East China's Wuhu opens first monorail line

The city of Wuhu in east China's Anhui Province officially unveiled its first unmanned monorail line on Wednesday amid efforts to build a green transportation system in the city.

The monorail line 1 operates in a north-south direction covering a total distance of 30.5 kilometers with 25 elevated stations. Trains plying on the line can travel at a speed of up to 80 kilometers per hour.

Construction of this monorail started in 2017, with a total project investment of more than 8 billion yuan (about 1.25 billion U.S. dollars), according to local authorities.

Monorail is a railway system in which trains travel along a track consisting of one rail. Compared with metros, monorails are cheaper to build and have a medium capacity which is perfect for a medium-sized city like Wuhu. Monorails are a highly-efficient and environmentally-friendly alternative to metros.