All Monorail service to Epcot is out of service

[gamedude]

Monorail Service Resumed on April 23

Monarail service was resumed on April 23


Just an update, at the parks now, all Monorail service to epcot is out of service. Talked to a Cast member and they said 5 monorails are being serviced. There is still bus service available to get there.

 

[Disneygal1]

Hmmm... This is very interesting. I wonder why they would have all five monorails being serviced at the same time.

 

[Tom]

They don't even put 5 trains on the Epcot loop.

 

[Mick G.]

You know, at some point, it really will be time for new monorails. The Bombardier Mark VI trains seem to be better engineered than the old Mark IVs, but at some point they will break down so often that TDO will have to either find someone to build new ones, or start a serious rebuilding project.

If 5 of 11 monorails are really out of service at one time, that time might be now.

Mick

 

[Tom]

You know, at some point, it really will be time for new monorails. The Bombardier Mark VI trains seem to be better engineered than the old Mark IVs, but at some point they will break down so often that TDO will have to either find someone to build new ones, or start a serious rebuilding project.

If 5 of 11 monorails are really out of service at one time, that time might be now.

Mick

You're right, but I sincerely doubt 5 trains actually went down. It's more likely that a substation failed, causing 5 trains to lose power. But still, they don't put 5 trains on the Epcot loop.

Perhaps they are doing some bus bar work for the maintenance spur and had to de-energize the Epcot loop. That would make the most sense, second to one train having issues.

 

[RonAnnArbor]

Hmm....not sure this isn't a regular occurrence....

Was there in November, December, January, and February for three days on each trip, and each time the Monorail between TTC and Epcot was down for at least half a day at least once during the days I was there. In January it was down half the day every day I was there. I've just started to use the busses as a matter of course...

 

[majorrfb]

Us too!

Hmm....not sure this isn't a regular occurrence....

Was there in November, December, January, and February for three days on each trip, and each time the Monorail between TTC and Epcot was down for at least half a day at least once during the days I was there. In January it was down half the day every day I was there. I've just started to use the busses as a matter of course...

My wife and I were at he World in early Dec. 2010 and again in Feb 9, both times Monorail was down and getting to the TTC was a pain in the ...! Had to take the boat both times, along with thousands of others. I was not a happy camper. :brick:

 

[lazyboy97o]

The wording of the original post made it sound like five monorails were down and, due to the limited capacity, it was decided to use the remaining six on the Magic Kingdom loops, where they would be more needed in moving people.

You know, at some point, it really will be time for new monorails. The Bombardier Mark VI trains seem to be better engineered than the old Mark IVs, but at some point they will break down so often that TDO will have to either find someone to build new ones, or start a serious rebuilding project.

If 5 of 11 monorails are really out of service at one time, that time might be now.

Mick

Or they could just tear it down...

 

[thehowiet]

Or they could just tear it down...

I really don't know if I would be surprised if in another 20 years there is no monorail in WDW.

Eventually the Mark VI's will need to either be completely replaced or go through a serious overhaul. I'm not sure what the per train cost would be now to completely replace the fleet, but I believe the Mark VI was somewhere around 6 million per train. That was over 20 years ago. I just don't know if i see TDO paying 72 million for a new fleet in this day and age, let alone however much it would cost now.

Being a HUGE monorail fan, I hope I'm wrong, but I have a feeling that when the time comes, if WDW can get away with just using buses and boats exclusively and if it would be cheaper than buying a new monorail fleet, they'll just tear it down. All they would need is more buses and boats to make up for the lost monorail capacity. Then again, I'm sure Disney loves the fact that they can charge more for hotels on the monorail line, but I'm sure they'd still be able to justify those prices with just boat service and proximity to MK alone.

Also, those concrete beams aren't going to last forever. If there is ever a situation where they would need to be replaced, I doubt they would want to spend that money to replace or fix the beams if they can get away with using another, cheaper, mode of transportation.

I really never thought eliminating the monorail at WDW was a possibly, but with the way the company operates these days, I just don't know where they draw the line. Like I said, I hope I'm just being crazy and overreacting and that I'm way wrong on this one. Please let that be the case....haha.

edwardtc, what are your thoughts? You seem to have a pretty good handle on stuff like this, especially with regard to concrete, more specifically the lifespan of something like a monorail beam.

 

[Rinx]

They only ever operate 5 trains on the Epcot loop on marathon days. So it's most likely they kept the 6 operating trains on the MK loops due to the higher volume of guests.

 

[peachykeen]

The switchbeam that takes trains from the Express beam to the Epcot beam was having power issues, which caused the downtime.

In regards to the "5 trains," that is just a CM who doesn't really know/care about what they are telling Guests. Epcot rarely has 5 trains, only once a year during marathon times. The last time it ran regularly with 4 trains was in July 2009 when there was a full fleet of 12. 3 is the most it gets nowadays, and in the morning it is usually only 2. Only 2 trains could have possibly been affected, and that is assuming one was parked at both Epcot station and Concourse (TTC) station overnight.

 

[Tori]

I was wondering why the Tron monorail was on the resort line tonight.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I really don't know if I would be surprised if in another 20 years there is no monorail in WDW.

Eventually the Mark VI's will need to either be completely replaced or go through a serious overhaul. I'm not sure what the per train cost would be now to completely replace the fleet, but I believe the Mark VI was somewhere around 6 million per train. That was over 20 years ago. I just don't know if i see TDO paying 72 million for a new fleet in this day and age, let alone however much it would cost now.

Being a HUGE monorail fan, I hope I'm wrong, but I have a feeling that when the time comes, if WDW can get away with just using buses and boats exclusively and if it would be cheaper than buying a new monorail fleet, they'll just tear it down. All they would need is more buses and boats to make up for the lost monorail capacity. Then again, I'm sure Disney loves the fact that they can charge more for hotels on the monorail line, but I'm sure they'd still be able to justify those prices with just boat service and proximity to MK alone.

Also, those concrete beams aren't going to last forever. If there is ever a situation where they would need to be replaced, I doubt they would want to spend that money to replace or fix the beams if they can get away with using another, cheaper, mode of transportation.

I really never thought eliminating the monorail at WDW was a possibly, but with the way the company operates these days, I just don't know where they draw the line. Like I said, I hope I'm just being crazy and overreacting and that I'm way wrong on this one. Please let that be the case....haha.

edwardtc, what are your thoughts? You seem to have a pretty good handle on stuff like this, especially with regard to concrete, more specifically the lifespan of something like a monorail beam.

This I find very interesting. I see your points on having a hard time imagining TDO forking out the big bucks to replace the fleet.

It's been a couple years since they did the overhauls on the monorail interiors, hasn't it? Hard to remember. It all runs together as the years go by.

I'm interested about he input of the gang here on the life span of the beams. I know they're not solid. There's a styrofoam core inside, plenty of rebar, and the beams cast around that. I think Martin had some video of the original construction with some info about the beams. Then there was pics somewhere when they were casting the beams for the monorail in Vegas that coincided with Martin's video info. You're right in that the concrete will have a lifespan. I'm just not sure how long that lifespan is. The usual fellas will pop up with all the numbers soon enough. Great questions, tho. This is the stuff that always grabs my attention. :wave:

 

[BalooChicago]

The concrete in Rome's Pantheon is nearly 2000 years old. Now, granted, that's a whole different animal, but I see no reason to believe the beamways are in any serious need of repair or replacement in most of our lifetimes.

Aren't Disneyland's Monorails on their third full rebuild? I wonder if they haven't been planning on doing something like that while working on the 12th monorail.

 

[jt04]

The concrete in Rome's Pantheon is nearly 2000 years old. Now, granted, that's a whole different animal, but I see no reason to believe the beamways are in any serious need of repair or replacement in most of our lifetimes.

Exactly. The monorail beams are not going anywhere this century.

 

[thehowiet]

This is the stuff that always grabs my attention. :wave:

Me too! I love having discussions about the logistics or operational side of things at WDW.

Also, like I said, I know nothing about the lifespan of the concrete beams. Just thought I'd throw that stuff out there to get some conversation going. Like you said, we defintely have some well informed folks around here that I'm sure will be able to shed some light on this topic.

 

[Tom]

The concrete in Rome's Pantheon is nearly 2000 years old. Now, granted, that's a whole different animal, but I see no reason to believe the beamways are in any serious need of repair or replacement in most of our lifetimes.

Aren't Disneyland's Monorails on their third full rebuild? I wonder if they haven't been planning on doing something like that while working on the 12th monorail.

Isn't it made of limestone?

Exactly. The monorail beams are not going anywhere this century.

The only places I've seen the beams beginning to fail is in the stations where the trains sit and drip oil. There are MANY places where you can see the aggregate (rocks in the concrete mix) begin to be exposed. It looks honeycombed in many places.

The beams along the track will be there forever. After cleaning, the ones in Future World look brand new. It's just the ones where they're subject to corrosive elements where they look bad. They're still just as strong, but they don't look as nice.

They've got too much invested in the monorail system to tear it out. They're adding a maintenance spur right now, and that wasn't cheap. Plus, they re-built one train and are close to completion on literally re-building another one.

Now that they know they can make replacement body parts for the trains, I think they can get several more years out of these with the proper maintenance - and I hope they do. Money that could be spent on new monorails should go to new rides instead.

 

[Victor Kelly]

It would be great to see a new loop connecting EPCOT with the Studios and AK. Run the monorail outside the Savannah to show off the animals at AK. EPCOT's station definitely can handle another line the way the station was built. Extend the parking lot and EPCOT can become the new TTC.

But Disney is getting what it paid for as far as monorails are concerned.

 

[Tom]

It would be great to see a new loop connecting EPCOT with the Studios and AK. Run the monorail outside the Savannah to show off the animals at AK. EPCOT's station definitely can handle another line the way the station was built. Extend the parking lot and EPCOT can become the new TTC.

But Disney is getting what it paid for as far as monorails are concerned.

Having the monorails run past the African savanna might present a minor visual intrusion.

But yes, lots of dreams and lots of threads covering possible monorail expansions, but the unfortunate truth is that it's not going to happen.

 

[jt04]

Having the monorails run past the African savanna might present a minor visual intrusion.

But yes, lots of dreams and lots of threads covering possible monorail expansions, but the unfortunate truth is that it's not going to happen.

I agree. The system is nice but I think there is enough evidence monorails do not provide enough flexibility. I do know a way the current WDW system could operate in a much more efficient and guest friendly way. I'll be adding it to the Blue Sky/Imagineering forum soon.