Monorail - Why no expansion?

[sunshine1]

Disney already built a fourth park.

Haha.

I meant fifth!

 

[rastahomie]

I don't know if previous posters have mentioned this (I'm not going to read all four pages), but I read about this in The Orlando Sentinel, in an article about WDW's traffic problems.*

According to the Sentinel - and keep in mind this was in 2004 - the monorail would cost about $10 million per mile to build. The Sentinel suggested light rail, like what you would find in Charlotte or Saint Louis or another major city,** which would cost something on the order of $1 million per mile.

*I've never noticed traffic at WDW to be particularly onerous, but I've never gone during super-peak times, so my experience may be different than yours.

**When you think about it, WDW is a little self-contained major city. It's comparable in size (geographically) to San Francisco, and at peak times, probably comparable in population to Saint Louis (about 300,000 people).

 

[Robo]

I don't know if previous posters have mentioned this (I'm not going to read all four pages)

They did.

 

[lugnut33]

Monorail expansion would not lead to increased revenues unless they started charging to use the monorail, which I'm sure they could and it would probably be wildly successful.

 

[Mitzicat]

View attachment 161840

And if you read about the Las Vegas Monorail vehicles and signal systems were developed by Bombardier Transportation. The technology for the monorail vehicles came directly from the well-tested monorail systems running in Walt Disney World. Bombardier constructed Mark VI Monorail trains both for the Walt Disney World Monorail System and for Las Vegas.

 

[hedberg1661]

I think you have a better chance of seeing new Monorail vehicles than you do an expansion of the system. It is really sad to head the overheads tell you the Monorail system was "modernized" in 1992 (don't hold me to that exact year but I think it is really close). 1992. Really? With all of the problems they have had lately with the monorail I think it is time they started replacing the vehicles.

 

[HopperFan]

You mean something like FP+ ?

Yes, that would count.
Yes, I am totally okay FP+ and ALL the other things that were built into that price tag.
I think Disney is happy with the results as well.
MagicBands and all they can has been a game changer for them.

 

[Bluegrrl]

Being from Chicago originally, I would be happy to pay for a monorail or light rail charge if Disney made one like the Chicago subway.

 

[OKW Lover]

Monorail expansion would not lead to increased revenues unless they started charging to use the monorail, which I'm sure they could and it would probably be wildly successful.

Of course you could say the same thing about the boat and bus.

 

[OKW Lover]

With all of the problems they have had lately with the monorail I think it is time they started replacing the vehicles.

Have the problems been with the vehicles? With the track? With the switching equipment? With the MAPO control system?

 

[RedAngie]

Here's just one way it might work:
Who (at the Grand Floridian) would want to ride the loop (MK stop/ Contemporary stop) to TTC,
disembark, walk to Epcot train,
ride to Epcot station,
disembark, walk to DHS train,
ride to DHS station,
disembark, walk to DAK train,
ride to DAK station.
How long would THAT trip take?
How many trains would that involve to carry the traffic?
Efficient? Well...

Why would you need to disembark and reconnect at each park? They could have extended the current Epcot tracks. Build an unloading platform for Epcot visitors before the monorail circles thru Future World. Reconfigure the tracks to extend to HS and then to AK. A GF guest would still have to transfer at the TTC, but then could stay on the same train all the way to AK.

Now come on. Everyone knows that the monorail was always supposed to go from the airport to the resort. And that the Hogwarts Express goes from Harry Potter Land to Fantasyland

I overheard someone telling the tall tale that the Hogwarts Express DOES go from Universal to Disney. She KNEW it for a fact because she RODE it.

 

[efam]

Quick, energy efficient transportation = LOTS of money.

That's the main reason. You'll notice they have issues maintaining the system they currently have in place.

After just returning from a stay at the Poly, this is so true...they cannot handle the system they already have in place. Besides a rude server at the pool one day, my only complaint from my trip is that there was a monorail issue EVERY DAY we were there.

 

[Robo]

Why would you need to disembark and reconnect at each park? They could have extended the current Epcot tracks. Build an unloading platform for Epcot visitors before the monorail circles thru Future World. Reconfigure the tracks to extend to HS and then to AK. A GF guest would still have to transfer at the TTC, but then could stay on the same train all the way to AK.

Consider that the MK monorail does not go to Epcot.
There is a transfer point (to another loop) at TTC.
If not, and they needed to do a repair on any of the Epcot route, they'd have to shut down the MK loop. (All one loop.)

If they built a TTC-Epcot-DHS-DAK route as one HUGE track loop, if there was a breakdown of a train on that loop, or there was a problem with a section of the beam,
the ENTIRE loop:
from TTC to Epcot to DHS to DAK, and back to DHS and Epcot and TTC,
would be shut down. (All one loop.)

 

[lugnut33]

Of course you could say the same thing about the boat and bus.

Boat and bus service is incredibly cheap when compared to the monorail. You have to move guests to the parks somehow and the monorail is the most expensive way to do it. It's really cool and I love it, but I also know it's really expensive for Disney to operate them. I also know Disney would love to get rid of the monorail because it's so expensive.

 

[rastahomie]

Being from Chicago originally, I would be happy to pay for a monorail or light rail charge if Disney made one like the Chicago subway.

Disney will never build a subway - unless you want to drown, lol.

 

[Jestocost]

Yep. According to 1960s thinking, most U.S. cities were supposed to have extensive monorail systems in place by the 1980s. But the costs, limitations, and other problems showed the idea was not practical.

Disney should be able to build a monorail for much lower per mile than that Las Vegas one. Disney already owns the land. A large part of LV's cost was land acquisition and easements. But still too expensive.

But since capital costs for the Las Vegas monorail approached $100 million per mile, a "much lower per mile" cost would be in the range I suggested--$30 million to $50 million--and there's no real evidence that even that level of cost would be achievable for Disney. Seattle's monorail ran $87 million per mile and if you subtract costs for right-of-way acquisition ($30 million), water crossings ($120 million) and utility relocation ($80 million) it still tops $72 million per mile. The bargain basement Kuala Lumpur monorail cost $59 million per mile.

 

[hedberg1661]

Have the problems been with the vehicles? With the track? With the switching equipment? With the MAPO control system?

Honestly, I think all of the above. I know this whole automation process seems to help things. At least they stop where they are supposed to and hit the correct sensors at the platforms to allow the doors to open.

 

[Jcon]

But since capital costs for the Las Vegas monorail approached $100 million per mile, a "much lower per mile" cost would be in the range I suggested--$30 million to $50 million--and there's no real evidence that even that level of cost would be achievable for Disney. Seattle's monorail ran $87 million per mile and if you subtract costs for right-of-way acquisition ($30 million), water crossings ($120 million) and utility relocation ($80 million) it still tops $72 million per mile. The bargain basement Kuala Lumpur monorail cost $59 million per mile.

But do all those expenses consider the cost to acquiring and clearing the land? That wouldn't be a requirement at WDW.

 

[Jcon]

I believe LRT (light rail) would be the ideal solution. Not as expensive (or frankly, unrealistic) as expanding the monorail but an improvement over the existing bus system. Still allows for automation.

 

[rastahomie]

Are Disney's traffic problems serious enough that the existing transportation system needs tweaking? As you can tell from my sig, I haven't been in over ten years, and even then I always went during non-peak times.