Disney Skyliner (Gondola Transportation System) Read Post 1 Now Open!

[dina444444]

Skyliner Update

More Skyliner Steel Rises Across Walt Disney World

 

[beer dave]

Looks like at the riviera station they will need to have a inner "through rail" and an outer "load rail" for each direction-- so the loaded cars can continue on and the ones unloading or loading can stop or slow independently. Clearly there will be a bull wheel on either end so the rope from Epcot will be separate from the rope from CBR. Drive wheels and two tracks each way in between.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Interested for the day when we can see some photos and video of it in action

 

[Huff]

Has Disney stated how many people per hour the Skyliner can handle per station? At park opening or closing I would expect huge long lines.

 

[dina444444]

Has Disney stated how many people per hour the Skyliner can handle per station? At park opening or closing I would expect huge long lines.

They have not but based on rumors/speculation capacity is going to be between 3,000-5,000/people an hour in each direction.

 

[joelkfla]

Looks like at the riviera station they will need to have a inner "through rail" and an outer "load rail" for each direction-- so the loaded cars can continue on and the ones unloading or loading can stop or slow independently. Clearly there will be a bull wheel on either end so the rope from Epcot will be separate from the rope from CBR. Drive wheels and two tracks each way in between.

At Whistler near Vancouver, all cabins going thru the intermediate station follow the same path and the doors open and close whether or not anyone's getting off or on. Disney could come up with some new method to track which cabins are just passing thru and divert them, but I don't see a compelling reason for it.

OTOH, they may build in some way to divert a few cabins to an alternate track for wheelchair loading, if that's the purpose of the double turnarounds at the other stations. It's complicated by the fact that turn stations are so large to begin with, and that they'd have to deal with both the inner and outer sides of the turn.

 

[Huff]

At Whistler near Vancouver, all cabins going thru the intermediate station follow the same path and the doors open and close whether or not anyone's getting off or on. Disney could come up with some new method to track which cabins are just passing thru and divert them, but I don't see a compelling reason for it.

What about speed? Loading and unloading takes time. Cars going on thru do not need to slow for unloading or loading. Would help speed passengers per hour.

 

[dina444444]

What about speed? Loading and unloading takes time. Cars going on thru do not need to slow for unloading or loading. Would help speed passengers per hour.

The vehicles have to detach at the boardwalk turn and riviera since it’s a turn.

 

[joelkfla]

What about speed? Loading and unloading takes time. Cars going on thru do not need to slow for unloading or loading. Would help speed passengers per hour.

It will make the ride a minute or two longer for passengers passing thru, but I don't think it should affect the number of riders per hour, so long as the loading speed thru the Riviera station is the same as thru the other 2 stations on the line.

 

[OSUZorba]

At Whistler near Vancouver, all cabins going thru the intermediate station follow the same path and the doors open and close whether or not anyone's getting off or on. Disney could come up with some new method to track which cabins are just passing thru and divert them, but I don't see a compelling reason for it.

OTOH, they may build in some way to divert a few cabins to an alternate track for wheelchair loading, if that's the purpose of the double turnarounds at the other stations. It's complicated by the fact that turn stations are so large to begin with, and that they'd have to deal with both the inner and outer sides of the turn.

This is how it is done in Breckenridge as well.

I do think they will have a side rail for handicap loading/unloading, though, so I am very interested to see how they handle that at a turn station.

 

[beer dave]

At Whistler near Vancouver, all cabins going thru the intermediate station follow the same path and the doors open and close whether or not anyone's getting off or on. Disney could come up with some new method to track which cabins are just passing thru and divert them, but I don't see a compelling reason for it.

OTOH, they may build in some way to divert a few cabins to an alternate track for wheelchair loading, if that's the purpose of the double turnarounds at the other stations. It's complicated by the fact that turn stations are so large to begin with, and that they'd have to deal with both the inner and outer sides of the turn.

Since they are clearly building two turn outs at all the other stations, it would be only reasonable to think that they would have two possible paths through the riviera station also. The entire two lines would have to stop if someone had trouble loading. That isn't going to happen. I'm sure they do it as you say at the ski resorts. Discussing disney here, where gondola "experts" have said they have never seen two rotors at the end of a station before..... so I would expect to see something original at the riviera station also.

 

[unbanshee]

Has Disney stated how many people per hour the Skyliner can handle per station? At park opening or closing I would expect huge long lines.

Apparently the manufacturer told blog mickey about 3,000 - http://blogmickey.com/2017/11/photos-company-behind-disney-skyliner-gondola-display-iaapa/

 

[DanBoris]

Looks like at the riviera station they will need to have a inner "through rail" and an outer "load rail" for each direction-- so the loaded cars can continue on and the ones unloading or loading can stop or slow independently. Clearly there will be a bull wheel on either end so the rope from Epcot will be separate from the rope from CBR. Drive wheels and two tracks each way in between.

But you can't send all loaded carts through since people might be getting off at Riviera, and I hightly doubt they would add the complexity of away of specifying your destination.

 

[DanBoris]

Apparently the manufacturer told blog mickey about 3,000 - http://blogmickey.com/2017/11/photos-company-behind-disney-skyliner-gondola-display-iaapa/

3000 is Doppelmayr's stated capacity, but Lift Blog has reported that Disney is trying to get to 5000 per hour.

 

[joelkfla]

3000 is Doppelmayr's stated capacity, but Lift Blog has reported that Disney is trying to get to 5000 per hour.

It seems to me that the gating factor for capacity is how many cabins you can get thru a station in a given time, which is limited by spacing between the cabins in the station and the speed thru the load area. If you've got a cabin leaving every 10 seconds, you've got twice the capacity of a cabin leaving every 20 seconds.

I don't think there's a possibility to reduce the spacing by much, so that leaves a higher speed thru the station as the only option. How could they do this? Perhaps boarding from a moving walkway. It might be a first for gondola lifts, but a proven method at Disney's Omnimover rides.

 

[STLstone]

If there truly are 3 separate lines at CBR, like the aerial photos seem to show, wouldn't it make sense that the easiest thing would be for all arriving gondolas to turn around and go back the way they came?

This means everyone would exit their gondola at CBR and get on another one to their final destination. It would seem a little inconvenient, but I don't think this would be entirely unreasonable because it will still be way more convenient than when you want to go from Contemporary to Epcot on the monorail.

 

[DanBoris]

If there truly are 3 separate lines at CBR, like the aerial photos seem to show, wouldn't it make sense that the easiest thing would be for all arriving gondolas to turn around and go back the way they came?

This means everyone would exit their gondola at CBR and get on another one to their final destination. It would seem a little inconvenient, but I don't think this would be entirely unreasonable because it will still be way more convenient than when you want to go from Contemporary to Epcot on the monorail.

Yes, this is exactly how it is assumed it will operate. The one that is different is Riviera which will have people loading, unloading and staying on to their destination.

 

[sachilles]

While changing the spacing of the cabins on the line changes the capacity, you must also consider the weight capacity. You might be able to space them closer, but might not be able to get away with the weight. Unsure how having the system on largely level ground affects things. In general with ski area lifts, they tend only load passengers one direction.
Long story short this application has a few minor differences that could affect capacity compared to traditional ski area install.
While you could have 2 separate haul ropes leaving the Riviera Turn/load station, it would appear seamless to a guest and seem like one line. Not certain they'll do that, but it is certainly possible. If they did that it would allow to operate as separate lines if needed for some reason, which is a redundancy I could see Disney welcoming.

 

[beer dave]

But you can't send all loaded carts through since people might be getting off at Riviera, and I hightly doubt they would add the complexity of away of specifying your destination.

Obviously. hence the load and unload rail.
So I should change "the loaded cars can continue on" to "the cars not loading or unloading" which will be quite a few...but I did specify the one rail will be for "loading and unloading"

There is really no other way to do it-- If there is not a second rail in each direction the lines would all but stop every time someone loads and unloads. Maybe the system will be timed that every fifth (or whatever frequency needed) car travels through the load/unload spur via a simple switch and one from that spur takes it's place in line. Once loaded you would just have to wait your turn for pickup. there could be 4 cars in the L/U spur at any one time....

Or there could be "riviera only" cars that have a different configuration on the attachment point that always sends it to the L/U spur. These cars would have some kind of identifier and only be loaded at the parks for Riviera destination... via a separate line.....

 

[skier_pete]

Has Disney stated how many people per hour the Skyliner can handle per station? At park opening or closing I would expect huge long lines.

It will be about 4 times the current bus capacity to these resorts. Long lines are unlikely even at closing - at least not longer lines than the buses. (Been covered about 60 times in this thread.)