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

[SgtTibbs]

Reflective paint is used on license plates. I guess stick on numbers could be used. You're looking at hours not weeks.

Disney seems more like NASA, why use a two hour $20 fix when a six month $100,000+ plus option is available.

 

[cranbiz]

December 8th, 2019.

They will reopen it just before ROTR opens.

 

[rteetz]

December 8th, 2019.

They will reopen it just before ROTR opens.

Well that would be after RotR opens...

 

[cranbiz]

Well that would be after RotR opens...

Crap, It's the 5th, not the 9th.

Can I change to the 4th?

 

[Lewisc]

Well that would be after RotR opens...

Or is the poster projecting a delayed opening date for RoR?

 

[jknezek]

Anyone call 10/18 yet?

 

[rteetz]

Ok let’s not make this a guessing game. They will open them when they are ready.

 

[Spaceguy55]

They may be able to open them to public sooner than later. They don't really have any agency that has to sign off on them other than themselves. The PR is taking a big hit the longer they aren't running.
It was the equivalent of a fender bender on a major highway..they just need to put in place a faster system to clear the line and avoid the hundreds of guests stuck up in the air.
The cabins already have numbers on the side that can be seen with a spotlight and in some places binoculars until they possible add them to the bottom.
Worst case scenario is that the ecv loading contributed to the collision and if so, they would have to re-think that as an option at that station.

 

[rpach10115]

They may be able to open them to public sooner than later. They don't really have any agency that has to sign off on them other than themselves. The PR is taking a big hit the longer they aren't running.
It was the equivalent of a fender bender on a major highway..they just need to put in place a faster system to clear the line and avoid the hundreds of guests stuck up in the air.
The cabins already have numbers on the side that can be seen with a spotlight and in some places binoculars until they possible add them to the bottom.
Worst case scenario is that the ecv loading contributed to the collision and if so, they would have to re-think that as an option at that station.

The Gondola system is made up of many different moving "lines". There are the "station" lines, and the "Main line". Notice the cars move at slower speeds when in the station than when they are on the main line. The station lines obviously move at much slower speeds for loading and unloading. There is also another seperate line in each station for the ECV loading. The cars transition from the station lines to the main lines every time it enters and leaves a station. The problem happened when a car was moving from the station line to the main line.

This problem was NOT caused by the ECV loading station. This happened at a CLOSED station.

The cause of this was a power spike/failure. The Rivieria station lost power for a brief moment. That caused a car that was about to be loaded onto the main line to lose it's connection to the main line and stop moving. When the other cars on the Rivieria station line kept moving, that's what caused the crash. Once the first car stopped, 3 other cars kept moving and bumped the stopped car. Once the station attendant realized that this was happening, they pushed the emergency stop , which stopped the whole line. To be honest, the fail safe on the emergency system worked. The issue is Power and what happens when they have a spike or failure. Plane and simple: This was caused by a power spike issue, not in the construction or use of the system. I'm sure that this was an isolated incident. This system has been up and running now for 3 months.
In closing, I think that this incident opened up a few eyes @ Disney and Dopplemayr. They got to see a "real-world" problem and thought they had enough procedures in place to deal with it. This alerted them to the fact that it is NOT an easy thing to unload these cars while still in the air. The procedure they have in place to rescue people from the cars over the IG @ Epcot is just plain NUTS! A zip line? Really? Although they didn't have to USE the zip line, can you imagine being in one of those cars and they tell to Strap on a zip line? As far as the temp in the cars, like a previous poster said, they are lucky that this happened at night. There are many video's that show the temp in the car during the day between 85 and 90 degrees. In direct sunlight, the temps are even higher. This could be an issue with somebody with health problems if they become stuck in a non-moving car. This needs to be addressed by Disney and Dopplemayr.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

Anyone want to start a pool for when the Skyliner re-opens? Pick a date, closest to the actual date wins Internet bragging points.

I'm going with October 29th since that's the day after I leave

 

[Moliphino]

This problem was NOT caused by the ECV loading station. This happened at a CLOSED station.

The Riviera station is open, guests could get on and off there. It also doesn't have the separate loop for ECV/wheelchair/etc. loading that the other stations have.

 

[Jedi Dad]

The Gondola system is made up of many different moving "lines". There are the "station" lines, and the "Main line". Notice the cars move at slower speeds when in the station than when they are on the main line. The station lines obviously move at much slower speeds for loading and unloading. There is also another seperate line in each station for the ECV loading. The cars transition from the station lines to the main lines every time it enters and leaves a station. The problem happened when a car was moving from the station line to the main line.

This problem was NOT caused by the ECV loading station. This happened at a CLOSED station.

The cause of this was a power spike/failure. The Rivieria station lost power for a brief moment. That caused a car that was about to be loaded onto the main line to lose it's connection to the main line and stop moving. When the other cars on the Rivieria station line kept moving, that's what caused the crash. Once the first car stopped, 3 other cars kept moving and bumped the stopped car. Once the station attendant realized that this was happening, they pushed the emergency stop , which stopped the whole line. To be honest, the fail safe on the emergency system worked. The issue is Power and what happens when they have a spike or failure. Plane and simple: This was caused by a power spike issue, not in the construction or use of the system. I'm sure that this was an isolated incident. This system has been up and running now for 3 months.
In closing, I think that this incident opened up a few eyes @ Disney and Dopplemayr. They got to see a "real-world" problem and thought they had enough procedures in place to deal with it. This alerted them to the fact that it is NOT an easy thing to unload these cars while still in the air. The procedure they have in place to rescue people from the cars over the IG @ Epcot is just plain NUTS! A zip line? Really? Although they didn't have to USE the zip line, can you imagine being in one of those cars and they tell to Strap on a zip line? As far as the temp in the cars, like a previous poster said, they are lucky that this happened at night. There are many video's that show the temp in the car during the day between 85 and 90 degrees. In direct sunlight, the temps are even higher. This could be an issue with somebody with health problems if they become stuck in a non-moving car. This needs to be addressed by Disney and Dopplemayr.

What is your source of information on the cause?

 

[hertamaniac]

The issue is Power and what happens when they have a spike or failure. Plane and simple: This was caused by a power spike issue, not in the construction or use of the system. I'm sure that this was an isolated incident. This system has been up and running now for 3 months.

If this is confirmed, then why wouldn't each station have it's own backup system to maintain a constant connection? Frequency regulation systems are in place to maintain a constant 60Hz signal and negate the effects of transient loads.

So I get the sense it is a construction/design issue. And what is more interesting is how they can protect against this in the future. I know that energy storage cabinets are often used to maintain regulation/power for microgrids.

 

[sachilles]

Where are you sourcing your power spike information as the cause? It's largely mechanical, if the haul rope was moving, then the process should have worked for it to latch on to the haul rope and move out of the station without any sort of power fluctuation being an issue.

 

[UmmGooD]

The cause of this was a power spike/failure. The Rivieria station lost power for a brief moment. That caused a car that was about to be loaded onto the main line to lose it's connection to the main line and stop moving. When the other cars on the Rivieria station line kept moving, that's what caused the crash. Once the first car stopped, 3 other cars kept moving and bumped the stopped car. Once the station attendant realized that this was happening, they pushed the emergency stop , which stopped the whole line. To be honest, the fail safe on the emergency system worked. The issue is Power and what happens when they have a spike or failure. Plane and simple: This was caused by a power spike issue, not in the construction or use of the system. I'm sure that this was an isolated incident. This system has been up and running now for 3 months.

Where did you get the power spike/failure info? Is that just a guess? An industrial power system should have things in place to prevent that. If it is the case it was a power spike or failure that caused it I am guessing it will be down until they can fix the root cause or come up with a better implementation so it doesn't happen again.

 

[UmmGooD]

If this is confirmed, then why wouldn't each station have it's own backup system to maintain a constant connection? Frequency regulation systems are in place to maintain a constant 60Hz signal and negate the effects of transient loads.

So I get the sense it is a construction/design issue. And what is more interesting is how they can protect against this in the future. I know that energy storage cabinets are often used to maintain regulation/power for microgrids.

Agreed and they have new systems with battery backup that prevent any outage whatsoever. I would hope on a system like this where they really require it to run to get people off I would hope they are using a battery backup. This is what Australia worked on with Tesla to handle their power issues.

 

[sachilles]

This video shows both chair and gondola functions. Pretty useful for some folks to visualize what is going on in the terminals.

 

[NWOhiogal]

Stencils and spray paint. Putting numbers on the bottom of the gondolas could probably be done in a day, maybe even overnight

Considering that every gondola would have to either be tipped over on its side or suspended about 6' above the ground in order to reach the underside, I don't think that could be done in a day. Every gondola would have to be tipped over, stencilled, set upright again, and put back where it was.

As far as the AC goes: I've read a few posts on the interwebs that claim the gondolas are equipped with 3 hours' worth of "emergency AC." I don't see any evidence of that, though, so I think it's just a rumor.

 

[tommygunn]

This whole idea was ill conceived. The mouse was too cheap to build a monorail or get more buses/drivers. Gondolas in the Florida climate make zero sense, and these aren’t even air conditioned.

 

[sachilles]

Then this shows a better idea of how it actually grips the haul rope. All mechanical.