The Ueno Zoo Monorail Line (東京都交通局上野懸垂線, Tōkyō-to Kōtsū-kyoku Ueno Kensui-sen?) is a 0.3 km long suspended monorail operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation (Toei). It lies within the Ueno Zoo in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. The monorail is similar to the Schwebebahn Wuppertal, but has rubber tires rather than steel wheels. Many of the parts manufactured for the monorail were off-the-shelf. The first monorail in the nation (and the first zoo monorail in the world,) it has two stations, single track, and operates at 600 V DC. The line began operating on December 17, 1958, and except for a suspension during 2001–2002, has been in operation since. Being located inside the zoo, it only operates on days when the zoo is open, and between 9:40 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.; departures are scheduled every seven minutes. The fare for the 90-second trip is 150 yen.
Famous quotes containing the word zoo:
“The zoo cannot but disappoint. The public purpose of zoos is to offer visitors the opportunity of looking at animals. Yet nowhere in a zoo can a stranger encounter the look of an animal. At the most, the animal’s gaze flickers and passes on. They look sideways. They look blindly beyond.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)