I’m not sure when something becomes too expensive to be cost effective. What about the trains or the vehicles on Main Street? Surely it would be cheaper to replace them with new equipment, but those are still being maintained (the trains are being completely rebuilt, per another thread) and used daily. The Monorails are practically brand new compared to those.
I wasn’t trying to make an unreasonable comparison. I was genuinely thinking about how other forms of transportation on property are really old and costly to maintain but worth it to Disney to maintain. The Monorails were originally supposed to be efficient, modern examples of mass transit, but so were the trains ones upon a time! The Monorails aren’t really that anymore, are they? Seems to me they’d still be worth the upkeep because they’re so iconic.
The Main Street vehicles are antiques. That's the whole point. That's their novelty and appeal.
The monorails are supposed to be efficient, modern examples of mass transit. That's why the original trains were replaced after 20 years. Now those once new replacements have been in operation longer than the originals for no other reason than the company doesn't want to spend more than x $ a quarter.
It doesn't help that the current monorail fleet qualifies as "antique vehicles" under Florida vehicle registration requirements: "The vehicle described above is a “Custom Vehicle” which is a modified motor vehicle manufactured after 1948 and is 25 years old or older and has been altered from the manufacturer’s original design or has a body constructed from non-original materials."
A whole lot of nothing happening on the monorail front as far as I know.
Sad, but thanks for the update!
@creathir broke this two weeks ago.This seems relevant to this thread:
Monorail manufacturer Bombardier has a new mystery client big enough to be Disney
For years now, Disney World fans have been hoping the resort will finally add new monorails to replace the aging fleet that continually makes the news...www.orlandoweekly.com
Yeah, just now realizing OW prob got info from this thread. But good to see it's getting write-ups.
I'm really hoping there is some truth to this article. I'm a huge fan of the monorail concept, but the current fleet is just embarrassing.
104 million no where near enough to replace WDW's 12 trains. That's 24 end cars and 48 inbetween cars. 1.4 million per car.
Cowardice from a group of people who are more concerned about their bonuses than providing quality, reliable transit service.
That's only true from a certain point of view...now, before you get all spirited on me, hear me out...
Green was the most recent train refurbed. Silver was before that, and Orange before Silver. To some degree, yes it is needed attention, but as you pointed out on Green, the work appears to have been substandard. IIRC, all three of these trains received replacement A/C units throughout. Silver and Green also got interior touch-ups. I would call this primarily maintenance. The A/C is an example of a needed overhaul.
