Title: An innovative straddle monorail track switch design for the personal rapid transit

Authors: Chih-Hung G. Li; Zong Jun Lu

Addresses: Graduate Institute of Manufacturing Technology, National Taipei University of Technology, No. 1, Sec. 3, Zhongxiao E. Rd., Taipei 10608, Taiwan ' General Integration Technology Co, Ltd., No. 343, Chongqing Rd., Xitun Dist., Taichung City 40751, Taiwan

Abstract: An innovative track switch design is proposed for a straddle monorail system that may serve as a PRT system. Previously, a PRT system utilising the monorail design was thought impossible. Here we introduce onboard guide wheels on the monorail vehicles to be the only movable parts that direct the cars to different paths. Each vehicle activates its own switching mechanism and does not need to wait for the movement of the heavy track beams anymore. Guideways and ground rails accommodated by a switch platform are designed to replace the monorail track beams. To verify the system performance, a model monorail loop and a vehicle were built for testing. Test results and analyses show that the monorail vehicles have enough momentum to traverse the switch area without power, and the required headway for the proposed system is much less than the target of 10 seconds.

Keywords: monorail; PRT; personal rapid transit; track switch; headway.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHVS.2021.117500

International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems, 2021 Vol.28 No.3, pp.370 - 384

Received: 12 Aug 2018
Accepted: 02 Apr 2019
Published online: 10 Sep 2021 *

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