Criticism
The criticism in the media is primarily about the system design (low speed and capacity), the route of the monorail and the idea of elevated platform transport (it is alleged that a tram can have the same capacity and speed). For example, the journalist Alexandr Lebedev noted:
| “ | The results of creation and operation of the Moscow Monorail Transit System compromised the idea of a city monorail as a whole. The result of the Intamin Transportation Ltd. system shows that the monorail structure was chosen because of the declared low construction cost and a good look. The recommendation of the Academy of municipal services made in 60s banning monorails from outside the south regions of the USSR, was ignored. MMTS is not the transportation optimum: the car length is as narrow as 2.3 metres what is necessary only in the narrow street surroundings. | ” |
The amount of space per person on the monorail (either 200 people with 5 people per meter squared or 290 people at an average of about 8 people per meter squared) has been criticized as too little space for something deemed an "alternative to the light metro". For example, journalist Elena Komarova wrote in 2006 that:
| “ | After the move from the excursion to working mode of the monorail, the running trains on the monorail should expand four fold, with trains going from 6 to 1 AM in intervals of five minutes carrying 3,500 people an hour... - (For comparison: Moscow trams are designed for about 15-20 thousand people per hour, the "light" metro can take up to 22 thousand an hour, the normal one, up to 80 thousand.)... For now, the monorail isn't raising prices in the area of construction, nor the capitalization of the entire city. Right now it is only eating budget money. It is a tiring toy. | ” |
However, the quote ignores the fact that the people per meter squared statistics listed above work out to about 50,000 people per day, which, taking into account the current capacity loads in the Moscow Metro, comes close to the hourly capacity loads of the Butovskaya Light Metro. If the fact that the existing number of rolling stock held my the Monorail and dimensions of the rolling stock built for the first section of the depot is taken into account, such statistics do not match the potential of at least eight times, because (according to data on the company's website) trains can be made up of 10 cars (just like current Moscow Subway lines), and subway lines usually have 42-44 trains running per hour, which would satisfy the monorail's passenger traffic of 38 thousand people, per hour in both directions (or 23 thousand and hour under the existing six-car arrangement), which means the monorail can at least handle the same amount of traffic as the "Light Metro" and could possibly handle the daily volume of the Filyovskaya metro line.
Supporters of the project state that the current above ground Moscow transport lines, along with the highways are in very poor condition, and the building of another Metro line would be too expensive and would lower the land values of area where construction would be taking place due to the amount of noise.
Read more about this topic: Moscow Monorail
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