No more ME, train to WDW from MCO

[skiingfast]

Trains 2010 June magazine has a couple articles about building high speed trains in the US. In one it talks about building a Tampa/Orlando line then south to Miami. It suggests that this line will get the second biggest share of the 8B in grants for the American Recovery and Reinvestment act and because of previous planning is most likely to be built. But it will only travel 150mph and have four stops on the intial MCO tampa route.

It says "Walt Disney World and Orlando International Airport are likely the biggest traffic generators in the state; both are making land available for station sites. The airport's aviation authority recently vowed that it wants to build a "Grand Central Station" on its property with public-private financing, of course"

So if this happens would disney build a new transportation center at the proposed, WDW/Celebration center? Would they cut Mears out of the picture and use Disney Resort Tranports to transfer guests to the resorts?

Would they expand the monorail or build a lightrail to all of the resorts?

 

[dioxide45]

This is interesting. The problem is that the current busses really are not designed to handle luggage like the coaches are. It is possible to retrofit the current style of busses to make them handle more luggage and fewer passengers. I doubt that you would see Disney fork over the money to pay for monorail to the TTC or something else. It is simely cost prohibitive. Now if some of that came from public financing, it is likely.

 

[skiingfast]

I think the biggest benefit of ME is saying goodbye to your bags and not seeing them until they are in your room. I'm sure Disney could carry this on though. I'm not sure who moves the bags it probably isn't mears or disney but a third party.

 

[seashoreCM]

Magical Express for guests could remain much the way it is now except that the other end would be the transit station instead of the airport. But I expect that the travel time would be at least a half hour more than now, that is, leave your resort 3-1/2 hours before your flight.

The idea of a train from MCO to WDW and beyond (Tampa) has been around for awhile but at first Disney was saying they would not help fund it if it had a stop (probably near the intersection of 528 (Beach Line Expy) and I-4 namely at the Orlando Convention Center).

They do make "city buses" with a big luggage rack in the passenger compartment, for airport routes.

 

[joelkfla]

Yes, the high-speed rail between MCO and Tampa has been approved by the state of Florida (after years of political fighting), and has already been partially funded by the Obama administration, with assurances of more money to come. It is expected to start operation in 2015.

Disney has committed to provide land for a station, but beyond that, nothing has been announced as to how it will interface with MME or Disney Transport.

Interesting side note: The vendor to supply the trains has not yet been selected. One of the contenders is Siemens, sponsor of Spaceship Earth and Illuminations. They have been advertising in the Orlando area about how great their trains are, and all the other great projects they are involved in across America -- apparently trying to build public support for their bid.

As for the MME luggage transfer -- yes, that is provided by a separate company, and it is tightly controlled to meet TSA security requirements. Sd if Disney decides to continue the service, it could probably continue on unchanged and separate from the MME passenger transfer.

 

[skiingfast]

I don't know that they could use Siemens for the trains. But I don't know who they would use. Mostly because of the money they are using I think part of the stimulus package was to create American Jobs.

But since the US hasn't been building enough trains the Pullman shops all closed in the early eighties.

There are some frieght car manufacturers who may get into it if they see long term profits in the US market.

My biggest guess though is that Bombardeir which makes the Acela trains would be first at the table. For an odd reason the article notes the trains would only reach 150mph not 180. Acela trains in the northeast can reach this speed if the track allows.

It would be interesting to see a train going down the middle of the freeway at twice the speed of the traffic.

 

[seashoreCM]

The current law is that at least 51% of the dollar value on U.S. federally funded systems has to be spent in the U.S.

Typically (this includes Siemens) most of the parts are made overseas, some parts are ordered locally, and assembly is done in the U.S.

So called American manufacturers also order a lot of the parts from overseas, sometimes up to 49% of the dollar value.

A good question is whether Disney and the state would agree on a station site that also works as a Disney transportation hub for such purposes as resort to resort transfers. Would Disney want and get additional day guests coming by train, versus be fearful of losing on site guests to offsite locations?

 

[skiingfast]

A good question is whether Disney and the state would agree on a station site that also works as a Disney transportation hub for such purposes as resort to resort transfers. Would Disney want and get additional day guests coming by train, versus be fearful of losing on site guests to offsite locations?

What I read indicated that the station would be Celebration/WDW. If it was upto me I would make the station in DTD. Then the Disney Resort Tranpotation buses could be dually purposed to serve DTD and the station. But I think DTD is in Lake Buena Vista and not Celebration.

I think if this was built and the second phase of the FL high speed rail project down the I95 corridor to Miami then people would day trip to the park.

It's my understanding that a lot of the I4 traffic is just commuters, so weekend trains to WDW would be a good deal. It may pull Tampa guests of Busch Gardens to WDW. I could see it as being a real boon to Disney to draw guest from Southern florida.

Also if the station was at DTD I could see many people using it to goto Pleasure Island, as it could be open by the time the train is built, maybe. That being if they had a 2:30am return trains.

 

[twinklebug]

This is very interesting because I recall being told that decades ago Disney asked FL for the right to extend the monorail into Orlando. According to the man who told me, Disney was shot down because the state government did not want Disney to have control of the tourism which is what such a system would in their minds effectively do.

The person who told me this was a mechanical engineer with the DOT who had worked closely with Disney in order to understand how rail systems could be made safer throughout the US. Was he lying? That wasn't his style. I believe he was just saying what he in turn had been told by the Disney employees.

 

[skiingfast]

I have little doubt that at one time Disney wanted to build the monorail to the airport. But I'm guessing that for many reasons the ME became the obvious solution to that. The biggest one being since 1971 Orlando grew up and spread out. I don't know about Florida wanting to stop Disney from control of tourism. For the most part I think disney has already won.