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99-579: The Marconi Express is a monorail line in Bologna , Italy . At 5.095 kilometres (3.2 mi) in length, it links Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport to Bologna Centrale railway station , with an intermediate station and depot at Lazzaretto and a travel time of 7 minutes and 20 seconds. The monorail trains have been provided by Intamin Transportation. The three trainsets are each capable of carrying up to 48 passengers. The coordinated design of

198-423: A railroad double-crossover . Vehicle specifications are generally not open to the public, as is standard for rolling stock built for public services. An alternative to using a wye or other form of switch, is to use a turntable , where a car sits upon a section of track that can be reoriented to several different tracks. For example, this can be used to switch a car from being in a storage location, to being on

297-472: A cultural, recreational, sporting and religious nature, even if held in closed places. This measure was described as the largest lockdown in the history of Europe, as well as the most aggressive response taken in any region beyond China, and paralysed the wealthiest parts of the country as Italy attempted to constrain the rapid spread of the disease. Riots broke out in many penitentiaries throughout Italy after restrictions on conjugal visits were imposed by

396-562: A faulty monorail from a confidence trickster at a wildly inflated price. The Monorail Society, an organization with 14,000 members worldwide, has blamed the episode for sullying the reputation of monorails, to which Simpsons creator Matt Groening responded "That's a by-product of our viciousness...Monorails are great, so it makes me sad, but at the same time if something's going to happen in The Simpsons , it's going to go wrong, right?" The 2005 feature film Batman Begins features

495-653: A load-bearing single rail and an external wheel for balance. A highspeed monorail using the Lartigue system was proposed in 1901 between Liverpool and Manchester. In 1910, the Brennan gyroscopic monorail was considered for use to a coal mine in Alaska. In June 1920, the French Patent Office published FR 503782, by Henri Coanda, on a 'Transporteur Aérien' -Air Carrier. One of the first monorails planned in

594-557: A manually operated monorail of limited but sufficient capacity for the transport of small timber and firewood in the Northern Surabaya forest district. In later years, this idea was further developed by L. A. van de Ven, who was a forester in the Grobogan forest district around 1908–1910. Monorails were built by plantation operators and wood processing companies throughout the mountains of Central Java. In 1919/1920, however,

693-829: A monorail, constructed by Bruce Wayne's father through Gotham City, that is part of the climax of the film. The monorail is also included in the spin-off video game . Blaine the Mono is a train featured in Stephen King 's The Dark Tower series of books and first appears in The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands . Monorails have also appeared in a number of other video games including Transport Tycoon (since 1999), Japanese Rail Sim 3D: Monorail Trip to Okinawa by Sonic Powered , SimCity 4: Rush Hour , Cities in Motion 2 , Cities: Skylines in

792-907: A narrow guide way. Monorail vehicles are wider than the guideway that supports them." Monorails are often elevated, sometimes leading to confusion with other elevated systems such as the Docklands Light Railway , Vancouver SkyTrain , the AirTrain JFK and cable propelled systems like the Cable Liner people mover which run on two rails. Monorail vehicles often appear similar to light rail vehicles, and can be staffed or unstaffed. They can be individual rigid vehicles, articulated single units, or multiple units coupled into trains. Like other advanced rapid transit systems, monorails can be driven by linear induction motors ; like conventional railways, vehicle bodies can be connected to

891-554: A thermal scanner and continued all teaching activities as per normal. The University of Bari suspended all medical- and health-related internships for medical and healthcare students. Politecnico di Milano conducted thesis mentoring for more than one thousand students graduating the following week using Skype . The Italian Winter Sports Federation decided to proceed with the Women's World Cup alpine skiing races at La Thuile, Aosta Valley on 29 February. The MIDO Milan Eyewear Show

990-776: A top speed of 70 km/h. In the first weeks of operation of the Marconi Express, due to regulations linked to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy , the capacity of each trainset was reduced to 50%, limiing the capacity to 24 passengers per trainset (12 passengers per wagon). Trainsets are equipped with onboard monitors and free WiFi. 44°31′04″N 11°19′06″E  /  44.5179°N 11.3183°E  / 44.5179; 11.3183 Monorail The term possibly originated in 1897 from German engineer Eugen Langen , who called an elevated railway system with wagons suspended

1089-643: A total of 150,178,254 vaccine doses have been administered. On 31 December 2019, the Health Commission of Wuhan , Hubei, China, informed the WHO about a cluster of acute pneumonia cases with unknown origin in its province. On 9 January 2020, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) reported the identification of a novel coronavirus (later identified as the SARS-CoV-2 ) as

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1188-883: A travel ban covering the areas of Italy affected by the outbreak for US service members and their families. Driver's licence exams were suspended in Lombardy and Veneto. The number of checkpoints in the Red Zones was increased from 15 to 35, and army personnel were sent to help staff the checkpoints. The Italian Basketball Federation suspended all of its championship games, including Lega Basket Serie A . Istituto Tecnico Economico Enrico Tosi in Varese , Istituto Comprensivo di Pianoro in Bologna and Liceo Attilio Bertolucci in Parma conducted lessons for students online while waiting for

1287-577: A week. Court proceedings were postponed until further notice. The FTSE MIB Index fell by 6% and other stock market indices across Europe were also affected. Over 300,000 calls per day were logged on Lombardy's toll-free line as well as the emergency number 112. Some of the residents inside the Red Zone managed to leave the quarantined areas daily, bypassing the checkpoints by going through back roads. On 25 February, Aviano Air Base closed all schools until 28 February. General Tod D. Walters issued

1386-457: A wooden platform (in the full-scale project the trestle would have been concrete). A model train, built to 1/5 scale to test the vehicle concept, was capable of reaching speeds of up to 70 km/h. The full-scale project was expected to reach speeds of up to 300 km/h. In the latter half of the 20th century, monorails had settled on using larger beam- or girder-based track, with vehicles supported by one set of wheels and guided by another. In

1485-511: Is about 7 minutes and 20 seconds, while the former Aerobus shuttle bus required 18–23 minutes. The intermediate station of Lazzaretto is double tracked, allowing cars traveling to opposite directions to cross each other. The Lazzaretto station also acts as a warehouse-workshop and centralized command post. In the immediate vicinities of such station, there are the Trenitalia Regional Directorate for Emilia-Romagna and

1584-438: Is because Chongqing is criss-crossed by numerous hills, mountains and rivers, therefore tunneling is not feasible except in some cases (for example, lines 1 and 6 ) due to the extreme depth involved. Today it is the largest and busiest monorail system in the world. In July 2009, two Walt Disney World monorails collided , killing one of the drivers and injuring seven passengers. The National Transportation Safety Board found

1683-499: Is interrupted, TPER operates a bus replacement service from Bologna Centrale railway station to the airport calling at Lazzaretto. The buses used for this service are those previously used for the BLQ route and currently used on route 945, and are recognizable due to them adopting the "MEX" code. The Marconi Express trainsets are bidirectional and consist of two separate wagons each. Each shuttle can carry up to 48 passengers and can reach

1782-477: Is speeding towards a stricken bridge. The James Bond film franchise features monorails in three movies, all belonging to the villain. In You Only Live Twice (1967) there is a working ground level monorail inside the SPECTRE volcano base. During Live and Let Die (1973), a prop monorail is shown in the villain's lair on the fictional Caribbean island of San Monique. In the 1977 The Spy Who Loved Me there

1881-481: Is the straddle-beam, in which the train straddles a steel or reinforced concrete beam 2 to 3 feet (0.6 to 0.9 m) wide. A rubber - tired carriage contacts the beam on the top and both sides for traction and to stabilize the vehicle. The style was popularized by the German company ALWEG . There is also a historical type of suspension monorail developed by German inventors Nicolaus Otto and Eugen Langen in

1980-465: Is to place a moving apparatus on top of a sturdy platform capable of bearing the weight of vehicles, beams and its own mechanism. Multiple-segmented beams move into place on rollers to smoothly align one beam with another to send the train in its desired direction, with the design originally developed by ALWEG capable of completing a switch in 12 seconds. Some of these beam turnouts are quite elaborate, capable of switching between several beams or simulating

2079-472: Is under construction as of 2023. The three stations (Aeroporto, Lazzaretto and Bologna Centrale) are equipped with lifts and escalators. The access route has no steps, and the route from Bologna Centrale station to the Marconi airport terminal is fully sheltered. All three stations are protected by entrance and exit turnstiles. There are automatic ticket machines in the stations. It is also possible to open

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2178-567: Is under construction in Wuhu and several "Cloudrail" systems developed by BYD under construction a number of cities such as Guang'an , Liuzhou , Bengbu and Guilin . Monorails have seen continuing use in niche shuttle markets and amusement parks. Modern mass transit monorail systems use developments of the ALWEG beam and tyre approach, with only two suspended types in large use. Monorail configurations have also been adopted by maglev trains . Since

2277-709: Is using the BYD SkyRail design. Other significant monorail systems are under construction such as two lines for the Cairo Monorail , two lines for the MRT (Bangkok) and the SkyRail Bahia in Brazil . Modern monorails depend on a large solid beam as the vehicles' running surface. There are a number of competing designs divided into two broad classes, straddle-beam and suspended monorails. The most common type

2376-555: Is working monorail on the villain's supertanker (submarine dock). In 1987, Lego released a monorail among the Futuron Space line. Despite being the most expensive Lego set of its time (due to being massive and including electrical elements), it was very popular, with Lego releasing a Town themed monorail in 1990 and another Space monorail in 1994 among the Unitron line, as well as additional track. The monorail system

2475-671: The Eugen Langen One-railed Suspension Tramway (Einschieniges Hängebahnsystem Eugen Langen). Monorails have found applications in airport transfers and medium capacity metros. To differentiate monorails from other transport modes, the Monorail Society defines a monorail as a "single rail serving as a track for passenger or freight vehicles. In most cases, rail is elevated, but monorails can also run at grade , below grade, or in subway tunnels. Vehicles either are suspended from or straddle

2574-599: The 112 emergency number, instead of going directly to hospitals, in an effort to limit the disease's spread. The Ministry of Health provided a website and a direct line (1500) from which people could obtain the latest updates and information, as well as report suspected cases. Educational trips to destinations in Italy and abroad were suspended. Universities in Lombardy, Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol , Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna suspended all activities from 23 February until 1 March. On 22 February 2020, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte suspended all sporting events in

2673-597: The 1964–1965 World's Fair . This high-cost perception was challenged most notably in 1963 when the ALWEG consortium proposed to finance the construction of a major system in Los Angeles County, California , in return for the right of operation. This was turned down by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors under pressure from Standard Oil of California and General Motors (which were strong advocates for automobile dependency ), and

2772-454: The Bradford and Foster Brook Railway was built in 1877 and ran for one year from January 1878 until January 1879. Around 1879 a "one-rail" system was proposed independently by Haddon and by Stringfellow, which used an inverted "V" rail (and thus shaped like "Λ" in cross-section). It was intended for military use, but was also seen to have civilian use as a "cheap railway." Similarly, one of

2871-537: The Centennial Monorail demonstrated in 1876, in 1877 the Bradford and Foster Brook Railway began construction of a 5 mi (8.0 km) line connecting Bradford and Foster Township, McKean County in Pennsylvania . The line operated from 1878 until 1879 delivering machinery and oil supplies. The first twin-boiler locomotive wore out quickly. It was replaced by a single boiler locomotive which

2970-518: The Changsha Maglev Express ). However, it is argued that the larger width of the guideway for the maglevs makes it not legitimate to be called monorails. Some early monorails (notably the suspended monorail at Wuppertal , Germany) have a design that makes it difficult to switch from one line to another. Some other monorails avoid switching as much as possible by operating in a continuous loop or between two fixed stations, as in

3069-553: The Interstate Highway System . Monorails in particular may have suffered from the reluctance of public transit authorities to invest in the perceived high cost of un-proven technology when faced with cheaper mature alternatives. There were also many competing monorail technologies, splitting their case further. One notable example of a public monorail is the AMF Monorail that was used as transportation around

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3168-609: The Lartigue Monorail , used steam locomotives. Magnetic levitation train (maglev) systems such as the German Transrapid were built as straddle-type monorails. The Shanghai Maglev Train runs in commercial operation at 430 km/h (270 mph), and there are also slower maglev monorails intended for urban transport in Japan ( Linimo ), Korea ( Incheon Airport Maglev ) and China ( Beijing Subway Line S1 and

3267-802: The Lausanne Metro has grades of up to 12% and the Montreal Metro up to 6.5%, while VAL systems can handle 7% grades. Manufacturers of monorail rolling stock with operating systems include Hitachi Monorail , BYD , Bombardier Transportation (now Alstom ), Scomi , PBTS (a joint venture of CRRC Nanjing Puzhen & Bombardier), Intamin and EMTC. Other developers include CRRC Qingdao Sifang , China Railway Science and Industry Group , Zhongtang Air Rail Technology, Woojin and SkyWay Group . François Truffaut 's 1966 film adaptation of Ray Bradbury 's 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451 contains suspended monorail exterior scenes filmed at

3366-541: The Mass transit expansion pack of 2017, Planet Zoo and a rideable elevated monorail system in the 2020 video game Cyberpunk 2077 . From 1950 to 1980, the monorail concept may have suffered, as with all public transport systems, from competition with the automobile . At the time, the post–World War II optimism in America was riding high and people were buying automobiles in large numbers due to suburbanization and

3465-527: The Padua–Bologna railway , while it overpasses the high speed railway link from the Padua-Bologna railway to Bologna's underground high speed railway station. The route starts from Bologna Centrale railway station , where the former platforms 12-15 were located, next to via dei Carracci; after 5.095 km it reaches the opposite terminus, at Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport . The total travel time

3564-484: The Seattle Center Monorail . Current monorails are capable of more efficient switching than in the past. With suspended monorails, switching may be accomplished by moving flanges inside the beamway to shift trains to one line or another. Straddle-beam monorails require that the beam moves for switching, which was an almost prohibitively ponderous procedure. Now the most common way of achieving this

3663-695: The Transrapid and Linimo . Maglevs differ from other monorails in that they do not physically contact the beam while moving. The first monorail prototype was made in Russia in 1820 by Ivan Elmanov . Attempts at creating monorail alternatives to conventional railways have been made since the early part of the 19th century. The Centennial Monorail was featured at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. Based on its design

3762-494: The elevated train systems of New York, Chicago, and elsewhere, a monorail beamway casts a narrow shadow. Conversely, monorails can be more expensive than light-rail systems that do not include tunnels. In addition, monorails must either remain above ground or use larger tunnels than conventional rail systems, and they require complex track-switching equipment. Under the Monorail Society's beam-width criterion, some, but not all, maglev systems are considered monorails, such as

3861-419: The "Deposito Locomotive Bologna Centrale", one of the two railway maintenance depots in Bologna, alongside Bologna Ravone. Contrary to the other Italian people movers, which are cableways (horizontal funicular), the one in Bologna is powered by a 750 V direct current (converters are supplied by the multinational ABB); this is the same voltage as trolleybuses in Bologna , as well as the Bologna tramway , which

3960-519: The 1880s. It was built in the twin cities of Barmen and Elberfeld in Wuppertal, Germany, opened in 1901, and is still in operation. The Chiba Urban Monorail is the world's largest suspended network. Almost all modern monorails are powered by electric motors fed by dual third rails , contact wires or electrified channels attached to or enclosed in their guidance beams, but diesel-powered monorail systems also exist. Historically some systems, such as

4059-579: The 1950s, a 40% scale prototype of a system designed for speed of 200 mph (320 km/h) on straight stretches and 90 mph (140 km/h) on curves was built in Germany. There were designs with vehicles supported, suspended or cantilevered from the beams. In the 1950s the ALWEG straddle design emerged, followed by an updated suspended type, the SAFEGE system. Versions of ALWEG's technology are used by

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4158-536: The 1980s, most monorail mass transit systems are in Japan , with a few exceptions. Tokyo Monorail , is one of the world's busiest, averages 127,000 passengers per day and has served over 1.5 billion passengers since 1964. China recently started development of monorails in the late 2000s, already home to the world's largest and busiest monorail system and has a number of mass transit monorails under construction in several of cities. A Bombardier Innovia Monorail -based system

4257-515: The 2000s, with the rise of traffic congestion and urbanization, there has been a resurgence of interest in the technology for public transport with a number of cities, such as Malta and Istanbul , today investigating monorails as a possible mass transit solution. In 2004, Chongqing Rail Transit in China adopted a unique ALWEG-based design with rolling stock that is much wider than most monorails, with capacity comparable to heavy rail . This

4356-609: The French SAFEGE test track in Châteauneuf-sur-Loire near Orléans , France (since dismantled). The Thunderbirds February 1966 episode " Brink of Disaster " is about the financing and building of a high speed driverless cross-country monorail project. Two of the Thunderbirds-crew find themselves trapped on board the a monorail train, and with no possibility of escape, when it is discovered it

4455-558: The Italian National Institute of Health Franco Locatelli announced that swabbing would only be performed on symptomatic patients, as 95% of the swabs previously tested were negative. The Italian Minister of University and Research , Gaetano Manfredi , announced that online lessons would be delivered to students in areas affected by the outbreak starting on 2 March. Palermo and Naples closed all schools until 29 February. The University of Basilicata installed

4554-516: The Italian government suspended all flights to and from China and declared a state of emergency. In February, eleven municipalities in northern Italy were identified as the centres of the two main Italian clusters and placed under quarantine. The majority of positive cases in other regions traced back to these two clusters. On 8 March 2020, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte expanded the quarantine to all of Lombardy and 14 other northern provinces, and on

4653-457: The Italian health care system and civil protection (€3.2 billion); measures to preserve jobs and support income of laid-off workers and self-employed (€10.3 billion); other measures to support businesses, including tax deferrals and postponement of utility bill payments in most affected municipalities (€6.4 billion); as well as measures to support credit supply (€5.1 billion)." On 19 March, the Army

4752-824: The Luigi Sacco Hospital in Milan suggested that the majority of newly recorded cases were pre-existing cases that were finally detected during the extensive tests performed on people (and their relatives) who had come in contact with confirmed patients. The rapid increase of positive cases was the result of the blanket testing approach that was deployed following the first confirmed case in Codogno. The Ministry of Health announced new guidelines for reporting cases. It would no longer report asymptomatic cases (positive swabs taken from patients who were not showing symptoms), which had counted as 40 to 50% of all reported cases at

4851-619: The United States was in New York City in the early 1930s, scrubbed for an elevated train system. The first half of the 20th century saw many further proposed designs that either never left the drawing board or remained short-lived prototypes. One of the most interesting projects created on the layout was the ball-bearing train by Nikolai Grigorievich Yarmolchuk. This train moved on spherical wheels with electric motors embedded in them, which were located in semi-circular chutes under

4950-590: The aim of strengthening the distribution of intensive care equipment. On 16 March 2020, the Italian government introduced the Cura Italia emergency package, valued at €25 billion and accounting for 1.1% of the GDP. The package was the earliest financial response to the COVID-19 outbreak and aimed at supporting the Italian health care system, as well as its citizens and businesses. It included "funds to strengthen

5049-500: The beam via bogies , allowing curves to be negotiated. Monorails are sometimes used in urban areas alongside conventional parallel railed metro systems. Mumbai Monorail serves alongside Mumbai Metro , while monorail lines are integrated with conventional rail rapid transit lines in Bangkok's MRT network. Unlike some trams and light rail systems, modern monorails are always separated from other traffic and pedestrians due to

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5148-489: The cause of the accident to be human error by both the driver and controller, contributed to by a lack of standard operating procedures. São Paulo , Brazil, is building two high-capacity monorail lines as part of its public transportation network. Line 15 was partially opened in 2014, will be 27 km (17 mi) long when completed in 2022 and has a capacity of 40,000 pphpd using Bombardier Innovia Monorail trains. Line 17 will be 17.7 km (11.0 mi) long and

5247-560: The cause. In late January 2020, following the developments of COVID-19 outbreak in mainland China , on 3 February, Italy set up enhanced screening measures, including thermal cameras and medical staff at airports. Timeline On 31 January 2020, the Italian Council of Ministers appointed Angelo Borrelli , head of the Civil Protection , as Special Commissioner for the COVID-19 emergency. On 22 February,

5346-420: The closure of museums, cultural centres and ski resorts in the lockdown areas and the closure of cinemas, theatres, pubs, dance schools, game rooms, betting rooms and bingo halls, discos and similar places in the entire country. Civil and religious ceremonies, including funeral ceremonies, were suspended. All organised events were also suspended, as well as events in public or private places, including those of

5445-460: The emergency phone numbers 112 and 118, new dedicated numbers were added for the different regions – Lombardy 800894545, Campania 800909699, Veneto 800462340, Piedmont 800333444 and Emilia-Romagna 800033033. The Ocean Viking , a rescue ship operated by MSF and SOS Mediteranee that was carrying almost 300 migrants, was quarantined for 14 days in Pozzallo , Sicily. Trenitalia and Italo ,

5544-519: The emergency. Venturi was the regional minister of health until February 2020. In the night between 7 and 8 March, the government approved a decree to lock down Lombardy and 14 other provinces in Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont and Marche, involving more than 16  million people. The decree "absolutely avoided any movement into and out of the areas" and, like the previous one, it provided sanctions of up to three months in prison for those who violated

5643-584: The first monorail locomotive was a 0-3-0 steam locomotive on this line. A high-speed monorail using the Lartigue system was proposed in 1901 between Liverpool and Manchester. The Boynton Bicycle Railroad was a steam-powered monorail in Brooklyn on Long Island , New York . It ran on a single load-bearing rail at ground level, but with a wooden overhead stabilising rail engaged by a pair of horizontally opposed wheels. The railway operated for only two years beginning in 1890. The Hotchkiss Bicycle Railroad

5742-483: The first systems put into practical use was that of French engineer Charles Lartigue, who built a line between Ballybunion and Listowel in Ireland, opened in 1888 and lasting 36 years, being closed in 1924 (due to damage from Ireland's Civil War). It used a load-bearing single rail and two lower, external rails for balance, the three carried on triangular supports. It was cheap to construct but tricky to operate. Possibly

5841-448: The following day to all of Italy, placing more than 60 million people in lockdown . On 11 March 2020, Conte prohibited nearly all commercial activity except for supermarkets and pharmacies. On 21 March, the Italian government closed all non-essential businesses and industries, and restricted movement of people. In May, many restrictions were gradually eased, and on 3 June, freedom of movement across regions and other European countries

5940-574: The geometry of the rail. They are both guided and supported via interaction with the same single beam, in contrast to other guided systems like rubber-tyred metros , such as the Sapporo Municipal Subway ; or guided buses or trams, such as Translohr . Monorails can also use pantographs . As with other grade-separated transit systems, monorails avoid red lights, intersection turns, and traffic jams. Surface-level trains, buses, automobiles, and pedestrians can collide each one with

6039-560: The government announced a new decree imposing the quarantine of more than 50,000 people from 11 municipalities in Northern Italy . The quarantine zones are called the Red Zones and the areas in Lombardy and Veneto outside of them are called the Yellow Zones. Penalties for violations range from a €206 fine to three months of imprisonment. The Italian military and law enforcement agencies were instructed to secure and implement

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6138-643: The government in the 8 March decree. Nine prisoners died in Modena and three in Rieti , while 76 detainees escaped from Foggia 's penitentiary. Two prison agents were assaulted and kidnapped in Pavia . On 9 March in Bologna , detainees took control of the Dozza penitentiary, forcing personnel to exit the building. On 11 March, two prisoners were found dead in Bologna's penitentiary. In total, fourteen prisoners died in

6237-551: The hand-operated monorails gradually disappeared and were replaced by narrow-gauge railways with steam locomotives as forest utilization changed. In the 1920s the Port of Hamburg used a petrol powered, suspended monorail to transport luggage and freight from ocean-going vessels to a passenger depot. COVID-19 pandemic in Italy The COVID-19 pandemic in Italy is part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID-19 ) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ( SARS-CoV-2 ). The virus

6336-399: The infrastructure allows for up to four trainsets to operate on the line at the same time. The system consists of an elevated monorail, supported by 125 pre-made concrete pylons, 5,2 to 18 meters high, 35–40 meters apart from each other. The monorail overpasses Autostrada A14 and Tangenziale di Bologna with a 90–100 meters-long, single-span bridge. It also overpasses the Reno river and

6435-429: The infrastructure was carried out by the engineering companies MATE Engineering and STS of Bologna, while the architectural design is by Massimo Iosa Ghini . Building works were completed in 2018 and the line was scheduled to start operating on 7 March 2020. However, the date of inauguration was subsequently postponed. The line has been open to public service since 18 November 2020. However, soon after its inauguration,

6534-402: The last three days of the Carnival of Ivrea . La Scala , Milan Cathedral and Piccolo Teatro in Milan, as well as St Mark's Basilica in Venice, were closed until further notice. A Giorgio Armani fashion show, which was scheduled on Sunday, the last day of Milan Fashion Week 2020, went ahead without any media or buyers present; it was instead streamed live online. In addition to

6633-534: The later proposed subway system faced criticism by famed author Ray Bradbury as it had yet to reach the scale of the proposed monorail. Several monorails initially conceived as transport systems survive on revenues generated from tourism , benefiting from the unique views offered from the largely elevated installations. Monorails have been used for number of applications other than passenger transportation. Small suspended monorail are also widely used in factories either as part of moveable assembly lines. Inspired by

6732-438: The legacy systems in use today. However, monorails gained little foothold compared to conventional transport systems. In March 1972, Alejandro Goicoechea-Omar had patent DE1755198 published, on a 'Vertebrate Train', build as experimental track in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. Niche private enterprise uses for monorails emerged, with the emergence of air travel and shopping malls , with shuttle-type systems being built. From

6831-482: The lockdown. Schools were closed in ten municipalities in Lombardy, one in Veneto and one in Emilia Romagna. All public events were cancelled and commercial activities open to the public were halted or were allowed to resume only until 6 pm. All religious services were cancelled. Regional train services to the most affected areas were suspended, with trains skipping stops at Codogno, Maleo and Casalpusterlengo stations. People with symptoms were advised to call

6930-437: The lockdown. It was possible to move into and out of the areas only for emergencies or "proven working needs", which must be authorised by the prefect . The decree also established the closure of all gyms, swimming pools, spas and wellness centres. Shopping centres had to be closed on weekends, while other commercial activities could remain open if a distance of one metre between customers could be guaranteed. The decree imposed

7029-409: The main line. The now-closed Sydney Monorail had a traverser at the depot, which allowed a train on the main line to be exchanged with another from the depot. There were about six lines in the depot, including one for maintenance. Rubber-tired monorails are typically designed to cope with a 6% grade . Rubber-tired light rail or metro lines can cope with similar or greater grades – for example,

7128-478: The main one", including holiday homes, during weekends and holidays. On 21 March, Conte announced further restrictions within the nationwide lockdown, by halting all non-essential production, industries and businesses in Italy, following the rise in the number of new cases and deaths in the previous days. This measure had also been strongly asked for by multiple institutions, including trade unions, mayors, and regional presidents, as well as medical professionals, but

7227-500: The major providers for Italy's high-speed trains, ordered the installation of hand-sanitiser dispensers on all trains as well as the distribution of masks, disposable gloves and disinfectants to all onboard staff members. Supermarkets in Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna were emptied by customers as residents stockpiled food and supplies. Streets, parks and train stations in multiple cities in Lombardy were left deserted. On 24 February 500 additional police officers were assigned to patrol

7326-596: The monorail car. A surviving suspended version is the oldest still in service system: the Wuppertal monorail in Germany. Also in the early 1900s, Gyro monorails with cars gyroscopically balanced on top of a single rail were tested, but never developed beyond the prototype stage. The Ewing System , used in the Patiala State Monorail Trainways in Punjab, India , relies on a hybrid model with

7425-506: The new executive decree. On 11 March, the government allocated 25 billion euros for the emergency. In the evening, Conte announced a tightening of the lockdown, with all commercial and retail businesses except those providing essential services, like grocery shops and pharmacies, closed down. He also appointed Domenico Arcuri as Delegated Commissioner for the Emergency. Arcuri will cooperate with Commissioner Angelo Borrelli with

7524-572: The official count. In May 2020, the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat) estimated 11,000 more deaths for COVID-19 in Italy than the confirmed ones. This estimation was later confirmed in October 2020 by a second Istat report. In March 2021, Istat published a new report in which it detected an excess mortality of 100,526 deaths in 2020, compared to the average of the previous five years. Moreover, 2020 became

7623-488: The other, while vehicles on dedicated, grade-separated rights-of-way such as monorails can collide only with other vehicles on the same system, with much fewer opportunities for collision. As with other elevated transit systems, monorail passengers receive sunlight and views. Monorails can be quieter than diesel buses and trains. They obtain electricity from the track structure, whereas other modes of transit may use either third rail or overhead power lines and poles. Compared to

7722-577: The outbreak. The Ministry of Health announced that it had engaged 31 laboratories in Italy to carry out the analysis of swabs from suspected COVID-19 cases. Minister Roberto Speranza appointed Walter Ricciardi, a member of World Health Organization 's executive committee and former president of Italian National Institute of Health , as a special adviser for relations between Italy and international health organisations. Filming of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One starring Tom Cruise in Venice

7821-481: The police forces in enforcing the lockdown. On 20 March, the Ministry of Health ordered tighter regulations on free movement. The new measures banned open-air sports and running, except individually and in close proximity of one's residence. Parks, playgrounds, and public green were closed down. Furthermore, movement across the country was further restricted, by banning "any movement towards a residence different from

7920-544: The quarantined areas in Lodi and Veneto. Additional toll-free numbers were added for other regions — Aosta Valley 800122121, Trentino Alto Adige 800751751, Friuli-Venezia Giulia 800500300, Toscana 800556060, Umbria 800636363, Marche 800936677 and Lazio 800118800. The governor of Basilicata , Vito Bardi , instituted a mandatory 14-day quarantine for people arriving from areas in Northern Italy affected by

8019-633: The regions of Lombardy and Veneto, which included three Serie A football matches in those regions, as well as one in Piedmont , that were to be played the following day. The following week, six Serie A matches were initially to be played behind closed doors, but all were later suspended, as were two Coppa Italia matches. Authorities in Veneto cancelled the last two days of the Carnival of Venice on 23 February. Authorities in Piedmont cancelled

8118-408: The schools to reopen. The University of Palermo suspended all activities until 9 March. Morgan Stanley , Barclays , Mediobanca and UniCredit encouraged remote work by Milan staff. Multiple fairs and exhibitions were rescheduled. Salone del Mobile was postponed to 16 to 21 June. Bologna Children's Book Fair was rescheduled to 4 to 7 May. Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna, a cosmetic fair,

8217-402: The service started suffering significant disruptions, culminating in its suspension between November 2021 and February 2022, with surreptitious substitution via normal buses, despite oblivious customers paying the full fare for a service they never received. The three trainsets currently operating on Marconi Express can transport a maximum of 576 passengers per hour per direction . The design of

8316-450: The shutdown of all schools and universities nationwide for two weeks as the country reached 100 deaths from the outbreak. The same day, the government ruled that all sporting events in Italy would be played behind closed doors until 3 April. On 5 March, when the newly appointed Emilia-Romagna regional minister of health, Raffale Donini, tested positive for COVID-19, Governor Stefano Bonaccini appointed Sergio Venturi as commissioner for

8415-465: The time. These people would undergo isolation at home and would be followed up with new tests until they were negative. Universities in Lombardy extended their closure until 7 March. On 1 March, the Council of Ministers approved a decree to organise the containment of the outbreak. In the decree, the Italian national territory was divided into three areas: On 4 March, the Italian government imposed

8514-545: The turnstiles directly by contactless card (Pay & Go mode): the system charges the correct rate based on the entrance and exit turnstiles, allowing passengers to automatically take advantage of the return rate if the return journey takes place within 30 days, or the reduced rate if only traveling on the Bologna Centrale to Lazzaretto stretch. The service runs daily from 5:40 to midnight. Trains run every 15 minutes, or every 7:30 minutes at peak times. When service

8613-743: The two largest monorail manufacturers, Hitachi Monorail and Bombardier . In 1956, the first monorail to operate in the US began test operations in Houston, Texas. Disneyland in Anaheim, California , opened the United States' first daily operating monorail system in 1959. Later during this period, additional monorails were installed at Walt Disney World in Florida , Seattle , and in Japan . Monorails were promoted as futuristic technology with exhibition installations and amusement park purchases, as seen by

8712-500: The whole country. On 9 March, the government announced that all sporting events in Italy would be cancelled until at least 3 April, but the ban did not include Italian clubs or national teams participating in international competitions. In the evening, Conte announced in a press conference that all measures previously applied only in the so-called "red zones" had been extended to the whole country, putting approximately 60 million people in lockdown. Conte later proceeded to officially sign

8811-549: The year with the highest number of deaths since 1945, when Italy was fighting in World War II on its soil. During the peak of the pandemic, Italy's number of active cases was one of the highest in the world. As of 17 March 2023 , Italy has 141,988 active cases. Overall, there have been 26,826,486 confirmed cases and 197,542 deaths (a rate of 3,313.401 deaths per million population), while there have been 25,320,467 recoveries or dismissals. As of 4 February 2023,

8910-482: Was a monorail on which a matching pedal bicycle could be ridden. The first example was built between Smithville and Mount Holly , New Jersey, in 1892. It closed in 1897. Other examples were built in Norfolk from 1895 to 1909, Great Yarmouth , and Blackpool , UK from 1896. Early designs used a double- flanged single metal rail alternative to the double rail of conventional railways, both guiding and supporting

9009-544: Was also prominent in the unreleased Seatron Space line and prototype Wild West sets. Its popularity has still endured over thirty years later, where Lego has paid homage in promotional sets and fans have manufactured compatible components. The fourth season of the American animated television show The Simpsons features the episode " Marge vs. the Monorail ", in which the town of Springfield impulsively purchases

9108-471: Was deployed to the city of Bergamo , the worst hit Italian city by COVID-19, as the local authorities can no longer process the number of dead residents. The city's mayor Giorgio Gori said the true number of dead could be much higher than reported. Army trucks transported bodies to crematoriums in several other cities, as cemeteries in the city were full. On the following day, the Army was called in to assist

9207-604: Was first confirmed to have spread to Italy on 31 January 2020, when two Chinese tourists in Rome tested positive for the virus. One week later an Italian man repatriated to Italy from the city of Wuhan , China, was hospitalized and confirmed as the third case in Italy. Clusters of cases were later detected in Lombardy and Veneto on 21 February, with the first deaths on 22 February. By the beginning of March, there had been confirmed cases in all regions of Italy. On 31 January,

9306-555: Was halted. Major companies such as IBM , Enel , Luxottica , PricewaterhouseCoopers and Vodafone continued to allow remote work by employees. Generali Tower in Milan and Palazzo Madama in Rome installed thermal scanners to measure temperatures of visitors and employees. FAO Headquarters in Rome conducted temperature checks on visitors entering the building. Multiple regions in Italy such as Liguria , Trentino Alto Adige, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Abruzzo and Marche decided to close all schools and universities for two days to

9405-434: Was initially opposed by the industrialists. On 24 March, in a live-streamed press conference, Conte announced a new decree approved by the Council of Ministers. The decree imposed higher fines for the violation of the restrictive measures, and regulation of the relationship between government and Parliament during the emergency. It included also the possibility of reducing or suspending public and private transport, and gave

9504-567: Was rescheduled to 11 to 15 June. Expocasa, a furniture fair in Turin, was rescheduled initially to 28 March to 5 April but later to a future date to be announced later. Roma Motodays was postponed to 17 to 19 April. Italy opened a probe into skyrocketing online prices for masks and sanitising gels. Police issued warnings that criminals were using false identities and posing as health inspectors to gain access to people's homes to steal money, jewellery and other valuables. On 26 February, Director of

9603-718: Was rescheduled to 5 to 7 July. On 27 February, Taranto , Apulia closed all schools until 29 February. Multiple schools were closed in Roseto degli Abruzzi. D'Annunzio University suspended all activities until 29 February. Cartoocomics Fair in Milan was rescheduled to 2 to 4 October. The Winter Rescue Race in Piedmont was cancelled. University of Bologna planned to set up a remote teaching project in which exams and lessons would be delivered to students online, to be partially completed on 2 March. Messina closed all schools from 29 February to 3 March. On 28 February, during an interview with Rai News24 , Professor Massimo Galli from

9702-414: Was restored. In October, Italy was hit by the second wave of the pandemic, which brought the government to introduce further restrictions on movement and social life, which were gradually eased in mid-2021. By 18 January, Italy had tested about 48 million people. Due to the limited number of tests performed, the real number of infected people in Italy, as in other countries, is estimated to be higher than

9801-463: Was too heavy and crashed through the track on its third trip. The third locomotive again had twin boilers. On a trial run one of the boilers ran dry and exploded, killing six people. The railway was closed soon after. Monorails in Central Java were used to transport timber from the forests of Central Java located in the mountains to the rivers. In 1908 and 1909, the forester H. J. L. Beck built

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