New Transit Upgrades

[doconnor901]

Are there any new plans for monorail extensions or new bus routes between resorts. I have recently heard they're will be a new resort in the previously vacant buildings at the entrance to Pop Century?

 

[joelkfla]

Nothing yet, but Disney has hired a new VP of WDW Transportation, and he has been tasked with developing a transportation master plan for the future.

Meanwhile, we have about 15 new buses coming online in the next couple of weeks, and WDW has been adding drivers.

 

[NewEnglander]

Meanwhile, we have about 15 new buses coming online in the next couple of weeks, and WDW has been adding drivers.

Fifteen new buses VS a Monorail extension, I'll take the Monorail.
I hope the new buses are better than the last batch of crappy buses. They're ugly and the color is off too. I guess the lowest bidder does get the contract, the heck with quality.

 

[guitarob]

Just my 2 cents: I love the newest batch of buses. They're roomier, easier to get on and off of, and seem to ride better.

 

[skiingfast]

Nothing yet, but Disney has hired a new VP of WDW Transportation, and he has been tasked with developing a transportation master plan for the future.

Meanwhile, we have about 15 new buses coming online in the next couple of weeks, and WDW has been adding drivers.

Joel, do you know that these new ones will be from the new style of the current fleet? Are they an expansion or replacing older buses? Are they hybrids? Does DRT have any hybrids?

 

[DebbieB]

Fifteen new buses VS a Monorail extension, I'll take the Monorail.
I hope the new buses are better than the last batch of crappy buses. They're ugly and the color is off too. I guess the lowest bidder does get the contract, the heck with quality.

Problem is a monorail extension costs many millions. From reports I've seen, it's never going to happen.

 

[dburg30]

Fifteen new buses VS a Monorail extension, I'll take the Monorail.
I hope the new buses are better than the last batch of crappy buses. They're ugly and the color is off too. I guess the lowest bidder does get the contract, the heck with quality.

As DebbieB said, the monorail is pretty much not going to happen for just basic cost. Plus, you cant really change where a monorail goes. Buses can be rerouted to where they are needed.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Fifteen new buses VS a Monorail extension, I'll take the Monorail.
I hope the new buses are better than the last batch of crappy buses. They're ugly and the color is off too. I guess the lowest bidder does get the contract, the heck with quality.

Monorail infrastructure costs something like a million dollars a foot
Monorail already doesn't go to most of the Deluxe resorts or any of the Moderate or Value resorts; no reason to add to it for new Value resort construction
Ugly? Really? Do they work? Do they operate? Do they hold people? Do they get Guests from Point A to Point B? Do they conserve energy by moving many Guests using relatively little fuel, i.e. small carbon footprint compared to fifty personal vehicles all going to a single destination? What's ugly about that? I don't understand the color being 'off', either. You should contact WDW's Transportation Department to see what caused that 'problem'.

 

[NewEnglander]

Monorail infrastructure costs something like a million dollars a foot

Ugly? Really? Do they work? Do they operate? Do they hold people? Do they get Guests from Point A to Point B? Do they conserve energy by moving many Guests using relatively little fuel, i.e. small carbon footprint compared to fifty personal vehicles all going to a single destination? What's ugly about that?

Million dollars a foot, wow, sounds high?

I've seen attractive buses that also meet the criteria you stated.

They do conserve energy when they're full but would you agree that other than the peak times, buses are traveling with very few people in them? They still have to make all the routes in order to meet the 20 minute approx wait time. I wonder if operating for 3 or 4 hours full, or almost full, and the rest of the day with a few people conserves as much energy as it should.

 

[seashoreCM]

Believe it or not, Disney does not have point to point traffic volumes big enough to support rail (monorail, light rail, etc.) into each resort. The advantages of rail over bus are:

1. Fewer drivers (labor) can handle more people by using trains. Disney has already opted not to get (bigger) articulated buses that are a move in that direction compared with regular buses.

2. Private cars cannot get into and congest the right of way. Fortunately (for now) Disney's road system, except for Downtown Disney, is not very congested.

The monorail exists because Walt was both a train buff and a futurama buff.

Buses...

... do conserve energy when they're full but would you agree that other than the peak times, buses are traveling with very few people in them? They still have to make all the routes in order to meet the 20 minute approx wait time. I wonder if operating for 3 or 4 hours full, or almost full, and the rest of the day with a few people conserves as much energy as it should.

I'm sure it conserves more energy and (parking) space and labor compared with any alternative for example Disney's providing a fleet of cars to transport guests during the off hours.

Disney hints: http://www.cockam.com/disney.htm

 

[goofy4tink]

While I hesitate to say never, I am going to go out on a limb and say we won't be seeing any monorail expansions. It is just cost prohibitive. Also, as I have said in other, similar threads....it is next to impossible to get passengers off the monorail if there is an emergency. I have been 'trapped' on a monorail, for 35 mins..just sitting there, waiting for the track further up to clear. It was awful. Hot, humid, jammed with people, many standing up. Kids started crying, parents are yelling at the kids. It is not something I want to experience again. I love the monorail but it is limited in what it can do.

Buses, as someone already noted, can be routed wherever they are needed. I truly don't care what the buses look like...I'm riding on it for about 30 mins, not buying it!!! It's public transit..plain and simple. Sometimes the buses are full and sometimes you get personalized service and get to ride all by yourself. That's the nature of 'public transit'. Disney does an incredible job of moving guests around. If a guest prefers a quicker ride, then they are free to go out and rent a car.

I'm thrilled there are more buses coming on line, with drivers to drive them. I truly think the WDW bus drivers have one of the hardest jobs at WDW. They take an inordinant amount of crap from guests. I see them getting yelled at, criticized, berated. And yet, most of them remain pleasant and helpful. Nope, I don't care what color the buses are, or what design they may have. Give me helpful, happy drivers.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Buses, as someone already noted, can be routed wherever they are needed. I truly don't care what the buses look like...

! You want ugly buses? Look at Boston's MBTA. School bus yellow (and don't even get me started on the ignorance of driving laws, or how you can't make a left turn INTO a car... well, you can, but you're not supposed to, and I don't think the poor driver to whom this happened while waiting at a stop light was very happy about being stuck in the car...)

 

[cranbiz]

The next batch of new buses will be Gillig low floors, just like the current ones. We did just put a batch of new Nova low floors on line but I don't believe there will be any more of them.

No more hybreds at this time, not cost effective enough.

What ever happened to the one in the Fort? Haven't seen it for a long time.

 

[Tara]

Fifteen new buses VS a Monorail extension, I'll take the Monorail.
I hope the new buses are better than the last batch of crappy buses. They're ugly and the color is off too. I guess the lowest bidder does get the contract, the heck with quality.

Adding buses equals "lowest bidder" by millions and millions of dollars! The cost of installing monorail track alone is, for all intents and purposes, prohibitively expensive. I'd rather see the money spent of more guest services staff, more showings of Fantasmic, etc.

 

[cranbiz]

Fifteen new buses VS a Monorail extension, I'll take the Monorail.
I hope the new buses are better than the last batch of crappy buses. They're ugly and the color is off too. I guess the lowest bidder does get the contract, the heck with quality.

Actually, the WDW fleet is standardized. We have 3 types of buses, the old RTS (Regional Transit System) manufactured by GMC/TMC, the Nova manufactured bu Prevost Bus and the Gillig, manufactured by Gillig. The new buses are not what you would consider low bid, in fact, the only reason there are Nova's in the fleet was at that time WDW wanted 35 new buses and Gillig said wait in line, we have other orders in front of you, so they went to Nova who was happy to take their money. The early Nova's had several issues, all due to the fact that Prevost did not have a large installed base in a climate like Central FL and the buses did not like the constant heat. They have since been fixed and the 10 new Nova's are working out well. The 15 new buses will be Gilligs.

IMHO, they are not "crappy" and the colors are fine. We may not be as glamorous as the monorail but we are more versatile and cheaper to run.

 

[Tara]

Million dollars a foot, wow, sounds high?

Yes, it sounds high, and maybe it is. It's a commonly used figure on these boards, and data I've seen don't really bear it out. However, just because that number is high doesn't mean the correct number isn't still prohibitive. One just has to look at the Las Vegas monorail to see that it's incredibly expensive. That system, which is fairly comparable to what WDW would build was $166 million per mile in 2002 dollars. Newark's monorail was $233 million per mile. (see http://www.lightrailnow.org/myths/m_monorail001.htm)

And that's just the cost to build the track. That doesn't include new trains, more people to run them, additional energy costs, cost of constructing new station platforms. Then there's the issue of elevation - monorails need to be entirely elevated. The monorail resorts were built with this in mind so that the stations are integrated with the main building, but other resorts weren't (never mind what bus drivers and boat captains say about the S/D and those black glass squares). Imagine building a station at a resort like POFQ where there would be no way to gracefully integrate it.

And I'm not sure what would be required from a safety standpoint - the Vegas system includes an evacuation catwalk, something the article I linked implies is required by US regulations. If these regulations do exist, I assume the current WDW monorail is grandfathered, but new lines would be required to comply.