Transport Rides are tracked rides that help spread out your guests to areas all over the park without having them to walk. They have similar ratings to Gentle Rides. However, there are major differences that set them apart from other types of rides in the game. They usually have special characteristics that no other ride has such as a high capacity or a tall support limit. They are also often cheaper than most types of rides. Guests will also always ride them if they're free no matter how much they want to go home or what their ride preferences are. Their downsides are rather significant though. All of them have poor speeds compared to most rides. Their Excitement ratings are also often poor without vast scenery and theming.
Guests have rather simple pathfinding AI in order to prevent the game from slowing down when there's mass amounts of guests in the park. As a result, guests do not view Transport Rides differently than other types of rides. They won't ride a Transport Ride to get to a specific area in the park even if they're gunning straight to a certain ride that's far away or want to exit the park. (However, in the case of the latter, you can use a free Transport Ride with one station-exit to influence faraway guests to the park's exit sooner.) Therefore the best way to use Transport Rides is to make your park uncrowded, spread your guests out to key areas, and keep their energy up by preventing excessive walking. Due to how many guests Transport Rides can carry, they become necessary for larger parks when extra paths aren't cutting it anymore.
In RCT1, you can only research Transport Rides by having Gentle Rides checked in Research and Development. It does not get it's own section of research until RCT2.
Chairlift
Miniature Railway
Cost: $1,300 upwards
Size: Variable
Max Height: 29 ft. (9 m)
Indoor: Yes (Covered Cars)
Length Requirement: 656 ft. (200 m)
Underground Penalty: 50% or more
Appearance: RollerCoaster Tycoon
The Miniature Railway is a tracked ride based on classic trains. It is the cheapest out of all the train-based Transport Rides. That low cost comes at a price though. It has a rather poor speed and loses even more whenever it has to go up an incline. Regardless, it has a great capacity for the price. There isn't a difference between the two Steam Trains other than the one with covered cars isn't affected by the rain. There's virtually no good reason to not go with the latter train when it's available.
Monorail
Cost: $1,550 upwards
Size: Variable
Max Height: 32 ft. (10 m)
Indoor: Yes
Length Requirement: 558 ft. (170 m)
Underground Penalty: 50% or more
Appearance: RollerCoaster Tycoon
The Monorail is a modern-based train that uses only a single rail or beam. It is the most flexible attraction out of all the train-based Transport Rides. They have decent speed for the class and good capacity. The best advantage this attraction has is with the "Large Monorail Train." This train increases the speed and capacity of the ride tremendously, allowing it to be a powerful form of transport. This attraction is good for almost any scenario where you're building a ground-based Transport Ride.