New form of rail transportation

["Peter Berrett" <pberrett@optushome.com.au>]

Hi all

For some time I have been thinking about a version of light rail that might
be suitable for building in cities where buying the land might be too
expensive becuase the land has already been built upon.

Essentially the mode of transport is a normal rail line suspended in the
air. the wheels run on top of the rail line but the carriage hangs down
underneath the rails. Such a system would be similar to a cable car except
that the cars would hang off two rails, not one wire.They could also change
tracks.

Has anyone tried such a scheme anywhere in the world as a solution to urban
public transport problems? The principal advantage as I see is that the
rails would run in the airspace over roads so there is no need to purchase
land. Stations would be built in the air and subruban lines could follow the
airspace above existing roads.

Eg imagine such a line running along Sprinvale Road in Melbourne. It would
be possible to get change from a normal Springvale train, ride this "air
train" which would not need to stop at intersections as it could simply pass
over the top of them, and arrive a short time later at Nunawading station
for change to the Lilydale or Belgrave lines.

cheers Peter