Why aren't the Monorails expanded???

[ZIPBAGS]

I know their are no credible plans to expand the monorail. I just have to ask why?? I heard the costs are high to build new track. But, in the long run it has to be cheaper than the busses they run. On my last trip they said they have over 300 busses at $200,000 a piece. And they go through gas like water.
They should at least have the monorail run to Animal Kingdom, Downtown Disney and MGM.

 

[stinkerbelle]

millions of dollars from what I've heard
millions...

i forget the figure...but for just one section of track...it's an crazy amount of money

 

[YepsenCP]

That would be nice... but it seems that often in business it is better to pay little bits at a time then a HUGE amount all at once. Undertaking that large of a monorail project would be a HUGE amount.

I'm sure they've eyed their books.

 

[jann1033]

hey maybe if gas continues to climb it will be more cost effecient ( sorry my brain is really off and can not spell today)

 

[vettechick99]

The new monorail in Las Vegas is four miles long. The cost per mile for that type of system is $88 million. That's per MILE!

 

[peter11435]

The initial construction costs about $80 million per mile. Plus the cost of every train and every station. As for fuel costs making monorails more efficient. That is not true. While the monorails them selves run on electricity, that electricity has to be made somehow. WDW uses a gas powered turbine to create the electricity needed.

Even though it doesn't always seem like it, buses are also far more efficient than the monorails.

 

[mrFDNY]

hi all,
i remember hearing it was like a million dollars per mile of track.then add on the extra cost of buying more monorails. then you have to remember they would still need buses anyway from resort to park.it would be nice to see it happen.maybe one day it might who knows. i remember seeing something someone drew up which made a ton of sense.basiclly it was central locations for monorail pick up to expand it.what is was is you would wake up in the am and take a resort bus to monorail pick up and be droped off there.there was like 5 resorts per stop. one was the values,carriben beach resort all on one stop.you would take a short 5 minute bus ride to a monorail station and be droped off.then your bus would turn around and repeat.remember from pop century to magic kingdom it's a 20 minute ride.so if you could take it to the central station and it was only 5-10 minutes that means the same buses but more frequnecy at the resorts.so wait times for buses would be cut down and you would have the same number of buses they just would be coming back for pick ups much more.the plans i saw called for 4 new central stations to be built. in a straight line south from the magic kingdom.also these plans were not made by disney just someone with a very smart idea.but if disney could do this it made it look like it would be very smart. i will look for the link and post it if i could.
the other thing is that many disney surveys have been done with a lot of questions reguarding the monorails were asked. so maybe in the future we will see somethink,i hope so!!

 

[MonkeyPants]

^ I had thought it was something insane like 1 million per foot, a million per mile would be nothing.

 

[Pedler]

Some one had also posted some info once that beside cost the monorail is not as flexible as busses in terms of adjusting capacity. In particular if you look at the WDW monorail when running it isn't a switched system. They have in essence two closed loops. (yes, I know they have switches to go to the maintence sheds or whatever they are called.) It would be difficult to adjust load capacities based on volume at different parks or hotels or tinker with the traffic patterns. Buses on the other hand can have the routes changed on the fly and are a more effiecient means of adjusting to changing load factors.

I would love to see more monorail action but you would be putting in a more expensive less flexible system of moving people around.

 

[aaronlisar]

Seems like when I was there a couple weeks ago a bus driver told us it was around 2 million for 1/8th of a mile of track but that price was for when MGM Studios opened and they were thinking of putting in a 16 mile loop between MK & MGM. This would be 16 million per mile back then, I'm sure that the price has gone up significantly since then. But if you just consider the 16/mile figure it would have cost 256 million for that 16 miles of track alone, not counting the monorails themselves.

 

[MonkeyPants]

Seems like when I was there a couple weeks ago a bus driver told us it was around 2 million for 1/8th of a mile of track but that price was for when MGM Studios opened and they were thinking of putting in a 16 mile loop between MK & MGM. This would be 16 million per mile back then, I'm sure that the price has gone up significantly since then. But if you just consider the 16/mile figure it would have cost 256 million for that 16 miles of track alone, not counting the monorails themselves.

that sounds more reasonable then the million per foot thing (which is what my cousin yelled to me when I asked him I knew it was insane, but 1mil/foot sounded way off)

 

[SkipperBubba]

I do wonder why it costs so much... WDW already owns the land, so there's no right-of-way involved. I guess the surveying and construction aren't cheap due to the fact it's elevated.

I would like to see more monorail transport, though. It was a huge thrill for me to ride the monorail as a child.

 

[shafke]

It is expensive partially because concrete is not cheap. Price out how much it would cost to redo your side walk. I have 60' and it would be about 1500-2000 to rip up the old and put in a new sidewalk. Thats 3 or 4 cubic yards. I also remember reading somewhere that in order for the monorails to travel at any kind of speed the track had to be very smooth which adds to the cost.

 

[WillCAD]

Besides construction costs, there is also the cost of permits, wetland mitigation, reforestation, and a host of other environmental concerns, not to mention the extra high cost of building stable foundations in that part of Florida because of the high water table and sandy soil.

I have always thought that a light rail system like we have in Baltimore would be much cheaper than a monorail and cost less to operate than the busses.

 

[peter11435]

It is expensive partially because concrete is not cheap. Price out how much it would cost to redo your side walk. I have 60' and it would be about 1500-2000 to rip up the old and put in a new sidewalk. Thats 3 or 4 cubic yards. I also remember reading somewhere that in order for the monorails to travel at any kind of speed the track had to be very smooth which adds to the cost.

Its also not typical concrete. The monorail line has to be built using high density concrete. There is also steel beams and tension cables running through the track.

 

[ryanmilla]

You know, I'm a "do-it-yourselfer" here at my home. Maybe we can get a bunch of guests together to help out? I have a cordless drill and saw I could lend to the project.

We can make it a new tour. Instead of "Keys to the Kingdom", it could be "Work Permit to the Monorails"

 

[cdpa4d]

The cost of expanding the monorail to those locations (DTD, MGM, and AKL) would run into the Billions. It's a considerable investment and one that would require a lot of cash up front. In a world where cash and profit is king and shareholders are ahead of customers it doesn't make much financial sense to put a lot of up front capital towards a monorail system vs. spending 200,000 at a time over a longer period.

With the way the cost of the materials are going up the longer they wait the more costly it is going to be and the less likely they are going to do it.

I spoke with some folks that work in the transportation dept (not monorail drivers, they can tell you anything) who are good sources and this is what they told me.

 

[DizWacko]

I understand everyones arguements about the cost, but no one has ever been able to answer this question.

How is it that it was NOT cost prohibitive to build the monorail to/from Epcot in early 1980s?

Also, it would seem as though it would be a total waste to build a parallel track all the way to MGM from MK when most of the track exist from MK to Epcot. Why not just build a new spur off of the existing track?

 

[Pedler]

I understand everyones arguements about the cost, but no one has ever been able to answer this question.

How is it that it was NOT cost prohibitive to build the monorail to/from Epcot in early 1980s?

Also, it would seem as though it would be a total waste to build a parallel track all the way to MGM from MK when most of the track exist from MK to Epcot. Why not just build a new spur off of the existing track?

Two thoughts:

First the existing system is not a switched system so you couldn't build another spur off it it. Give the way the monorail works, (It wraps over the sides of the rail), it really isn't setup to be a switched type of system. You would have to either extend the existing loop that goes to Epcot to MGM and make it a stop off of it or build another loop to MGM. Either a short one with a station at Epcot for Transfers or a longer one with a station at the Ticket and Transportation Center.

As for costs back in the day when WDW first opened and then Epcot opened you only had a limited number of resorts with only two destinations. The monorail could serve that well. Now with the number of resorts and destinations there isn't any way short of building a massive numer of lines you would be able to serve all resorts and destinations. Even then the monorail by the nature of its design doesn't provide the flexibility of busses. Keep in mind the monorail as it is implemented at WDW does not work like a regular switched train system. You have to have a moveable section of concrete track to switch it and while they have that for trains to go to the monorail facitlity I don't think you want to move pasengers over that on a regular basis. It just doesn't work like light rail does.

Is the monorail a way cool way to ride? Yes. Is it the fastest and best way to server the dynamic transportation needs of WDW? Probably not. Regardless of cost busses still provide the best, in terms of flexibility and reduced wait times, than anything else on average.

 

[DLKT]

How about canals?
I don't know what the distances are between parks but I wouldn't mind a nice ferry boat ride from one to another.
Make them wide enough for two to pass.
Make the ferrys big enough for bathrooms and a snack bar.
Kids would love it and it might even be relaxing if the seating is done right.

Jamming people in like they currently do obviously won't work for longer trips though.