The was a long suspended railway operated by the

Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation The , also known as Toei Transportation, Toei Transport, or simply , is a bureau of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government which operates public transport services in Tokyo. Among its services, the Toei Subway is one of two rapid transit systems wh ...

(Toei). It lies within the

Ueno Zoo The is a zoo, managed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and located in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. It is Japan's oldest zoo, opened on March 20, 1882. It is served by Ueno Station, Keisei Ueno Station and Nezu Station, with convenient access from ...

in Taitō, Tokyo,

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 monorail is similar to the

Wuppertal Schwebebahn The Wuppertaler Schwebebahn () is a suspension railway in Wuppertal, Germany. The line was originally called in () named after its inventor, Eugen Langen. It is the oldest electric elevated railway with hanging cars in the world. Being grade-se ...

, but has rubber tires rather than steel wheels. Many of the parts manufactured for the monorail were off-the-shelf. The first monorail in the nation (and the first

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility where animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoology, ...

monorail in the world), it had two stations, single track, and operated at 600 V DC. The line began operating on December 17, 1957, was suspended during 2001–2002, and has been suspended since October 31, 2019, with the operator citing the high costs of replacing the aging trains. It was officially closed on December 27, 2023. Being located inside the zoo, it only operated on days when the zoo was open, and between 9:40 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., with departures scheduled every seven minutes. The fare for the 90-second trip was 150

yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the euro. T ...

History

The number of cars in Japan rose since the end of

World War 2 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilisin ...

, which caused heavy traffic congestions around Tokyo. Trams and bus routes operated by

suffered from delays and loss of passengers caused by traffic congestions. The subway network in Tokyo was in construction from pre-war, and the Bureau of Transportation was also building their own subway line in 1958, but subways were expensive to build. Monorails were considered as the alternative to other transportation methods such as buses and subways, and

was selected as the site for the monorail line. Monorails were in development at the time, and the Bureau of Transportation worked with

Toshiba is a Japanese multinational electronics company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, elevators and escalators, electronic components, semiconductors ...

and

Nippon Sharyo , formed in 1896, is a major rolling stock, Heavy equipment, heavy equipment, Diesel generator, generator, Special-purpose entity, special purpose vehicle and bridge manufacturer based in Nagoya, Japan. In 1996, it abbreviated its ...

to develop a new method. The method was similar to the

, although it used rubber tires instead. This monorail was called "Ueno-style." Permit to operate the line was given on June 22, 1957 by the

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism The , abbreviated MLIT, is a ministry of the Japanese government.国土交通省設置法

, and the line opened on December 27 of that year. However, the Bureau of Transportation planned to close the line in 1980 due to financial difficulties and aging of equipments. This plan was stopped in 1983 after a safety check due to requests for the line to be kept in operation. On January 23, 2019, the Bureau of Transportation announced that the line will be suspended due to aging of the rolling stocks introduced in 2001. The line was suspended on November of that year. The Bureau of Transportation was initially willing to maintain the line, but decided to permanently close the line in 2023.

References

{{coord, 35, 42, 51.95, N, 139, 46, 14.5, E, region:JP_source:jawiki, display=title Monorail lines in Japan Rail transport in Tokyo Lines of Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation Suspended monorails Ueno Park Railway lines opened in 1957 Defunct monorails Entertainment monorails Railway lines closed in 2023

History

See also

References