Riding America's FAILED FUTURISTIC Transit
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- čas přidán 15. 06. 2024
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Edited by: @adotleee
No matter how small it is, for a university to have a metro system of its own is pretty impressive
…and it’s in West Virginia too!
@@ReichX1000 That's the most surprising part!
@@TohaBgood2 why is that?
What university has it's own metro system though? Was nothing of the sort in this video. Didn't feature any metro at all. Also, I tried doing some research. Seems there isn't a single university with a metro. Anywhere on this planet. Which makes sense. Like, if you need a metro for your university you really suck at planning.
@@user-lv6rn9cf8m It was the POD system in the video, with the WVU branding all over it.
As I'm sure you know, the POD is designed for WVU students and staff, and they use their Mountaineer Card to access the system. Since the system is about 90% used by students and staff, they don't bother having alternative payments for the 10% that are not because it would be cost prohibitive to the university to process a credit card fee for 50 cents, hence the quarters.
As much as I dislike WVU, I think the PRT is a pretty neat concept.
@@gingercat7925 It's cool but it's not practical as a citywide transit system.
They should at least provide a change machine at the stations to help with situations like yours. They would not have to pay a processing fee but would make it more easy for other general public users. I know it was built primarily to help the students to get around but they should want the local population to use it so someday it may be expanded.
Their logo looks like the whataburger logo
Me and my dad took it to mountaineer field for a game
As a WVU alumni I always knew the PRT was a big deal when it was built and is a pretty unique system but I never knew that the whole concept of skipping a station was such a massive deal. Something I rode day after day for four years and I never knew how cool it really was. Probably because it always seemed to break when needed.
Like most things in the state
Nothing quite like standing around the station in 25 degree weather only for the PRT to shut down due to weather and you have to rush to the bus stop to make your next class on the other side of campus because classes rarely cancel for snow at wvu.
Vegas loop looks suspiciously similar to PRT.
@@rwberger6 I would always enjoy selecting a station and then having to stand in 25-degree weather for the longest time, watching cars depart for every other station but mine. Then there'd finally be an announcement over the loudspeaker that my station was closed. You'd think they could put a sign up to that effect--but NOOOOO!!!
Not sure if you can blame rubber tires for a rough ride. The Montréal Métro runs on rubber tires, and it is one of the quietest and smoothest subways I've ever ridden. Certainly not "rough".
I always thought the St Louis Arch was solid, so the observation deck was a shocker. Thank you for the education.
Because the metro has both rubber tires and steel wheels so it's smoother
If you think rubber tyres are smooth, you've probably never been on a train before
the PODs are from the 70s and seem to not have been upgraded much. They likely could retrofit better suspension if they cared to.
It's not the rubber tires, it's the concrete. It cracks and get rougher with time, especially exposed to elements. Montreal Metro uses Michelin system developed originally for Paris, whuch uses steel slabs for it's guideways. That said, obviously concrete guideways are only avialble with rubber tires.
The other thing is most Morgantown PRT and most people movers use car-lije four wheel arragment that also doesn't contribute to the smoothest ride, whereas Michelin system puts rubber tyres on train-like bogies. And yes, it is smooth, comparable to or exceding traditional steell-on-steel eailways.
@@mancubwwa Exactly, rubber tires act as suspension. As anyone that has been on a train knows, minimal gaps in the rails are very noticeable.
If you claim otherwise, you show you youth and inexperience.
The Seattle Monorail and Space Needle sure seemed futuristic to me as an 8 year old at the 1962 Worlds Fair!
Me too.
😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
they seem futuristic to me as a 23 year old now
why don't more cities use those things they are cool as hell
@@hurricanefury439 Monorails are inefficent and way more expensive than usual train systems. They sure look beautiful, but are not worth the inconviences.
@@henning8737 those are lies perpetuated by the light and heavy rail industries to destroy their competition
the japanese have been running monorails ad mass transit for decades and they work
Surprisingly the use of the Seattle monorail has become much more convenient way of travel for the time being. It connects people from the light rail in downtown to the hockey and basketball games that are located at the Seattle Center.
we used it to travel between our hotel in downtown Mayflower and the Seattle Center for the museums and other things at the center, was lovely, quick and didn't even need to call up an uber
@@TheUrbanGaze well yes and no. the company making these monorails is gone (was called alweg, from germany) but hitachi still builds these and also it is just a concrete beam with 2 power rails to power the train. not that hard to figure out. disneys one is also an alweg system. they expanded it with in house built cars and track later.
Do they have a lot of Michael Jackson impersonators on their monorails?
@@TheUrbanGaze A Monorail is a fine mode of transportation. They failed in the United States because they've only ever been used as a tourist attraction. In other countries they are used as public transportation just fine. A monorail is cheaper than a light rail line and a metro. They don't have to worry about vehicle traffic and can also handle changes in elevation better than a regular train. So for some cities with a hilly terrain it makes sense. It also makes sense if you don't want a street running light rail or to tunnel underground to build a metro line. Like any public transportation though it is best when well planned out and worked with other property development projects.
i always just walk its only couple miles or less
San Francisco and Seattle have something else in common. Because they are both built on hills they both use trolly busses (also called trackless trollies) because the electric motors have the necessary torque to get the bus moving on steep inclines. San Francisco and Seattle joined forces to order trolly busses so that they could get a better price.
As does Vancouver - the last of what were once 16 Canadian cities that had trolleybuses. That system marks its 75th anniversary in August this year; Mike might cover it.
I remember being in Athens (Greece) at a time of recurring earthquake aftershocks. The Power feed system being connected via building mounts meant the conductor arms were often shaken off the wires. Watching a poor Greek Conductor trying to swing them back into place with a lump of rope while 3 lanes of honking locals blared encouragement was quite entertaining to a country bumpkin! 😉
Might be a more "interesting" experience in JohnWayne'sVille. 😱🙄
Yes trolleybusses are excellent to such conditions - they can serve areas that are unreachable for trams or regular busses.
Word Nerd here: *trolley, *trolleys, and *buses.
Hope that helps 😁
Seattle used to have cable cars, too! The street up the north side of Queen Anne Hill is still called the counterbalance by some people, and there’s counterbalance park at the bottom. And the city found a pulley from the other cable car when digging Pioneer Square Station which is now displayed on the south mezzanine.
Not just the US, the Gateway Arch is the tallest monument in the whole Western Hemisphere! Up until 2018, it was called the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial by the NPS but was redesignated as a National Park in 2018. Making it the smallest park with the designation National Park (but Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial in Philly is the smallest unit in the NPS system in general). Honestly a National Monument, which is what the Statue of Liberty is, is a better designation for it because the status of a full-on National Park is meant to be land set aside to protecting the country's different kinds of gorgeous landscapes like Acadia in Maine or Arches in Utah, and an urban park with a giant arch on the St. Louis waterfront...isn't that.
More info on the Arch's elevator tram: Richard Bowser developed with his father elevator equipment that could travel horizontally, diagonally, and normal vertical. He visited an elevator company in Moline, Illinois to see a friend when by chance, the company got a call from architect Eero Saarinen that they were looking for a group to take on the big project. Bowser made a return call. When Eero called back, he gave Bowser two weeks to design and present in front of the team. He knew a normal system of course wouldn't do, so for the Arch he combined elevator and Ferris wheel elements to create a unique system where a tram of eight elevator pods that by rotating, allows the visitors inside to remain leveled the entire way.
Wow
I've been waiting for this video! I was a National Park Ranger at the St. Louis Arch in 2015 and have been on those pods literally thousands of times! It never gets old! Also slight correction, although the Arch and museum are a national park, the pod elevator system is actually not operated by the parks. It is technically a part of the St. Louis Metro system so the operators are city, not federal employees.
I didn't know that! All the times I've been to the Arch, I assumed it was packaged together. Thanks for clarifying.
Why is it in a video about failed transit systems? I don't understand why it is in this video. I have waited in those lines. No transit system that stays that busy for decades can be considered a failure.
@@wmason1961 The producer actually want to 1) show what achievements American people have accomplished and 2) give insights what should be done for future.
“Failed Futuristic” - can you read?
@TeamLas3r where is the "fail"? 55 years later, and it is still heavily utilized and futuristic. There is no failure with the arch pods. Except in this video's title.
as a uw student originally from Southern California, the monorail in seattle does have a very theme-park esque experience. much like disneyland
Seattle Center's monorail is iconic, though the Disneyland Monorail is the true granddaddy of North American monorail systems! The Disneyland Monorail opened on June 14, 1959, as the first permanent monorail system in the Western Hemisphere, and currently operates with a Mark VII fleet that debuted in 2008. When it opened, it connected Tomorrowland to the Disneyland Hotel, but Disneyland Hotel station became Downtown Disney station in the early 2000s. The monorail actually opened with a little accident where then Vice President Nixon was abducted onto the monorail by Walt without Nixon's security! The monorail was designed by famed Imagineer Bob Gurr (who designed most of Disneyland's ride vehicles like Haunted Mansion and Autopia).
Gurr and Disney were assisted by Alweg, the German company that pioneered straddle beam monorails, the same ones who helped build the Seattle Center Monorail shown here! Up until opening day, the monorail would not cooperate with them. Gurr and a German engineer worked tirelessly each night on sketching replacement parts and rushing them to the studio in Burbank so they could be built. The day before on June 13, the monorail ran as intended for the first time, but they were still worried for opening day. Gurr was in the pilot's seat, with Nixon's family and Walt on board, but the secret service agents didn't get on board as Gurr left the moment Walt told him to. He was worried, with Walt staring at him, that the monorail would break down and he accidentally kidnapped Nixon. Thankfully, it ran as intended.
There’s a much newer version of the POD system at Heathrow Airport in London. It operates from T5 to the drive & fly parking area, as well as to the London Heathrow Thistle Hotel. It’s free to use, each pod can hold 4 people, and you just select your destination on a touch screen before boarding. Like Morganstown, each pod goes direct to the destination without stopping. Oh, and since it goes past the end of runway 9L, if the wind direction is right you get landing aircraft flying over you as you pass.
Basically a shit train
Whats it laughably low ridership? Sounds pretty niche.
@@SuburbaniteUrbaniteit’s surprisingly busy given the connection to one of the airport hotels.
That was cool Mike! I had no idea there was an elevator inside the Arch. I have been on the Seattle monorail a few times but it isn’t long enough. Thank you!😊
During WVU Homecoming week, they have the PRT Cram. The record is 96 people in a PRT car. Thanks for featuring my alma mater!
That's not the only cool transit in St. Louis, there's also the MetroLink light-rail system which serves the airport as well as Illinois, and the really cool part about it is the Eads Bridge section. Laclede's Landing station is within the bridge, and when you get off there, you see a view of the Arch...from the bricked arches of the bridge! The bridge is named for its designer and builder, James Buchanan Eads. Work began in 1867, and it was completed in 1874. The Eads Bridge was the first bridge across the Mississippi south of the Missouri River. Earlier bridges were located north of the Missouri, where the Mississippi is smaller. None of the earlier bridges survive, which means that the Eads Bridge is also the OLDEST bridge on the river!
Its foundations, more than 100 feet below water level, were the deepest underwater constructions at the time. They were installed using pneumatic caissons, a pioneering application of caisson technology in the United States and, at the time, by far the largest caissons ever built. Its 520-foot center arch was the longest rigid span ever built at the time. The arches were built suspended from temporary wooden towers, sometimes cited as the first use of the "cantilever principle" for a large bridge. These engineering principles were used for later bridges, including the famous Brooklyn Bridge, which began construction in 1870.
🤯I never ever expected the St. Louis Arch actually was accessible, let alone it contains those pods, what a marvel of engineering!
Anyone interested in a deeper dive into the Morgantown PRT might want to google up Tom Scott's video where he focussed entirely on the PRT.
This feels like something that an urbex channel would find abandoned. Like it has this old- time futuristic and cool feeling, but something about it feels unsettling. Its like looking at a liminal space.
The PRT was built while my dad was at WVU, opening when he was a junior. He said that it really did make it much faster getting from one end of campus to the next. He said that before the PRT was built, he had to plan/schedule his classes around travel time, especially if he had classes on two different sides of campus/town in the same day.
3:40 - "Bypassing a station...that's what makes the PRT cool...these moments don't happen on any other system."
Express trains on the NYC Subway: Umm...idk abt that
I’ve done the St Louis Arch twice, but not since they remodeled the museum and park. It would be so interesting to go back. I would also love to go back and see the Space Needle again.
St. Louisan here, the remodeled grounds and new entryway are beautiful. Definitely worth another visit.
Hey Mike. I have been to (and in) the St. Louis arch twice and your comparison to a 5-seater space capsule is pretty appropriate. Fun, fascinating, and (as I recall) a tad on the noisy side. But, wow, the view from up top. And those PRT pods are CUTE.
Thanks for all the good stuff you and your team bring us. Take care.
Great series! If you want to ride the coolest monorail, go to Walt Disney World. Actually, with all the different modes of transportation (buses, Minnie Vans, trains, monorails, boats, The Skyliner, The People Mover) you could make one heck of a series all by itself.
What else would Disney have but "Minnie" Vans!!
👍👍👍
I just hope none of their Gyros have a Gear Loose ....
>Minnie Vans
Really, Di$ney?
Back in the late 1970's, Walt Disney World also had a ride very similar to WVU's PRT system. It ran on an elevated track. The cars were similar to the PRT, but were open and had no roof. The point of the ride was just to go around and get a sense of the entire park. I remember it well because my family took me to WDW as a child. I got separated from them. I had very little money, but I did have my ticket package for the rides. I spent all day riding that thing because it was a "D" ride. I've never been back to WDW. Nobody knows what I'm talking about when I mention this ride, so they must have torn it down. Also, nobody knows what I'm talking about when I mention a "D" ride. WDW must have gotten rid of their old ticketing system, as well. The best rides, like Space Mountain, were "A" rides. There was a sign at the end of the line for Space Mountain which read, "Estimated Wait Time--3 Days." My family was only at WDW for one day! I didn't get to use my "A" ticket on anything!
You got so lucky the PRT wasn't broken when you visited. My wife went to WVU and she said how this used to happen frequently.
I went to WVU- thanks for sharing! The "personal" aspect of the PRT is often only at peak times (or was back then). At slow times, it stops at every station and functions like a metro system. It also broke down a lot. It does seem like it's been sinc upgraded, however- the turnstyles used to have rickety buttons instead of screens. It's neat to have in such a small city though!
The new turnstiles are about the only upgrade!
That PRT is pretty cool! I had no idea such a thing exists
Hey Downie, glad you had a good trip aboard the PRT! I work there and we've been making upgrades to keep improving passenger experiences! This summer we are doing major resurfacing along some of the guideway.
I’ve got to say I saw your preview of the pods I got curious and looked them up on my own and I feel like you didn’t do them justice. They’re pretty unique for the situation with the college and the traffic there. I saw a retro video that explains the benefits of the system and I feel like when you know the details of why they went with that system it it’s a perfect solution, it could it be a smoother ride but I think a lot of places could do really well with a system similar to that with just some modern improvements.
It was actually quite neat when it was new. Now it's almost fifty years old, and it breaks down constantly.
I got offered a job to be one of the Seattle monorail drivers, but life took me to the midwest instead, I still think back about how fun it would have been to cruise on the Tomorrowland rail all day. great video as always
Japan has 3 monorail systems where they are suspended i have been in all 3 of them. I highly recommend you to visit Japan if you want to have even more train experiences.
Both the Gateway Arch and the Space Needle are so cool, in person. Nice feature!
This was great! If you’re ever in Houston, visit the the peoplemover at the airport. One of the only Disney built systems outside of the parks - they wanted to sell them nationwide, but sadly it didn’t take off. So definitely could be an addendum to this video!
I don't know if anyone else suggested the Gateway Arch for unique transist, but I know I did, and I'm delighted to see you visited! Glad you enjoyed your first (though very short) visit to St. Louis. Hope you come back again sometime!
I have ridden all three of these. Usually I like having you expose me to what I don't know, but I really enjoyed seeing your take what I was already familiar with.
Thank you for doing this Video! These are places I dont ever see myself physically ever going to, so your sharing your experience is quite the treat!!
Seattle Center Monorail was built for tourist attraction part of the Worlds Fare they held sixty years ago. Now, it transformed into a public transit, implementing the ORCA system and renovating the Westlake Center station where they added the full-screen door shown briefly in the video. It even shows on the google maps and features the departing and arriving times.
Moral of the Story: Mexican Eateries save lives.
I can't figure out why he didn't go into the Blue Moose coffee shop. He would have passed it before he got to the Mexican place, and it surely would have been open that early in the morning.
I remember riding that old rail at wvu. It broke down constantly, the cars were cramped and sweaty, and it was overall bumpy and unpleasent.
Thanks for the tour of the three different transit types. I visited two of the three spots, St. Louis and the arch. It was an interesting ride in that special elevator and as mentioned you better not be claustafobic since the pods are so small. However having the window in the car and
being able to see out at the stairs and inner skin of the arch helps. The view from the top is defiantly worth the trip. The other city I visited was Seattle and I did ride the monorail. As noted it is relatively short and only serves the two points but again is most likely the best solution they used for the Worlds fair where they wanted to feature futuristic transport and move people without surface traffic interfering. I look forward to your future adventures.
Now I'm really mad at myself. I've been to Morgantown a few times now....never knew about the POD system. Maybe my next trip by there. Sadly I still haven't been to the St. Louis Arch...even though I was just a 1/2 mile away in 2002 at a Cardinals game in the old Busch Stadium. Also, I've been to Seattle...but not the monorail or the Space Needle. I gotta work on my tourist game!! Haha. Another great video!! Until next week...
East Broad Top is working on bringing back a whole train line to RobertsDale Pa and if you ever get a chance to see this beautiful narrow gauge steam locomotive and there are not that many words to describe the beautiful line in Pennsylvania and you can still see the line where it went to Mount Union along time ago. For any more ideas that you can`t think of you can still visit more of Pennsylvania like East Broad Top Strasburg Railroad and Steamtown
For my last year of six years in South Korea, I lived in Uijeongbu. They have a monorail there and I loved riding it. It was one of my favorite things in that city.
There is a high speed rail station across the road from the fish market in Inchoeon, but I didn’t get a chance to ride it. At least not yet.
As a WVU alum as much as you said it's still pretty cool I can't help feeling attacked, lol. It's not MEANT to be a city-wide transit system and for what it is to get around campus it does just fine. You complained about the car size but pointed out it's direct to your destination, so the likelihood you even need a larger car is slim to none. You're not often sharing with a ton of people. This little guy was a godsend during school.
I went to college at WVU. I rode that dang PRT multiple times a day as a freshman lol. I've seen them packed with like 25 people for game days and other events haha. It 100% is quicker for students traveling between the 2 campuses then other modes of transport. WVU has 2 campuses
I don't think we should ever build more pods or monorails, when elevated light rail is so much more efficient, but I'm really glad these weird systems continue to exist. Also, even if I would have put it on two rails instead of one, that retrofuturistic style of the monorail is just so bloody gorgeous!
I'd prefer to see suspended rail rather than elevated rail, though it does have a similar issue to monorails in that there aren't many of them, so it could be more expensive to build and maintain.
@@Yay295 suspended rail really does seem like "monorail but slightly better" to me in nearly all respects. In the few situations where monorail is better than conventional rail, suspended rail is even better still. The main benefit of monorail over conventional rail is that the infrastructure allows more light through if built over roads and pedestrian areas, but suspended rail can be even slimmer, because the rail doesn't have to be thick enough to keep the train from tipping over, it can just be a very thin I beam or similar, and then gravity keeps it aligned. But you can build elevated conventional rail that is still fairly minimalist and lets a decent bit of the light through, while also maintaining interoperability with existing infrastructure.
@@bow-tiedengineer4453 The Wuppertal Schwebebahn is the a suspended-rail system that's been running since *1901.*
czcams.com/video/AaDDd4Rixi4/video.html
I’m so glad Pittsburgh’s inclines got a nod. Nice work!
Mike this was amazing especially the ride up the St.Louis arch. Thanks for sharing another great video 😊
I have been on the PRT at WVU before since my cousin is a freshman there and about to be a sophomore. I love how quick it goes every time even the jolt in the beginning. I have taken it to those big brick buildings which are dorms all dorms and also other places as well. I personally think it is so fun and enjoyable to ride. Great video as always!
So happy to see my home state of WV is home to something so quirky yet kinda cool. I've only traveled through Morgantown a few times on my way to/from Pittsburgh, but seeing the PRT makes me want to go ride it. I have to say, Mike, these quirky little transportation systems made one of the most interesting series I've seen in a long, long time. Thank you so much for sharing. I hope that maybe there are some other odd methods of transport out there you can show us one day.
Many years ago I read a book called The Rift by Walter Williams, about a huge earthquake on the fault that runs along the Mississippi River (St. Louis Fault? Cairo Fault?)... excellent book, I suggest it to everyone.
One portion of the book focuses on a National Park Ranger at the Arch who had to deal with evacuating people from the Arch (down *all* those stairs!) and your video helped bring into focus the words I read in that portion. Thanks!
You really make me look at transportation of every kind so much differently. Thank you for that, you make my travels so much better.
when the prt is running full capacity during the middle of the school day, it stops at every station and doesn't bypass them. it also CONSTANTLY broke down when I was going there and I always just drove to the other campus instead of relying on it to work.
No, it doesn't stop at every station.
@@redbreadredemption2401 it did for the years I went there. That must be a relatively new change then if it doesn't do that anymore.
Please come over to Germany. Experiece the airport rail at Frankfurt Airport, the Wuppertal Schwebebahn, the ICE high speed train, the steam trains of different historic enthausiasts or even the narrow gauge rails to some amazing places.
So excited to see the PRT!! I grew up in Morgantown and I had no idea just how special the transit system was when I was a kid - they were so normalized for me that I thought they must be in other cities. It wasn’t until I saw Tom Scott’s video on them that I realized they were a rarity. When I was little, my preschool or kindergarten took us out on the PRT as a field trip. I actually haven’t used them since then - they seem to be really just a student thing - but I admire them a whole lot now.
Your videos are absolutely amazing. Gorgeous cinematography, great narration, great editing.
11:04- Yes, the Seattle Space Needle was built in 1962 to 'look futuristic'-which was also the same year that that Hanna-Barbera classic cartoon 'The Jetsons' premiered! Do you think the futuristic family's Skypad Apartment building looking so MUCH like the Space Needle was entirely coincidental?LOL
Seriously, though. Thanks for showing us these three cities' unique venues/transports!
Thank you Mike and the DownieLive channel for showing and giving us some amazing insights on some equally amazing and overlooked methods for moving people. LOVE IT and all your uploads!
Well.....I have SEVERELY UNDERESTIMATED the size of *the arch" my entire life. I thought it was like 80x smaller for some reason. I didn't even know you could go into it. Gotta love that Texas education. 😂
If you're ever in Switzerland, you can enjoy the outdoor, mountain-climbing version of the swivveling lift: The Stoosbahn
I live in West Virginia but i've never rode the Morgantown one i'll have to ddo it soemday
I went to WVU 40+ years ago. The PRT was pretty new and exciting. The prototype for the future. Now at Bush International Airport in Houston they have a very similar system. Fun seeing Morgantown. It was old then, looks the same.
I also went to WVU 40 years ago. the PRT was only 8 years old then and had a tendency to breakdown quite often, usually due to software issues in the system and car breakdowns. Looks like they got that fixed.
@@stuartm6069 the PRT still does that to this day I can say
@@stuartm6069 Nope, they didn't get it fixed--and they never will.
Love your channel and focus on transportation!
Can I give a suggestion…all the Disney World transportation options! Monorail, steam train, gondolas, canal boats, paddle boat, etc!
Another great video! They are always fantastic. I look forward to the next one!
After years of playing Fallout 76, this is the first I realized the weird train system in Morgantown was not just an in-game creation.
You should check out the upside-down railway in Wuppertal Germany, it is amazing.
I live in Morgantown, I have never ridden the PRT. It would have been great to meet you. I watch all your uploads.
This was so awesome, never knew that the arch had a way to go inside of it and see the city, I thought it was a solid concrete metal object!
bypassing a station... happens on every decent train line where in-line stations have bypass tracks and there are trains that do not stop at certain stations.... lol
I was waiting for this comment lmao. I live In Australia and I was like, "hey, we have express trains all the time".
No, it's different. It doesn't stop at ANY station, just at your station. Express trains still make some intermediate stops.
The most impressive part of this episode was that Mike made it in and out of St Louis without being robbed
I loved how much effort you put in this video, and it made me realize that I really enjoyed my vacation in Seattle.
Hi Mike, have I got a few unique systems for you to try (by air, land and sea).
1 - Skyrail Midorizaka Line (It's like if a suspended monorail and an aerial lift had a baby)
2 - Asa Coast Railway (It's a bus and a train at the same time)
3 - Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route (It's a way to cross the mountains via bus, foot, funicular and ropeway that somehow exists and is popular)
4 - Oshima (Fly from Tokyo... to another part of Tokyo, and back.)
5 - Tanegashima (Ferries in Japan are cool. Time it right and you can see a rocket launch too!)
6 - Kanmon Pedestrian Tunnel (You can walk under a busy shipping lane and between two of Japan's major islands. It's 700 meters long.)
Another great exploration of transit systems from you Mike. I rode the Seattle monorail during my 1989 US/Canada tour but the other two systems you show are new to me. I've always wondered about how people get to the top of the Gateway Arch and now I know. I had a great chuckle when you finished up having a meal instead of just coffee to get your change for the Morgantown PRT. Quite an interesting concept this PRT. Pity about the rough riding though. Someone must have said; "Hey! Here comes this Downie Guy...and he's just eaten. Let's pump up the tyres....." I'm sure you can guess the rest. I do hope that tourists to the Gateway Arch fast before getting into one of those rotating cell lifts. Could be embarrassing if someone had a nervous moment enroute. Now while you were in Seattle, I do hope you sampled the waterfront streetcar which comes from my hometown, Melbourne. Quite a few W2 Class Cars from Melbourne have ended up in American Cities, either operative or static museum exhibits. Looking forward to whatever surprises you have for us next week. Cheers from Downunder.🙂🙂🙂
Unfortunately I have some very bad news for you, our idiotic Seattle City Government decided (against the very strong wishes of the people) to discontinue the Seattle waterfront trolley. We are in the middle of redeveloping our waterfront (which was very much needed) the project has some great parts like tearing down the elevated freeway and making a tunnel instead, expanding the waterfront aquarium l, connecting pike place market to the waterfront. Etc. But they tore out the trolley shed to make a sculpture park on the north end of the waterfront promenade and even thought there were offers/plans to build another one in another location they ended up tearing out the tracks too, people were and are pissed about it. Both locals and tourists loved the waterfront streetcars and it is one of the few things almost everyone in the city agreed upon. We all wanted it back, so of course the city refused. They claim the fact that we have new streetcar lines running fairly close means we don't need it, that the old cars weren't accessible for disabilities, that it is old fashioned and doesn't fit into the plans for the new modern waterfront, etc. But it is an absolute travesty. I will never get over it, it was a massive part of my childhood that I loved and would have loved to take my kids on it as well but the elitist idiots in charge robbed it from us all. If they had two brain cells to rub together they would have worked to try and find ways to expand and improve it, but this being an American city they of course did the exact opposite of the the correct thing and Seattle is less for it. Even worse, as a slap in the face they briefly put buses with fake trolley "looking" paint jobs on the route to try and satiate the anger... like pissing on my head and telling me it's raining...as you can tell I am just a tiny bit bitter about it...
Great video! I love public transit and it's cool learning about obscure transit systems in the US. One thing I was left curious about was why these systems didn't reach wider adoption. Thanks for making the video!
There is an angled elevator in the town hall of Hannover (Germany) too, it's really cool to go up there, and there is glass on the floor which makes it a bit scary to look down
Broo I started watching your videos this winter and I'm highkey geeking because I go to WVU and ride that PRT almost daily.
Fascinating video -thank you for exploring the topic of transportation systems!
While you were in West Virginia I hope you rode the Cass Railroad.
Nice video.
Thanks for featuring my hometown Gateway Arch! It was great to hear about it from someone who had never been there before. We native St. Louisans sometimes forget what a treasure we have right in our own...front yard.
Fascinating series, Mike! Keep them coming.
We have express trains on the SEPTA Subway here in Philly where stations are bypassed, but there is a dedicated rail much like your bypass drive that goes past the station in the WV example you showed. Really great video!
Although the Seattle monorail was built in 1962 for the future of travel, technically that concept is being used in many cities, including Vancouver BC, but is called light rail instead of a monorail.
As a student who goes to WVU the PRT isn’t as wonderful as it was made out to be. While yes it is a convenient way to get from the uptown campus to the downtown campus, it breaks down a lot. On a typical day it can shut down from 1-6 or sometimes be closed altogether. If your lucky it’ll only be for 10 minutes , but most of the time your stuck for 30 minutes at a time or more.Let’s not forget how long you have to wait just to get on the Pod. If it isn’t busy you won’t wait to long to get a pod, but let’s face it is a large university, it is hardly ever not busy. But overall nice vid my guy, very entertaining.
Yes. If you're going to a station where nobody goes much (I'm looking at you, DOWNTOWN STATION!), they'll make you wait until there are enough passengers to fill a car up. That can be a long wait.
I rode the Seattle monorail last fall, it was pretty cool sitting at the front watching the driver pilot the train!
I ride the PRT to downtown campus every day; seems to have slowed down a lot and its a bit more jerky than it used to be, but it’s still a quicker ride than driving
I will never forget the fear I felt at the top of that arch. Something about the way you lay on the arch to look out the windows just freaked me out! I don’t do heights very well
The PRT also have heated track so heavy snowfall in the winters of WV isn’t a excuse to skip classes.
I Love the 3 Mini Episodes in an Episode. Totally worth the wait!
I got my engineering degree from WVU, so I road that system A LOT. Calling it public transit is a bit of a stretch. It is primarily designed for university students and staff as a way to connect the various campuses of the university. So it is a university transit system that is open for the public if they want to. The public take other options. Most non-university people only ride it once for the experience.
As a St. Louisan, probably the first time I've ever heard appreciation expressed for those elevators. Love it!
This was great I've always wanted to know about the architecture of the arch thank you much love from New Zealand
Hi Mike...I agree. You really found some unique people movers there !
Adding, The PRT is principally to transport students of WVU around campus & not clog the streets with traffic. Key word "Students" hence still using quarters!
There's probably some engineering reason they can't up the price. The students all get PRT passes, so they're not the ones using quarters. Fifty cents was considerably more money in 1975 than it is now.
So glad you were able to take in the Arch. I used to live in STL and did the Arch once. Now, I can't do it because I'm so claustrophobic and those pods would have me heaving.
Yay! Been waiting for a new video from you. Always a highlight of my YT viewing.
Real shame how the Seattle monorail and the Morgantown PRT never improved or got expanded, some pretty unique stuff. Meanwhile, many countries in Asia and Europe have been continuously improving their public transit systems, Us and Canada is so behind.
Seattle has added many new transit systems since the monorail. The monorail actually isn't publically run. The city has added street cars, many bus systems, and one of the best lightrail systems in the country. Also there are water taxis and ferries :)
Never knew that about the arch, not just the elevators but that you could even go inside, now you've got me fascinated
The arch pods are the only place they are used as an elevator (enclosed within a building), but there is an implementation of the same concept on a funicular in Switzerland. It connects the alpine village of Stoos with the valley below, and has the world's steepest funicular track at one point.
I believe I saw a video about this. It has a variable slope so a fixed carriage would not work - the seats would not stay level.
The Seattle Airport internal transit system is also quite interesting -- we traveled all of its various lines while waiting for the flight home last year, after disembarking an Alaskan cruise.
I'm kind of a tram nerd, myself. I've ridden all these odd transit systems myself, except that pod. It's now, officially, on my bucket list...
yea it is pretty cool, great airport, once you get thru security, we walked around the entire airport when our flight was delayed multiple times. Also got all the good local food too.
@9:29 The Monorail here in seattle is indeed the fastest way from Seattle-Seattle Center, but it could be so much better. In tokyo the monorailk gets you from the airport (Haneda) to downtown in just 11 Minutes Seattles light rail takes over 35 Minutes. This city needs and would be so much better with a good transit system. And while the Light rail here in seattle is great for most tourists, to the people that live here including myself, its often faster to drive and has become of the most memed, and joked laughed about things in the city, (and in case that were not bad enough one of the lines supposed to open last week is noe delayed to 2025 because we misplaced litterally every single railway tie on the floating bridge (thats a problem because it connects both sides of "line 2" together the island section and the mainland subway section)
I've wanted to see a video like this for so long, thank you!