...

people mover A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small-scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks ...

line operated by Skyrail Service. The line ran between Midoriguchi and Midori-Chūō, all within the

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called ''Skyrail Town Midorizaka'', located in Aki,

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...

, Hiroshima Prefecture,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The line was officially called the . The line was the first Japanese

public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

system to introduce a

smart card A smart card (SC), chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC or IC card), is a card used to control access to a resource. It is typically a plastic credit card-sized card with an Embedded system, embedded integrated circuit (IC) chip. Many smart ...

, simply called and branded with the words "SKYRAIL PASS", which launched along with the line's opening in 1998.

History

The line opened on 28 August 1998, with a total construction cost of approximately ¥6.2 billion. Skyrail Service announced on 5 November 2022 that the line would be closed by the end of 2023 due to profitability concerns, and that electric buses operated by Geiyo Bus would operate as a replacement, with a route providing greater coverage across the community. The closure was later postponed to spring 2024. Skyrail ended operations at noon on April 30, 2024, and the company dissolved the following day.

Technology

The line used a unique "Skyrail"

rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

system developed mainly by Kobe Steel and

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group and its automobile division is the prede ...

. It was a fusion between a suspended monorail and an

aerial lift An aerial lift, also known as a cable car or ropeway, is a means of cable transport in which ''cabins'', ''cars'', ''Gondola lift, gondolas'', or Chairlift, open chairs are hauled above the ground by means of one or more Wire rope, cables. Aeria ...

(ropeway). Driverless gondola-sized cars, suspended from a single

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

track, were moved by an attached cable. Inside each station, cars released the cable and were moved by

linear motor A linear motor is an electric motor that has had its stator and rotor (electric), rotor "unrolled", thus, instead of producing a torque (rotation), it produces a linear force along its length. However, linear motors are not necessarily straight. ...

s. The technology allowed the line to climb steep slopes of up to 14 degrees, while also being able to accommodate curves with a radius of up to 30 meters.

Rolling stock

The entire line used 200 series vehicles, which held up to 25 people. The operating speed was 15 km/h.

Services

The line operated from around 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, with cars that ran every 15 minutes during midday and late night, and every 5–10 minutes at peak morning and evening times. A night taxi provided services between 10 p.m. and midnight. A one-way trip across the entire length of the line took five minutes. The fare was ¥170 for adults and could be paid with a QR code-scannable ticket (issued from a

ticket machine A ticket machine, also known as a ticket vending machine (TVM), is a vending machine that produces paper or electronic tickets, or recharges a stored-value card or smart card or the user's mobile wallet, typically on a smartphone. For instance, ...

) or Skyrail-specific smart card.

Stations

All the stations on the line are elevated, with two side platforms serving two tracks. MIDORIGUCHI Station.jpg, Midoriguchi station MIDORI-NAKAMACHI_Station2.jpg, Midori-Nakamachi station MIDORI-CHUO_Station_north_entrance.jpg, Midori-Chūō station

References

External links

Intra-city transport system: Skyrail
via Kobe Steel's official website * {{Automated trains and fixed-guideway transit Driverless suspended monorails Monorail lines in Japan 1998 establishments in Japan 2024 disestablishments in Japan