PBTS Addresses at the 2019 China Monorail Development Forum on the Prospects of Straddle Monorail

  On July 25th, 2019, the 2019 China Monorail Development Forum was held concurrently with 2019 Beijing International Urban Rail Transit Exhibition. Experts and leaders from relevant departments, such as the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Housing and Construction and the Ministry of Transport delivered speeches. The leaders, technical experts and scholars of the Urban Rail Association and the Monorail Branch, as well as companies such as PBTS, the vehicle manufacturer, were also present and addressed to the public.

  Various experts discussed about the application and prospects of straddle-monorail civil construction, vehicles, systems and components. There was also a lot of discussion on hot topics in urban rail field such as intelligent operation and maintenance, making contributions to the development of medium-capacity urban rail transit with forward-looking solutions.

  Li Huiguang, representing PBTS, delivered a speech at the forum entitled “Opportunities and Challenges of Straddle Monorail Under Multi-Scheme Development”. After describing the current situation of urban rail transit in China, comparing the advantages and disadvantages of various systems, and demonstrating the overall planning of urban rail transit in other countries and regions, such as Singapore and Japan, it was pointed out that the straddle monorail, as a typical medium-volume rail transit system, has the characteristics of good landscape and vision, strong line adaptability, low noise and small vibration, which can be used as an application scheme for providing backbone urban rail network in many second and third-tier cities, or as a branch line and additional line connecting the main lines in large cities, a circular line in downtown, CBD or tourist attractions.

  Despite good prospects and market demand, straddle monorail still faces the challenge of improving the competitiveness. There are still many new topics related to straddle monorail in the aspects of establishing standardized systems, optimizing construction costs, improving energy utilization efficiency, reducing the wear and tear of vehicle parts, improving ride quality and achieving intelligent operation and maintenance.

  Experts at the meeting agreed that urbanization and the guidance of national policies have facilitated the progress of multi systems in rail transit and the development of monorail.Continuous technological innovation will improve the competitiveness of monorail system and lead to great application prospects of straddle monorail!