The Chester Zoo monorail was an internal transport system at Chester Zoo that operated from 1991 to 2019.
The Chester Zoo monorail was an internal transport system at Chester Zoo that operated from 1991 to 2019.
The system was 1.4 kilometres (0.9 miles) long [1] and travelled on a single track elevated guideway, a straddle beam monorail, to give views of the zoo grounds – the track crossed Flag Lane twice on its one-way circular route. The two halves of the zoo were connected by the system and there was one station in each part, one near the lion enclosure (Jubilee Square station) and one near the monkey building (Tsavo station, formerly known as Monkey Island station from 1991 until 2015).
The system operated four trains. Each train on the system could seat 24 passengers between its four cars [2] and a full tour took around fifteen minutes. [3] The layout had a separate depot and control room [4] [2] and carried approximately 2,000 passengers per day. [5]
T&M Machine Tool Electronics upgraded the monorail's drive system and electrics in 2009, including conversion from DC to AC electrical operation and automation improvements involving the laying of over 25 miles (40 km) of cabling, at a cost of £300,000. The upgraded system used pairs of 2.2-kilowatt (3 hp) AC motors for each carriage, with remote monitoring managed over a 5 GHz wireless link. [6] [2]
The monorail was built and installed by Computerised People Mover International at a cost of $4 million and then opened by the Duchess of Kent in 1991. [4] [7] [8] During its first trip around the zoo, the train suddenly broke down while the Duchess was still on it.
Following the major improvements in 2009, the monorail was re-launched by music producer Pete Waterman during a visit on 23 July 2009, when Waterman drove the first loop of the new system. [2] One week later a power failure occurred, requiring the first eight visitors of the day to be escorted off the monorail using a hydraulic lift. [9] [10]
On 17 May 2012, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip took a tour of Chester Zoo in a specially redecorated monorail set painted in a Union Flag theme for their Diamond Jubilee tour of the north-west of England. [11] [12] [13]
About 2017, Redcroft Management Ltd conducted a "Monorail Future Options Appraisal & Viability Assessment" project to evaluate the commercial and practical viability of extending, replacing or closing the monorail, with options of funding by the North of England Zoological Society. [1]
In June 2019, Chester Zoo announced that it would be closing the monorail as it had become unreliable and now covered less than half the zoo because of expansion to over 125 acres (51 ha). The zoo also stated that it "no longer fits our vision for a world-class modern zoo". The system closed on 3 September 2019. [14] [15]
| Train no. | Image | Paint theme | Theme years | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blue band on white | 1991 – 2010 | ||
| Giraffe coat | 2010 - 2016 | |||
 | Elephants | 2016 – 2019 | ||
| 2 |  | Green band on white | 1991 - 2010 | |
 | Snake skin | 2010 – 2016 | ||
 | Cheetah | 2016 - 2019 | ||
| 3 |  | Yellow band on white | 1991 – 2010 | |
| Zebra coat | 2010 – 2012 | |||
 | Union Jacks | 2012 – 2016 | The royal visitors used this train on 17 May 2012. It was repainted in this theme to commemorate this. | |
 | Penguins | 2016 – 2019 | ||
| 4 | Red band on white | 1991 - 2010 | ||
| Tiger coat | 2010 - 2016 | |||
 | Ants | 2016 – 2019 |
A monorail is a railway in which the track consists of a single rail or a 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 of track. Monorail systems are most frequently implemented in large cities, airports, and theme parks.
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.
The KL Monorail Line is the only operational monorail system in Malaysia. Operated as part of the RapidKL system by Rapid Rail, a subsidiary of Prasarana Malaysia, it is one of the components of the Klang Valley Integrated Transit System. The line is numbered 8 and coloured light green on official transit maps.
The Jacksonville Skyway is an automated people mover in Jacksonville, Florida. It opened in 1989 and is operated by the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA). The skyway has three stations in Downtown Jacksonville and was extended in 1996 following a conversion from its original technology to Bombardier Transportation equipment. It was expanded again in 1998 and 2000. The currently fare-free system comprises two routes across 2.5 miles (4.0 km) of track, serving eight stations, and crosses the St. Johns River on the Acosta Bridge. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 309,000, or about 1,100 per day as of the fourth quarter of 2023.
Chester Zoo is a zoo at Upton-by-Chester, Cheshire, England. Chester Zoo was opened in 1931 by George Mottershead and his family. The zoo is one of the UK's largest zoos at 51 hectares and the zoo has a total land holding of approximately 160 hectares.
The PeopleMover, sometimes referred to as the Goodyear PeopleMover and WEDWay PeopleMover, was a transport attraction that opened on July 2, 1967, in Tomorrowland at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. Guests boarded small trains that ran on elevated tracks for a "grand circle tour" above Tomorrowland. The term "people mover", now in wider use to describe many forms of automated public transport, was first coined as the name for this attraction. PeopleMover was originally only a working title, but became attached to the project over time. The attraction was initially seen as a serious prototype for intercity public transport. The ride closed on August 21, 1995, but its station and track infrastructure—which it shared with its short-lived successor, Rocket Rods—remain standing as of 2024. A second PeopleMover opened on July 1, 1975 in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida near Orlando, Florida, and is still operating today.
The PeopleMover is an attraction in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida just outside of Orlando, Florida. Designed as an urban mass-transit system of the future, vehicles take passengers on a grand circle tour of the realm of Tomorrowland that provides elevated views of several other attractions.
An elevated railway or elevated train is a railway with the tracks above street level on a viaduct or other elevated structure. The railway may be broad-gauge, standard-gauge or narrow-gauge railway, light rail, monorail, or a suspension railway. Elevated railways are normally found in urban areas where there would otherwise be multiple level crossings. Usually, the tracks of elevated railways that run on steel viaducts can be seen from street level.
Tomorrowland is one of the many "themed lands" featured at all of the Magic Kingdom styled Disney theme parks around the world owned or licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Each version of the land is different and features numerous attractions that depict views of the future. Disneyland Park in Paris includes a similar area called Discoveryland, which shares some elements with other Tomorrowlands but emphasizes visions of the future inspired by Jules Verne.
The Las Vegas Monorail is a 3.9-mile (6.3 km) automated monorail mass transit system located adjacent to the Las Vegas Strip in Clark County, Nevada, United States. It connects several large casinos in the unincorporated communities of Paradise and Winchester, but does not enter the city of Las Vegas proper. Built at a cost of $650 million, it was privately owned and operated by the Las Vegas Monorail Company until their 2020 bankruptcy when it was sold to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, a local government agency. In 2022, total annual ridership was roughly 4.3 million, down from a pre-Great Recession peak of 7.9 million in 2007. The monorail is a registered not-for-profit corporation, allowed under Nevada law since the monorail provides a public service. The State of Nevada assisted in bond financing, but no public money was used in construction.
The Disneyland Monorail is an attraction and transportation line at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, United States. It was the first daily operating monorail over all.
Bombardier Transportation was a Canadian-German rolling stock and rail transport manufacturer, with headquarters in Berlin, Germany. It was one of the world's largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. Bombardier Transportation had many regional offices, production and development facilities worldwide. It produced a wide range of products including passenger rail vehicles, locomotives, bogies, propulsion and controls. In February 2020, the company had 36,000 employees, and 63 manufacturing and engineering locations around the world. Formerly a division of Bombardier Inc., the company was acquired by French manufacturer Alstom on 29 January 2021.
The Sentosa Express is a monorail line connecting Sentosa island to HarbourFront on the Singapore mainland. It was built at a cost of S$140 million to replace the previous Sentosa Monorail. Development began in June 2003 and construction works were completed in late 2006. The fully elevated 2.1-kilometre two-way line opened on 15 January 2007. The monorail system, privately owned by Sentosa Development Corporation and operated by Singapore Mass Rapid Transit, can move up to 4,000 passengers per hour per direction.
The transport network in Greater Tokyo includes public and private rail and highway networks; airports for international, domestic, and general aviation; buses; motorcycle delivery services, walking, bicycling, and commercial shipping. While the nexus is in the central part of Tokyo, every part of the Greater Tokyo Area has rail or road transport services. There are also a number of ports offering sea and air transport to the general public.
The Dashaveyor was an automated guideway transit (AGT) system developed during the 1960s and '70s.
Rail transport can be found in every theme park resort property owned or licensed by Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, one of the four business segments of the Walt Disney Company. The origins of Disney theme park rail transport can be traced back to Walt Disney himself and his personal fondness for railroads, who insisted that they be included in the first Disney park, the original Disneyland in California in the United States, which opened on July 17, 1955. The Disney tradition of including transport by rail in, and adjacent to, its parks has since been extended to other Disney properties with the opening of Walt Disney World in Florida in the United States, Tokyo Disney Resort in Japan, Disneyland Paris in France, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort in China, and Shanghai Disney Resort in China. The Disney theme park chain is the largest on the planet by annual attendance with over 155 million visitors in 2019, and the rail systems located inside its properties play key roles as modes of transportation and as attractions for its visitors.
Innovia Monorail is a fully automated and driverless monorail system currently manufactured and marketed by Alstom as part of its Innovia series of fully automated transportation systems. Its straddle-beam design is based on the ALWEG monorail, which was first developed in the 1950s and later popularized by Disney at their theme parks.
The Tampa International Airport People Movers are a set of automated people mover systems operating within Tampa International Airport. The primary set of people movers are automated guideway transit (AGT) systems that connect the airport's main terminal to four satellite airside concourses. Opened in 1971, the landside/airside shuttles were the first people movers used to transport passengers within an airport terminal and it is today Bombardier Transportation's longest running people mover system. A fifth people mover line known as SkyConnect, which began operating in 2018, connects the main terminal with the airport's economy parking garage and rental car center. In addition, a monorail once connected the main terminal and the long-term parking garage from 1991 until its closure in 2020.
Computerised People Mover International have developed a straddling monorail which is in use at Chester Zoo.
Automated People Movers: Daily Ridership (Thousand People)... Chester Zoo, UK: 2
in 1991 the duchess of Kent opened the zoo monorail.