Karam Hwang, Jong-Duk Chung, Kibeom Lee, Junyoung Tak and In-Soo Suh
International Journal of Railway, vol. 7, no. 3, pp.71-79, 2014

Abstract : Subway systems have been a proved method of public transport and are widely used in major cities around the world. However, the time and cost it takes to construct such systems are very high, as it requires underground tunnels. Cities in various countries have implemented monorail systems as public railway transport as it can be more economical and quicker compared to subway systems in terms of construction. In addition, it provides more convenience towards the public as it is not affected to traffic, and also provides an aerial view of the city. However, the overall construction cost for monorail systems is still significantly high, and as a possible solution to further reduce the overall cost, implementation of ground-level stations and wireless power transfer technology has been proposed in this paper. A concept application layout of ground-level stations and wireless power transfer systems has been discussed, using the Daegu monorail Line 3 system as a simulation base. The expected cost for monorail systems implementing groundlevel stations and/or wireless power transfer technology has been estimated based on literature survey, and was compared with the current construction cost of Daegu monorail system. Based on comparison, it has shown that implementation of ground-level stations are the most economical, and can be easily implemented for either starting or expanding the monorail line. Implementation of wireless power transfer technology is also economical, but is more feasible when starting a new monorail line as it requires components which will alter the configuration of the train and infrastructure.

Keyword : Monorail, Ground level station, Wireless power transfer