The best of various railroads? Actually, it’s amazing! Skyrail Technology The technology behind the world’s only standardized Skyrail railroad was the crystallization of advanced techniques developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and Kobe Steel, Ltd. Although it does not look like a suspension monorail or a ropeway, the I-shaped girder was gripped firmly by wheels and propelled by a ground-driven rope. When arriving at or departing from a station, the train was driven linearly, so there was none of the unstable ride that is common in ropeways, where the train is suspended in mid-air and constantly shaking. Unlike cable cars and ropeways, the Sky Rail can take a curved route. In a sense, Sky Rail was a “combination of the best of ropeway, monorail, and linear motor car. In addition, the Sky Rail was less than one-third the cost of a monorail (2 to 3 billion yen per kilometer) and had the advantage of low cost due to unmanned operation. This line seemed to be on track, but the operator was losing 100 million yen since before Corona. Finally, a second line was never built, and it was discontinued. However, it is possible that Skyrail-standard routes could have been opened in other parts of the country, depending on the circumstances. Why didn’t it become popular?
Consideration of introducing Sky Rail “Sagamihara, Otsu, Nagasaki, etc. …… Why wasn’t the decision made? When the first Sky Rail line opened, all the municipalities with rail plans showed interest. At meetings of local assemblies and economic organizations, people asked, “How about Sky Rail in Hiroshima? Would you consider it? The first route of the No. 1 rail line was opened for business in the early days of the project. A review of newspapers for the past 26 years reveals that the introduction of Sky Rail has been considered in a variety of locations. Shizuoka Airport Access Railway (Shinkansen bullet train from the new Shizuoka Airport station to the airport terminal building)
Fukuoka City, Waterfront Development (Hakata Station, Tenjin – Hakata Pier)
Sagamihara City (between Sagami-Ono and Kitasato University)
Konan District, Otsu City
Akita Airport
Inasayama, Nagasaki Among the above introduction plans, some were quite specific, such as “Of the two proposed new stations, the one directly under the airport would introduce Sky Rail to overcome the 130 m height difference (Shizuoka Airport),” “Of the eight proposals, the second highest rated after the ropeway (Fukuoka City),” and “Three choices: Sky Rail, small subway, or LRT (Sagamihara City). In some cases, there were quite concrete studies. However, not only were most of the rail plans abandoned or shelved, but they were often replaced by consideration of other vehicles at the study stage and dropped out before full-scale discussions and presentations (explanations and presentation of conditions for the construction of railroads). One of the reasons why Sky Rail was weak in its sales pitch to local governments was its half-hearted position as a transit system. Even though it was inexpensive to build, it was more expensive than LRT and streetcars, and even though it was strong against gradients, there was no place on a mountain like Midorizaka where there was enough human flow to operate a steel track. Most of the projects considered were on flat land, and Sky Rail’s advantages of “linear and rope-driven” and “strong on gradients” were over-specified to meet actual demand. In addition, the slope car, which had a moderate gradient, could run only on private property and in parks, could be built for only a few tens of millions of yen depending on the specifications, and did not require approval as a railroad operator, exploded across the country, and Nagasaki was snatched away from the order (the current “Nagasaki Inasayama Slope Car”). The Sky Rail project may have already been “dead in the water” when it lost orders in Nagasaki, a city with close ties to the Mitsubishi Group that is known as “Mitsubishi’s town. Kobe Steel, which was involved in the development of the project, said that although its engineers visited more than 50 locations across the country to explain the project, they could not gain any understanding. The cost of the Sky Rail Midorizaka Line did not decrease with the spread of the system, and after 26 years in operation, the aging equipment disappeared without being renewed.
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