What is the difference between and elevated train, maglev and a monorail?

Question

What is the difference between and elevated train, maglev and a monorail?

Answer 1

An elevated train is simply a railway that is elevated above the ground on its own track.   For example, the Chicago El.

A monorail is a railway where the trainset runs on a single track, rather than have wheelsets which ride on a pair of rails.  For example, the monorails at Disneyland and downtown Seattle.   These happen to ride on rubber tires rather than steel wheels.

A maglev train uses a powerful linear electric motor, with one half of the motor on the train and one half on a central rail of the track.  The electromagnetic force is powerful enough to lift and propel the trainset off the track, riding on a cushion of air.  One example is the 30 mile long maglev train at the Shanghai (Pudong) airport, reaching speeds of 430 km/hr.

Answer 2

An elevated railway is one that is carried on a structure above street level, e.g. in Chicago in the USA.

Some parts of the London Underground actually operate above street level and there used to be an Elevated Railway in Liverpool, UK but this closed down in 1956.

An elevated railway can be a conventional 2-rail system or a monorail. One of the most famous elevated monorails is the Schwebebahn ('Hanging Railway'), at Wuppertal in Germany, so called because the single rail is above the train and the train literally 'hangs' from it.

Maglev ('magnetic levitation') trains are monorails which use a system which used to be called 'linear induction' - very basically the whole train and track forms an electric motor in a straight line, thus allowing the train to travel at much higher speeds than a conventional train.