Faced with the escalating demand for public
transportation in metropolitan areas, transportation authorities are challenged to select a technology that will
satisfy the often conflicting demands of high capacity and
reliable service, urban fit, minimized environmental impact
and budget restrictions. There are many technologies
available today that can provide medium to high capacity
mass transit service, however, in many cases these technologies are costly or are not suited to today’s urban environment. High capacity has typically implied costly
underground tunneling or obtrusive elevated metro systems
that required extensive infrastructure disruption. Although
monorail systems have been around for some time, only
recent developments such as Bombardier’s INNOVIA
Monorail 300 System have permitted transit authorities to
now consider monorail as a mainstream contender to meet
their mass transit requirements.