Benefitting from the separated and exclusive right of way and track systems on which elevated rail services operate, system managers can employ the most modern and technically advanced equipment, controls and methods available to rail vehicles in operating elevated rail services. Free of most of the safety concerns of at grade rail system operations, elevated rail systems can take full advantage of state of technology communication and operational systems in providing reliable and timely rail services.
Technical and operational advances extend beyond train operations into station and access facilities, as well as, to ticketing, scheduling, coordination and interface with other modes of transportation. Application of new technology to all aspects of elevated rail services should be implemented wherever feasible. Maintenance and performance of elevated rail vehicles and systems should be enhanced through modern technological developments applied to system operations; but will continue to be subject to the limitations and high maintenance requirements of steel-wheel, steel rail train systems.
While elevated rail facilities may represent the only solution to providing access and mass transportation service to intensely developed urban areas, their development should be evaluated for the impacts they introduce to the environments and communities through which they pass. Daily operations of elevated rail trains and equipment will become a part of the local environments and settings along the routes of elevated rail facilities, and should continue indefinitely, while the effects of construction are temporary.
