monorail expansion

[720L]

We were at the MK the week before Christmas and rode the monorail to Epcot. We sat in the front with the driver and he said he heard there is going to be an announcement in October that the monorail is going to be expanded to AK and CSR. I hope this happens, maybe it will also go to AKL.

 

[cleo]

As they say in the UK....not bloody likely!

This rumor goes around every now and then. Disney transportation CM's are notorious for giving out 'fun' information with no basis in reality. However, Disney reps have said categorically that expansion of the monorail is cost prohibitive. Given the places this CM says it will go, I'd chuckle and forget about it. CSR? Could be, but not...bloody....likely!

 

[LukenDC]

A monorail expansion would be nice, but it would have its drawbacks too. If it were expanded to AKL and CSR, then the rates of those resorts would probably experience a hefty increase. Disney could also recoup part of the costs by increasing the rates for conventions at CSR and expanding its advertising as a convention destination.

 

[720L]

Yeah it would be expensive. There was a show on the History channel last night and it said the monorail cost 1 million dollars per mile to build and that was in 1970's dollars. So in today's dollars it would be about 5 million per mile.

 

[All Aboard]

We sat in the front with the driver and he said

Perhaps my favorite phrase here on the DIS. Oh, the things that have followed these words over the years.

 

[Syrreal]

We sat in front with the driver and he said they were replacing all of the animatronics on jungle cruise with real, untrained, animals. It will really be a thrill ride!!

<Sorry, just couldn't help myself >

Syrreal--> feeling punchy today!!

 

[The Dark Dancer]

A monorail expansion would be nice, but it would have its drawbacks too. If it were expanded to AKL and CSR, then the rates of those resorts would probably experience a hefty increase. Disney could also recoup part of the costs by increasing the rates for conventions at CSR and expanding its advertising as a convention destination.

I agree.

 

[boomhauer]

Why just Animal Kingdom and Coronado Springs? Why not MGM, or any of the other resorts?

I think he may have been passing around some false information.

I would say, the best thing Disney could EVER do, is to have the monorail go to each theme park, and extend it to all of the resorts. This will never happen though.

I think a MAJOR issue with this would be the construction work that would have to be done. Remember, the only recent monorail expansion that was done to the Grand Floridian, and at that time, it wasn't really in the way of anything. Even when the monorail expansion was done to include Epcot, it was in back of everything and there was nothing in the way.

To do it now, there would be alot of logistics involved, which is why, I assume, it's taken this long to get started.

 

[bicker]

All indications from past history are that the transportation CMs have an on-going contest among themselves with regard to who can convince the most number of guests of the most outrageously unlikely rumors.

 

[seashoreCM]

The most practical place for additional monorail service is from Marketplace to West Side via Pleasure Island and the Downtown Disney buses would go to just one of those places depending on where the buses came from.

Coronado Springs is a logical stop for a monorail from Animal Kingdom to Epcot or TTC. People coming in the new west gate from the new north south toll road (427?) will see the monorail and say "We're at Disney now.".

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[bicker]

I was just thinking -- what might be a lot more likely, and still pretty cool, is if Disney bought the rights to Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, and then installed a Neighborhood Trolly from DTD, to TL, to Epcot (maybe the International Gateway?), to D-MGM, and on from there to AK.

 

[Lord Fantasius]

I was just thinking -- what might be a lot more likely, and still pretty cool, is if Disney bought the rights to Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, and then installed a Neighborhood Trolly from DTD, to TL, to Epcot (maybe the International Gateway?), to D-MGM, and on from there to AK.

Love the trolley idea!!! Notably, as has been discussed before, a too-convenient connection between DTD and any park would make parking at DTD even harder. Many people would decide to save the $9 parking even though it would probably add more than an hour of total commute time if they were going to any park other than EPCOT. I guess I don't see it as much of a problem going to other resorts since the inconvenience of transferring would negate the efficiency of saving the parking fee (especially if going to the MK), though some people are funny and will gladly spend an exhorbitant amount of effort just to save a few dollars.

Yes, connecting to either CSR or AKL would increase the cost of staying at either one of them probably by about $20 - $30/nt (based on a comparison of WL avg nightly cost to Poly's) which would allow Disney, Inc., to quickly recupe the $1/$5/$10 million-a-mile cost to extend or add another monorail loop between them and the Studios and AK. My thought would be to build a second transfer station at the curve where the EPCOT express monorail turns to head east and from that station run a loop that connects the Boardwalk resorts (including Swan/Dolphin), the Studios, the waterpark, AKL, AK, then back up to CSR, and returning to the transfer station.

Or...an out-and-back, with a loop at each end, going straight from the new transfer station though Boardwalk, the Studios, waterpark, AK, AKL, and back in reverse order.

I know, like Disney would take my suggestions, or that I don't have anything better to do with my time besides dreaming of monorails at WDW. Admittedly, I'd love a combination of "elevated" transportation enhancements incorporated at WDW including a WEDway people mover-type carriage ride between WL and the TTC. But then again, I'd also like the train back at FW running between the entrance and the Settlement.

Really do not like buses...repeat, do not like buses!

-R

P.S., how do you add pictures to an e-mail? Do they have to uploaded somewhere or do you just attach them?

 

[Another Voice]

Actually Mr. Bicker, you were a lot closer to getting your trolley than you realize.

One of the very initial concepts for Pleasure Island included a trolley to connect it to the Shopping Village. The system might have been extended through the old Village resorts and down the Hotel Plaza. This “urban village” concept was the spark for the whole Downtown Disney concept.

Then, as part of the “Disney Decade” transportation expansion plan, a light rail “trolley” would have run from the TTC to Fort Wilderness/Buffalo Junction to Dixie Landings/Port Orleans and on to Downtown Disney. It may have also stopped at the EPCOT Transportation Center (the plans changed all the time up until they were cancelled). There are “rumors” that the trolley plans were so advanced Disney had already begun buying the equipment.

Sadly for all these plans, Euro Disney opened. Within a day, Michael Eisner suddenly “discovered” that theme parks weren’t amazing cash machines and his greed turned elsewhere. The “Disney Decade” fizzled, plans were cancelled, and the capital for those projects was squandered on schemes that were supposed to produce "faster returns". Sleek monorails and quaint trolleys were traded in for reruns of ‘The Power Rangers’, cheap airplane leases for United Airlines and the ever enjoyable stench of diesel spewing busses.