SAFEGE is an acronym for the French consortium Société Anonyme Française d' Etude de Gestion et d' Entreprises (en: French Limited Company for the Study of Management and Business.) and is pronounced SAY-fij in English. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

The consortium, consisting of 25 companies, including the tire-maker Michelin and the Renault automotive company, produced an arial railway technology. The design team was headed by Lucien Chadenson. A tire or tyre (see spelling differences and etymological origins) is a device covering the circumference of a wheel. ... Michelin (full name: Compagnie Générale des Établissements Michelin) (Euronext: ML) based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne région of France, is primarily a tyre manufacturer. ... Renault S.A. is a French vehicle manufacturer producing cars, vans, buses, tractors, and trucks. ... The KL Monorail in Kuala Lumpur, a colourful straddle-beam monorail Gyroscopically Balanced Monorail (1907) by Brennan and Scherl The term monorail or industrial monorail is used to describe any number of systems in which a chair or carrier is suspended from, or rides on, an overhead rail structure for...

Design concept

The design of the system entails suspending passenger cars beneath rubber-tired wheel carriages of the type used more conventionally in the Paris Metro. The carriages are enclosed and supported by a box-like track or beam, with an opening in the bottom. The rubber wheels of the train run inside the track, supported by flanges on the bottom of the beam. Latex being collected from a tapped rubber tree Rubber is an elastic hydrocarbon polymer which occurs as a milky colloidal suspension (known as latex) in the sap of several varieties of plants. ... A tire or tyre (see spelling differences and etymological origins) is a device covering the circumference of a wheel. ... Paris Art Nouveau Metro sign The Paris Métro is the metro (underground) system in Paris, France. ...

Unlike previous suspended monorails like the Schwebebahn in Wuppertal, Germany, the tracks are not exposed to inclement weather, and do not need any cleaning or ice-removal systems. This advantage enables them to run in cities where ice and other conditions would impair the reliability of the system. Schwebebahn over the river Wupper The Schwebebahn Wuppertal is a suspension railway in Wuppertal, Germany. ... Wuppertal university Wuppertal is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ... Weather is a term that encompasses phenomena in the atmosphere of a planet. ... Snowflakes by Wilson Bentley, 1902 Ice is the name given to any one of the 14 known solid phases of water. ...

Market position

SAFEGE systems are the leading type of suspended railway currently in transit use, though this consists of very few systems. Its chief and more numerous competitor in modern monorail applications are variations of the German-designed ALWEG system, in which the vehicles run on top of, and straddle, a solid beam. In the United States of America, transit describes local area common carrier passenger transportation configured to provide scheduled service on fixed routes on a non-reservation basis. ... ALWEG was a transportation company known for pioneering straddle-beam monorails. ...

Safege monorails in the world

• There are two SAFEGE-type suspended railways in Japan. One is the Chiba Urban Monorail in Chiba and the other is the Shonan Monorail in Kamakura and Fujisawa.
• The test track built in France by SAFEGE in 1958, is featured prominently in the 1966 movie adaptation of Fahrenheit 451, directed by François Truffaut. Although the track has been dismantled since then, the original car still exists (SAFEGE vehicle images).