The 1970s was a perfect time for alternative modes of transport to be trialed that might replace cars in the wake of the global oil crisis. One of these was the Cabinentaxi, or C-Bahn as it was later called, which was a variation on the standard suspended and monorail concepts.
It was a people mover concept, with ‘pods’ (or cabins) that’d ride either on top of or below the suspended track. It was tested intensively over the course of six years, performed admirably, and completely failed to materialize commercially due to budget crunch times around the world.
Recently [Tim Traveller] went to the muddy farm field that once housed the big test track (pictured above), of which nothing remains but the gates and a sign. Despite the fact that few people have heard of Cabinentaxi prior to seeing [Tim]’s video or reading this, there is a big Wikipedia entry on it, as well as a (German language) site dedicated to the technology.
What made the C-Bahn different from trains and buses were the smaller pods, high throughput capacity and ability to call a pod on demand at any of the stations. This kind of flexibility is what is seen more or less with today’s people moving systems at airports and some cities, except the C-Bahn was classified as a personal rapid transport (PRT), with on-demand pods that could travel between any two stations without stopping or delays. This is something that isn’t seen with public transport today, even if self-driving cars purport to one day do this kind of trick.
Considering that this technology died most due to economical circumstances, we remain hopeful to see its revival one day.
Top image: Cabinentaxi layout as it existed in 1978, with labels by the Tim Traveller YT channel.
“Gadgetbahn”. What a great word. Probably because of Disneyland, I have always loved monorails and am just a little heartbroken that they aren’t really practical.
This reminds me quite a lot of the Morgantown PRT that Tom Scott did a video about a number of years ago (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaSaWfw07Sw).
I like my cars and I like driving, but it’s such a bad fit for so much of what we do. Or perhaps more accurately there are so many better ways to accomplish transportation in relatively dense areas.
There were a number of these projects at that time. The prototype for this was on Boeing property south of Seattle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgantown_Personal_Rapid_Transit
Seattle also had something at the 1962 World’s Fair called the Bubbleator (and the monorail of course). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6rRa52vDJc
Germany has a loooong history of monorail development. My personal favorite is the Schwebebahn, the first electric monorail. It was built in Wuppertal, opened in 1901, right is still in daily use!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuppertal_Schwebebahn?wprov=sfla1
Worth a look: side-by-side video from one of the cars in 1902 next to a modern video over the same track:
https://youtu.be/7TqqdOcX4dc
Long-term Tim Traveller viewers will know that this is technically called a ‘dangletrain’. (Also, he did a video on the Wuppertal one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IFh6wFTJiQ)
I’m sure I saw an urbex video about a tour of something very similar in Germany a couple of years ago?
Built but never opened and small pods but I can’t remember what it was called
Transrapid maybe? It finally got build in China.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transrapid
Do you mean the SK? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWxESIzJhCU
DC should have installed something like this rather than the useless Light Rail they put in on H Street. It’s free and goes maybe 3 miles….and clogs up the traffic something crazy.
I like that they use top and bottom of the beam, makes the most of the real estate.
Detroit metro area almost had monorail system. A prototype were up and running between Fairlane mall and the nearby hotel. Ford’s monorail (technically not monorail as there’s no track, it was just flat narrow road) was to be expanded across Detroit metro area going as far west as Canton or near Ypsilanti. https://www.flickr.com/photos/rbglasson/1135955541 is the cars used back then, no one seems to know where it is now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_ACT
Cost killed the project. Detroit metro area has lots of roads and it’d be expensive to build elevated track over all the roads and buying up all the lands since I doubt average Joe would like to have a track running over his house.
If you looked on Google, you’d find results saying the CT Trolley museum still has them on display from 2023. If you ask the museum, they’ll tell you if they still have it in the collection.
this is old POLISH invented not german