Industries Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan has developed a working system of SAFEGE-type suspended railways, and have made three such installations, two of which remain in operation today. From early 1964 to December 1974, a single-line ran between Higashiyama Zoo and the nearby Botanical Gardens in Nagoya, Japan. While initially popular, it also suffered from mechanical problems and after the first two years of operation, the novelty wore off and it began making a loss. Plans to expand the zoo and gardens hastened its demise, although the car and a section of track is preserved at one of the stations. While it was initially marketed as a ride, rather than a means of transport, a fare was charged, making it the first revenue-earning SAFEGE/Mitsubishi-type monorail. In 1970 the Shonan Monorail opened. It runs from Ōfuna Station in Kamakura to Shōnan-Enoshima Station in Fujisawa. In 1988, the first stage of the Chiba Urban Monorail system opened, in Chiba. With a route length, it is the longest suspended monorail in the world. Siemens Two Siemens SIPEM lines exist in Germany, one on the Dortmund University campus, the other at the Düsseldorf airport. Siemens no longer actively markets this system, but does still deliver the software for the automatic operation of a SIPEM network and vehicles. Unfulfilled proposals In 1966, a proposal was considered to construct a SAFEGE-type monorail in the City of Manchester. The line was planned to link Manchester Airport with the city and suburbs, with a tunnel under the city centre, but the scheme, along with the later Picc-Vic tunnel (which would be a conventional rapid transit line) was abandoned due to cost. The city eventually developed its own light rail network, Manchester Metrolink, of which one of its lines, opened in 2014, now links Manchester Airport to the city centre. In November 1967, General Electric proposed to construct a SAFEGE monorail from downtown San Francisco to San Francisco International Airport. The City of San Francisco studied the proposal, along with an extension of the Southern Pacific Railroad's Peninsula Commute commuter rail line and an extension of the BART rapid transit system. The proposal's incompatibility with other rail transit lines, the urban design concerns of an elevated guideway, and potential competitive impact on parallel rapid transit lines, led to its dismissal in favor of a BART extension. Ultimately SFO was connected to downtown San Francisco via BART in 2003. References