Tehran Monorail
In 2004 the capital of Iran, Tehran, began to re-examine the possibilities for installing a monorail transport system to help reduce the city's traffic congestion problem.
History and Controversy
The concept of constructing a monorail in Iran was first proposed in 1976 before the Iranian Revolution. The then mayor of Tehran, Shahrestani, eventually scrapped the project after repeated specialist consultations indicated that a monorail network would not ease traffic in the city in a significant fashion. At the time the general conclusion was that it would create more problems than solutions.
In 2004, Tehran Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared his intent to develop a monorail system for the capital despite the numerous warnings by transport and traffic experts. The monorail project was expected to cost 135 million Euros for 12km and three stations.
The largest criticism of the project lay in its heavy costs on the already cash strapped Tehran City. Furthermore, a large part of criticism is directed towards the plan's geographical mapping. According to those who have had access to the initial sketch, the selected route is less crowded, making the project, in their view, unjustifiable. Among opponents of the Monorail plan was Ali-Asghar Ardakanian, a member of the Transport Engineering Society who believed that Iran lacked the pre-requisite skills and knowledge to maintain and run the system. Ardakanian also insisted that the government plan was poorly thought out and failed to take into account the affiliated expenses for maintaining the monorail's underground and surface structures - thus creating funding forecast problems for the future. Additionally, relative to cost, critics point out that the passenger capacity of the monorail is 10 times less than the Tehran Metro.
Supporters of the Tehran Monorail were commonly heard declaring that the development of the project would be significantly faster than other transport project due to its nature.
Despite the overwhelming criticism of the project, the first monorail was innagurated on March 17 2004. The 12km line starts at Sadeghieh Square and forms a roundtrip path by extending through the Sadeghieh Metro Station, Ekbatan Township, and Mehrabad International Airport. The project was reportedly inaugurated without receiving the approval of the High Traffic Council; a body in charge of studying and approving transport schemes.
The Tehran Municipality's failure to win the council's approval effectively disqualified the monorail from any state assistance. According to most experts, the monorail plan lacks economic, technical and financial justification. At present no services are provided on the line and it is effectively shut down.
