You can't make up numbers and use them as fact. For example, when you say 'half', you are discounting the on-site busing to MK and Epcot from resorts, and you are also discounting the water transport to both of those parks.
When Yoda was talking about efficiency, he meant as a crowd flow pattern, not the energy efficiency. WDW's crowd flow - huge crowds at certain times of day, nothing at other times - is not conducive to a tracked system as the only means of getting to a park. If there was a way to quickly add and subtract trains and/or switch them to different lines, monorails or some other form of light rail would make more sense. But a monorail system the way the current one is done just isn't feasible.
I was not presenting any of that as fact, I really don't need to since most people here know just how efficient monorails are. With that said I think the subject could use some facts. You are right monorails do not make up exactly half of Disney's transportation but it is very close to it and this is what I meant (I apologize I should have been more clear). To be exact the WDW Monorail System accounts for exactly 37% of WDW's transportation ridership, see facts in table below.
You may also note in the table that although monorails account for such a high percentage of WDW ridership they have a comparatively very low headway time. This means that monorails are moving people more efficiently this also means that while the monorails are moving people more efficiently they are not operating at peak efficiency. If Disney wanted to they could reduce the level of service and save even more in cost and still provide service at or above the level the buses currently do.
In the chart below you can see that although there is a huge increase in buses and no increase in monorails over the five year period the monorails have increased ridership.
In this table you can see that the projection shows an increase of 20,000 in daily ridership for monorails representing a 13% increase and and increase of 32,000 in daily ridership for buses. With the monorails still accounting for exactly 37% of total ridership with 0% increase in infrastructure. However for the bus fleet to handle a very similar 15% increase the bus fleet needs to be expanded by 32% adding 150 buses.
The recent Las Vegas Monorail was estimated at $88 million a mile to construct, however monorail cost goes down the more you build. As far as switching trains this can be done in a matter of seconds. The Las Vegas monorail operates with continuous switching at each end of the system, passengers onboard travel through switches without even knowing it and trains are switched on and off with no delay in service at all.
Now of course for a monorail or any other mass transit to be efficient it needs to be designed correctly. Monorails should only be used for heavy travel areas such as the theme parks and maybe Downtown Disney.
Like I said I agree with yoda in that it won't happen but the reason is not because it's inefficient its because monorails are suited to long term developments where the cost can be recouped over long periods of time. Unfortunately I don't think Disney is currently thinking of WDW in the long term. With the report that was recently revealed advising Disney to sell off everything and remain as a licensor to WDW I think maybe they don't want to get in too deep. WDW is making money for the time being and with rising gas prices and now international competition unlike anything Disney has ever experienced, I don't think they want to invest to heavily right now. Only time will tell if this is the right choice.
