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Germany’s unique suspension monorail is a must-visit for train lovers (www.euronews.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

Ride the Iron Sloth

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Thank you for posting here! Have you ever taken it?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

I have and it's awesome. The best place to ride is at the very back of the cars - there's a huge window back there.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Yeah, it's fun and quite convenient.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

For anyone that is intrigued here is a 10 hour loop of the train.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I once spent a night in Wuppertal just to ride this thing. Rode it from end to end, and then again the next morning. What was unexpected was how modern it is. You might expect a rickety historic tourist contraption, but in fact it's a modern metro with great views and an unusual ride.

As I understand it, in most countries the railway would be completely uneconomical since it has no off-the-shelf parts and there are no tourists in Wuppertal, but in Germany it makes some sense since it can be used as a sort of training bed for local engineering students and industry.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

It probably isn't the best use of the city's funds, but given the specific geography of the city, using the space above the river that runs along the entire narrow valley that makes up most of Wuppertal, it does make some sense.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

There's a cool video from this train in 1902:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ud1aZFE0fU

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

We spent a month Interrailing around the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and France, so my family of five felt like we'd experienced everything that train travel had to offer.

Unlike lots of city transport systems that are a bit tucked away, such as the London Underground, this one's very visible, given the huge green frames that hold the rail above the road and river.

It took another 80 years before construction work began on the electric system we see today, with the upside-down monorail offered to big cities like Berlin and Munich before being installed in what is now known as Wuppertal.

But there’s still plenty of ticket options, including buying the €49 monthly DeutschlandTicket that covers all local transport like buses, subways, trams, S-Bahns and regional trains throughout Germany.

As well as its unique train system beloved by both tourists and commuters, Wuppertal also lays claim to being the greenest town in Germany, as you’re never more than 10 minutes’ walk from one of its many green spaces.

There's plenty of fascinating stories over its 125 years in existence, including the time that a circus elephant was being transported in one of the carriages as a publicity stunt in 1950, before panicking, smashing through a window and falling into the river below.

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