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

[Cruisin Spartan]

As far as the possible spur to AOA/POP goes, my take is that instead of the direct access you get at CBR, you have to transfer. This would be similar to the monorail station at TTC. In this scenario, the guests at the values still don't reap the full benefits. Just a thought. I'm definitely not saying I'm right. It would just smooth some of the "I paid more than they did." Ruffled feathers.

 

[Harry Wallace]

I doubt Disney would design the cabins to seat everyone. They would probably seek to maximize capacity and loading efficiency by minimizing seating and increasing standee space, as they do with buses

One thing you do have to watch with cable cars and gondola systems is weight though. You can only put so many people in a car without overloading it, unlike the buses. So ten people seems to be the average when it comes to systems with more than two cars on the line.

They may have no seats whatsoever to allow space for ECVs and whatnot.

 

[skier_pete]

One thing you do have to watch with cable cars and gondola systems is weight though. You can only put so many people in a car without overloading it, unlike the buses. So ten people seems to be the average when it comes to systems with more than two cars on the line.

They may have no seats whatsoever to allow space for ECVs and whatnot.

There are likely to be special cars for ECVs. My guess would be you are right saying about 10 people per car, but then there will be every 20th car or so will have spots for ECV and system will have to slow/stop to unload.

 

[TwoMisfits]

So, has Disney figured out how to maintain this new transport system, while also not letting their old "whiz-bang" system, the monorail, decay? Right now, I wouldn't be excited for a 2nd system when it's clear their 1st system is crumbling from lack of investment...how often do people write "the monorail is down...AGAIN..." around here...

 

[skier_pete]

So, has Disney figured out how to maintain this new transport system, while also not letting their old "whiz-bang" system, the monorail, decay? Right now, I wouldn't be excited for a 2nd system when it's clear their 1st system is crumbling from lack of investment...how often do people write "the monorail is down...AGAIN..." around here...

Honestly, maintaining a cable/gondola system will be much, much cheaper than maintaining the monorail.

 

[peabody58]

I would suspect that Disney might be considering to limit access to the Gondola system to only guests at CBR/AOA/POP, or to just on-site guests. Whether or not that happens is yet to be seen, but there are Pros and Cons to selective availability. I personally would go with the on-site guests only. But I'm biased as I always stay on-site.

 

[WEDWDW]

I would suspect that Disney might be considering to limit access to the Gondola system to only guests at CBR/AOA/POP

I could see that happening,at least for a while-there would be a huge amount of Guests just using it as a new "attraction" for a while I would think.

 

[danikoski]

So, has Disney figured out how to maintain this new transport system, while also not letting their old "whiz-bang" system, the monorail, decay? Right now, I wouldn't be excited for a 2nd system when it's clear their 1st system is crumbling from lack of investment...how often do people write "the monorail is down...AGAIN..." around here...

If Disney contracts with Doppelmayr for the gondola/cable cars, then it is entirely possible Disney contracts with them to fix the monorail. The Doppelmayr company already does funicular rails, and their work in San Francisco appears to be similar to a monorail. I would lay odds if the contract with Doppelmayr, Disney will wait until the DHS expansion is complete, and maybe some of the Epcot changes, to take stress off MK, and then fix the monorail...It'd be nice if they had it sorted before the 50th, but that's less than 5 years, so not sure on that.
http://newsroom.doppelmayr.com/en/doppelmayr/tag/railway-systems/

 

[Q-man]

Honestly, maintaining a cable/gondola system will be much, much cheaper than maintaining the monorail.

Austin, Texas has been kicking around the idea of gondola cable ways as they are $25-35(depending on number of stops) million a mile to build versus $200-300 million a mile for light rail.

There are a number of urban areas turning to cableways as part of their mass transit services due to cost savings. Medellin, Columbia being one of the more notable ones.

http://gondolaproject.com/2010/10/2...ble-systems-in-the-world-for-various-reasons/

 

[Harry Wallace]

There are likely to be special cars for ECVs. My guess would be you are right saying about 10 people per car, but then there will be every 20th car or so will have spots for ECV and system will have to slow/stop to unload.

Here's a thought that i just had. Maybe the seats onboard could be folded up by a CM to accommodate an ECV? It would certainly be cheaper than having special cars for them.

 

[tjkraz]

At 70 Guests per bus, 1200 would fit on about 17 buses.

I doubt Disney would design the cabins to seat everyone. They would probably seek to maximize capacity and loading efficiency by minimizing seating and increasing standee space, as they do with buses.

Perhaps not seating for everyone. But it also won't be necessary to cram every cab to capacity. Just as with attractions, they'll have greeter CMs, splitting people into properly sized groups. The size of those groups will vary depending upon traffic.

Looks like the London cabs have two benches on the sides which comfortably hold 3 people each, with standing room in the center. During slower periods--which is most of the day--they'll allow parties of 2, 3 or 4 to ride by themselves. When busier they'll undoubtedly blend smaller groups.

Granted we don't have any hard numbers but I think it's easy to underestimate the capacity of this sort of "omnimover" system. There will be a steady flow of cabs arriving and guests departing.

To use your number of 17 buses in an hour, that's a bus every 3.5 minutes for a sustained period. I've never seen a resort get anything close to that sort of bus service, even at park opening. At park closing--after fireworks or nighttime show when traffic is heaviest--my experience is that buses usually sit there for 5-10-15 minutes waiting until they are fully packed before departing. With this setup, traffic just keeps flowing with no interruption.

 

[Q-man]

At 70 Guests per bus, 1200 would fit on about 17 buses.

I doubt Disney would design the cabins to seat everyone. They would probably seek to maximize capacity and loading efficiency by minimizing seating and increasing standee space, as they do with buses.

Portland's aerial trams have a 78 person capacity and run every 6 minutes.

 

[Tardisblue]

I ran the distance, its 3.66 KM on the gondola route, the London Emirates does its 1km route in 5 minutes during rush hour (when they speed it up so it isn't as much a viewing ride). So at that rate, it would take 17 mins ? Faster than a boat or bus probably (Plus the load station pauses of course)

High speed 3 cable gondola run at around 25 km/hr. So a 3.66 km trip would take 9 mins ?

If you were asking

r/theydidthemath

 

[Harry Wallace]

Portland's aerial trams have a 78 person capacity and run every 6 minutes.

I have a feeling that Disney are going to go with the traditional ski resort style cable car with multiple cabs on the line that can be easily taken off if they need maintenance so the whole system doesn't have to close.

 

[rteetz]

So, has Disney figured out how to maintain this new transport system, while also not letting their old "whiz-bang" system, the monorail, decay? Right now, I wouldn't be excited for a 2nd system when it's clear their 1st system is crumbling from lack of investment...how often do people write "the monorail is down...AGAIN..." around here...

The whole reason they would go with this option is because it's cheaper to build and maintain than a monorail.

 

[zemra406]

What if the spur that goes to AOA is just there as a service spur,, as in there will be a service shop at the spur, not meant for resort guests at all. just a thought.

I could see backlash if they made aoa and pop century cost more money a night bc of added transport option (and they so would) and next thing you know a room at pop costs the same or more than a room at a moderate.

I think this is a valid point. If it is a multiple cab system they will need somewhere to offload and do maintenance.

 

[tjkraz]

Here's a thought that i just had. Maybe the seats onboard could be folded up by a CM to accommodate an ECV? It would certainly be cheaper than having special cars for them.

I have a feeling that operating ease is going to take priority over purchase cost. The price of having custom cabs for ECVs vs. making every cab convertible is likely to be negligible. Of greater concern is how much extra time it would take to load a convertible cab vs. a custom cab. If they have to stop the line for an extra 30 seconds to fold the seat, I can't see them choosing that option.

 

[Tardisblue]

I've always enjoyed skyride style rides and usually ride the one in Busch Gardens Tampa every time I visit,one thing to note is that it does go down pretty frequently due to weather,I wonder if Disney does go forward with this are the cars going to be larger and enclosed and less likely to close due to weather.One skyride that I immediately thought of when I heard this is the one in Ocean Park in Hong Kong,its gotta be one of the longest ones out there and going up those mountains is pretty impressive.I wonder if built could they extend it from AOA/DHS to AK.AK is so far away and you always have that long bus ride to get there,a trip down Osceola Pkwy to get to AK would be awesome.Here's a video of that skyride in Ocean Park Hong Kong.

I'm sold.

 

[Tardisblue]

The Chicago Tribune wrote an article last May about this possibly happening in Chicago. Sounds great in theory, but the weather would be even more of a factor here and it would be taxed to death before being built.

Chicago Skyline

 

[joelkfla]

So, has Disney figured out how to maintain this new transport system, while also not letting their old "whiz-bang" system, the monorail, decay? Right now, I wouldn't be excited for a 2nd system when it's clear their 1st system is crumbling from lack of investment...how often do people write "the monorail is down...AGAIN..." around here...

It seems to be common for the operation and maintenance of aerial trams to be outsourced to the supplier. Disney is big on outsourcing whenever they can get away with it.

(Pardon my language . I see now that aerial trams and gondolas aka cableways are 2 different things.)