I recently visited the Chiba Urban Monorail for the first time in two years. I was curious to see what had changed on this unique suspended monorail line, so today I would like to share a short report about my visit.
First, let me briefly introduce Chiba City and the monorail.
Chiba City is the capital of Chiba Prefecture, located about 40 kilometers east of Tokyo. The city is known for its heavy industries, large port facilities, and agricultural areas. Its population is close to one million.
The monorail is an important means of transportation in the city. It opened in 1988 and is operated by the Chiba Urban Monorail Company, a joint public–private organization. The system is famous for being the world’s longest suspended monorail, with a total length of 15.2 kilometers. It consists of two double-tracked lines, Line 1 and Line 2, and is electrified at 1,500 V DC.
Now, let me move on to what I found during my visit.
First, I noticed that the number of the newer 0-series EMUs has increased to 11 trainsets, while the older 1000-series fleet has decreased to 8 sets.
Second, there are now 14 trains with colorful advertising wraps. These wrapped trains belong to both the 0-series and the 1000-series.
Among all of them, one train caught my attention—a “standard-colored train,” which is now relatively rare. This was Set 21 of the 0-series EMU (see the photo above). On the front of the train, there is a special round sticker promoting the Chiba Zoological Park on Line 2.
The animal shown on the sticker (see the photo below) is a male western gorilla named Monta. He was born in Spain in 1984 and came to Chiba City in 1990. He is a silverback, the leader of a gorilla group, but according to several websites, he is very gentle and kind. He even plucks the hair on his cheeks by himself, which gives him a neat and handsome look. Monta really seems like the perfect character to promote the zoo!
I would definitely like to visit the zoo next time.
