News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner -

GoofGoof

Premium Member
Just doesn't seem like it would have the capacity to be worthwhile. They could buy hundreds of buses for the same cost.
A valid point. They could probably buy 100 busses for the same price, but they would also need to pay hundreds of drivers plus the cost of fuel. I'm way out of my league here in even guessing what it costs to operate and maintain a gondola system, but my guess is it would be much less than a series of buses. It also provides a more novel form of transportation.
 

Marc Davis Fan

Well-Known Member
Slightlines: Disney, if you build a gondola system, please be careful to ensure that it's not visible from inside of the parks. Thank you. (Others have rightly expressed similar concern about backstage views from said gondalas.)

That said, I welcome the idea of more non-bus transportation, if it's done well. The buses are the one aspect of WDW that really take me out of the experience of feeling that I'm "in another world."
 
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roj2323

Well-Known Member
Transportation perhaps, but Gondolas? Really that's what we're going with? It doesn't make and sense either from cost or capacity perspectives. What ever this is it will have a track based system of one kind or another.
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
Transportation perhaps, but Gondolas? Really that's what we're going with? It doesn't make and sense either from cost or capacity perspectives. What ever this is it will have a track based system of one kind or another.
A ground level standard light rail track type system would likely be cheaper but an elevated system would likely be just as expensive or more since the supports would have to be larger to hold both the train and the tracks themselves. The stations would likely need to be elevated too so you have the cost of elevators and building the stations up.

A ground level rail system would be the most practical answer, but the diagram posted would need to be altered where it crosses parking lots and roads.
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
Couldn't it also be a transportation system that goes underground like a subway?
The first problem would be this:
in Florida swampland?
Even if they could it still has to cross the canal around EPCOT and at least 1 roadway. That would make it cost prohibitive to build as an underground system. A ground level system could cross the roadway with railroad crossing lights and a small bridge over the canal. The easiest to get over things would be an elevated system.
 

doctornick

Well-Known Member
Just doesn't seem like it would have the capacity to be worthwhile. They could buy hundreds of buses for the same cost.

Why not? Seems like the capacity could actually be pretty high.

I would assume gondolas would be individually motorized as opposed to being attached to a constantly moving line, right? The latter would have higher capacity, but would make load/unload more difficult especially since these would have to be large enough for a number of people as well as strollers, wheelchairs, etc.

Edit: in searching the web, I found this article from 2013 that proposed a gondola system for WDW. It suggests they have a "high capacity moving over 10,000 people an hour"
 
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MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
This is... an interesting possibility. It would have to be elevated from a practicality standpoint - too many obstacles to build around otherwise. But I'm still trying to figure out the "Why?" part of the equation.

WDW are challenging themselves to create a ride that's so difficult to evacuate people off of that they can't even do it.They've been really bored since none of the cruise ships have gone adrift yet.
 

Magic Feather

Well-Known Member
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