Now that I started this topic, I guess it's my turn.
Many of you who know me and have read my posts know that I have made no secret about wanting to see the monorail system expanded.
The proposed gondola system looks like it might help a little bit but it still leaves significant gaps and it's almost like Disney is using a band aid to fix a pretty large issue.
Look at the pros and cons: I will do something unique and go with the cons first.
- Costs: This one is HUGE. In 1971, it cost $1 Million per mile. Keep in mind this was in 1970's dollars. The expense of an expansion would likely be extremely high. Not only would the beams themselves be pricy but the construction of the supporting piers and the new trains needed to add to the system would be enormous.
- Expansion of the TTC and adding stations at places like Downtown Disney, the waterparks, various resorts, and so on would take a long time and the likelihood of traffic snarls increases dramatically.
- Impact to guests and their bank account. Disney would most likely have to increase pricing to pay for this. While it hasn't been confirmed, it's also no secret kind of like the big elephant in the room nobody wants to admit to.
Now for the pros:
- Passenger Capacity: a 6 car monorail train (1 head and tail and 4 center cars) is rated for a maximum passenger capacity of 360 people. If you compare this to the buses, they carry roughly 70-75 people. That means a 5 to 1 ratio. That's saying something especially when the parks are at closing time and the staging pads are so full that people can barely breathe.
- Electric Power: It's a lot cheaper and cleaner than diesel or gas power. Diesel averages anywhere from $2.50 to $3.00 a gallon and gasoline is pretty close to the same.
- Significant reduction of bus traffic and congestion on the roads. This is a no brainer.
- Subcontractor reduction: This is kind of a tricky one (trust me, I'm in construction and work with subcontractors all the time). When I was last in Florida, I was chatting with a driver and they didn't even WORK for Disney. They work for a contractor that supplies the buses and drivers.
- Environmental impact. This is another big one. With less buses and and more monorails, you're helping realize Walt's dream. efficient transportation without a large amount of emissions. Building the support piers for the beams and the stations wouldn't require a massive overhaul of trees, etc.
Placement of the stations should be at all of the parks, resorts, and Downtown Disney. This would help folks to the parks much quicker and keep a pretty efficient schedule.
My other wishes and hopes?
How about bringing back Star Wars weekends? Granted Star Wars areas are being added to parks but it would be great to have the 501st Legion (biased opinion) and guest appearances back a few times a year. MANY of us in the 501st would LOVE the opportunity to troop (meaning do an appearance) Disney.
Bring back the ORIGINAL Journey into Imagination to EPCOT. Folks, Figment was supposed to be a big part of EPCOT kind of like Mickey is with the Magic Kingdom. How about bringing back some of the original attractions? In my eyes, those are huge. It would be amazing to see them come back and modernized.
In the Magic Kingdom, Alien Encounter needs to come back in a big way. I LOVED that experience and I know a lot of other folks did too. This one with Stitch is kind of ok but it doesn't have the original feel.
Characters (yes, even some of the more unusual ones) should wander the park more. Trust me on this one, I know what it's like to be mobbed while you're in character (again from my experience as a member of the 501st Legion) and the need for a handler but they definitely need to explore this a lot more.
I'm sure I'll have a lot more as time goes on but these are my biggest ones.
