Skip to main content

Skytrains being planned for major cities in China

City planners in China are conducting feasibility studies and initial planning to develop skytrain, an elevated transportation system, in order to ease deteriorating traffic congestion in the urban areas of major cities. The benefits of skytrain include shorter construction period, quiet operation and cheaper construction cost – about one tenth of the cost of metro systems. In addition, since the skytrain runs on elevated viaducts and stations are built above ground, there will be less disruption to the sur
March 27, 2012 Read time: 1 min
City planners in China are conducting feasibility studies and initial planning to develop skytrain, an elevated transportation system, in order to ease deteriorating traffic congestion in the urban areas of major cities. The benefits of skytrain include shorter construction period, quiet operation and cheaper construction cost – about one tenth of the cost of metro systems. In addition, since the skytrain runs on elevated viaducts and stations are built above ground, there will be less disruption to the surface landscape. The operation and maintenance costs will be also much lower than a metro system.

The system is being studied and proposed in more than seven cities in China, including Shanghai, Tianjin and Wenzhou.

Related Content

  • Just Zip it! Lindsay takes to the road
    October 10, 2018
    Greater vehicle connectivity is going to have huge implications for traffic management. David Arminas climbed aboard a Lindsay Road Zipper to see what this might mean in future As vice president of barrier specialist QMB Canada, Marc-Andre Seguin is sanguine about the future for moveable barriers. On the one hand, it looks good. The oft-stated advantage of moveable barriers is that the systems are cheaper to install than adding a lane or two to a highway or bridge. Directional changes to lanes can boost
  • Cost-effective alternatives to traditional loops
    February 1, 2012
    Traffic signal control is a mainstay of urban congestion management. Despite advances in vehicle detection sensors, inductive loops, which operate by using a magnetic field to detect the metal components in vehicles, are still the most common enabler for intelligent signalised junctions.
  • Dynamic charging boosts electric vehicles’ potential
    December 16, 2014
    With an increasing need to use electric vehicles in city centres to reduce pollution, David Crawford looks at various solutions to power delivery. The UN’s September 2014 Climate Summit has added fresh momentum to the drive to increase urban electric vehicle (EV) takeup. It has launched the Urban Electric Mobility Initiative, which wants to see EVs accounting for 30% of all urban travel by 2030, and make cities worldwide more friendly to their use. Encouragingly, the plan is being well supported by commerci
  • Learning from informal transit networks
    March 30, 2021
    When it comes to public transportation, the Minority World could take lessons in equity from the mobility infrastructure of emerging market cities, says Devin de Vries of WhereIsMyTransport