Excellent item. Very much a monorail rather than Bennie's top and bottom guided system. However it predates Bennie's 1921 project as it dates to 1898 (more below). As noted, same problem with the material consumed in suspending the line though.
No speed figures found (though my German isn't that good) but it would seem to be fairly sedate public transport, rather than his ambitious luxury high speed system:
The Schwebebahn operates with 2-car-trains (24 m long with 4 doors) from 5.20 until 23:00. The basic daytime interval is 5 minutes with trains every 15 minutes after 21:00. One train can carry 48 passengers seated and 130 standing. The Schwebebahn transports more than 70,000 passengers a day and is operated by Wuppertaler Stadtwerke (WSW).
But already in 1898 construction of Europe's most peculiar metro, the Schwebebahn, began here. The line started passenger service on 1 March 1901 between Kluse and Zoo. The western section between Zoo and Vohwinkel followed on 24 May 1901. Two years later, on 27 June 1903, also the eastern section between Kluse and Oberbarmen was brought into service. The line was quite damaged during World War II, but service was resumed one year after the end of the war. The destroyed Kluse station was only rebuilt in 1999.
The Wuppertal Schwebebahn is the continent's only suspension urban rail line, which for most of its length runs 12 m above the river Wupper (10 km). Only the westernmost section between Sonnborner Straße and Vohwinkel runs 8 meters above streets (3.3 km). This line can be called a full metro line because it's totally independent, absolutely urban and runs on a 4-6 minute headway. For almost 100 years this was one of the safest means of transport in the world, but unfortunately in April 1999 a bad accident happened after repair work had been carried out during the weekend and 3 people died and more than 40 were injured as a train fell down into the river Wupper. The single rail which carries the train is supported by 472 iron arches that span over the river bed. Currently all these arches are being replaced and also stations are being restored, most of them in their original Jugendstil design.
Fascinating
Almost forgot, link to 3 webcams too
http://www.wuppertal.de/livecam/