Kuala Lumpur: KL Monorail (I)

Описание: The busy arteries of Kuala Lumpur are kept moving by an impressive public transport infrastructure which includes an array of modern metro rail systems that dissect the citys map, join the dots, and make the urban journey from A to B as swift and manageable as possible. Of the bunch probably the most visually interesting is the KL Monorail which twists and turns its way through the city on twin parallel elevated tracks. It has 11 stations along its 8.6 km length and starts at KL Sentral, the citys main railway station and undisputed public transport hub, before thrusting its way into what is known locally as the Golden Triangle, an array of shopping centres, hotels and commercial skyscrapers in the northeast of the city bordered by three key roads: Jalan Imbi, Jalan Sultan Ismail and Jalan Raja Chulanits. The monorail planners aim has been to link up several densely-populated areas that had previously been lacking in access to urban transport and four of its stations smoothly integrate with other rail systems in the city.

Work on the KL Monorail started in 1997, and it opened to the public in mid-2003. The ten two-car trains that ply the route, each of which is lavishly decorated in the colours of a different sponsor, were built in Malaysia and can carry up squeeze in 158 passengers in total, with traffic levels reportedly now kicking in at over 20 million journeys a year. It first glance it looks a bit dainty, overshadowed by a thrusting and unyielding metropolis that forces the monorail to pick a path round it.

The monorail system appears to have been designed to be of a relatively low cost to build, maintain and operate, the elevated tracks are straightforward concrete structures and the stations too are quite neat and simple, topped with a tent-like canvas roof stretched tight over a shiny steel frame. At night these stations are floodlit in a variety of pastel colours which gives them a highly distinctive appeal: and hoisted above ground level and bathed in bright colours, they stand out from the busy city bustle. More than eight kilometers of side-by-side concrete tracks raised aloft on pillars taper into a single rail as they enter the terminus station at either end of the line, hinged by a pair of steel points, while there is a maintenance yard down an incline just outside the final station. It's light and simple structure means the monorail also blends perfectly into the urban jungle, it's inegrated into the landscape now, as part of the city as any of the long-standing landmarks. There appears to be just one break to the winding concrete tracks on the full-length of the line, a girdered bridge about 100 feet long that supports the monorail as it traverses a wide highway.

The monorail has been slotted into a particularly busy landscape that is littered with towering buildings, haphazard and immovable obstacles that the elevated track has to circumnavigate as it picks its way round the city. The result is a railway that constantly twists and turns (it can impressively go through 90-degrees in just 50 metres), from gentle curves to abrupt 90-degree changes in direction, meaning that at many points the tracks are sharply banked to stop passengers from being uncomfortably shifted sideways. And its not just the multiple left or right hand turns, it also ascends and descends as it faithfully follows the citys undulating vista, the cars - which are 10 metres long, 3 metres wide and 4.5 metres high - can handle a 6-degree incline. Nothing puts the KL Monorail off as it lugs its passengers through the city from 6:00am to midnight, apparently not even the worst of the tropical monsoons that cascade like waterfalls off its rails.. It all adds up to the effect of a gentle and slower-speed rollercoaster. The coaches offer a good snapshot of the city as the monorail darts in between high-rise apartment and office blocks, skirts expansive malls, hovers above busy major roads, and presents an all-round view that includes the world-famous Petronas Twin Towers.