-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
Any Monorail Expansion Updates?
- Thread starter PeterAlt
- Start date
Bulldog1653
Active Member
Kramden88 has raised an interesting point about service to the Lodge.
One option would be to set the route up to include service to and from the Lodge.
Here's how I would do it.
One option would be to set the route up to include service to and from the Lodge.
Here's how I would do it.
- Start from the TTC to Animal Kingdom, dropping passengers and loading with people going to Animal Kingdom Lodge.
- Go to Animal Kingdom Lodge, dropping passengers and reloading with people going to Animal Kingdom.
- Stop at Animal Kingdom platform for another round of loading and unloading.
- Return to TTC.
This is incorrect. At worst you would have to take a bus to the TTC and then hop the monorail to MK but I have taken the bus directly to MK from DHS several times. The only time you might need to go back to your resort to get somewhere from one of the parks is to get to DTD.A people mover might be interesting but I think it would probably be filled to capacity to Animal Kingdom. Hollywood Studios might be a different story.
As I mentioned earlier, I was there back in September (and I'm going again this year :sohappyand clearly remember how crowded the buses were and how long it took to get to Animal Kingdom.
A monorail run to Animal Kingdom would be a MAJOR convenience. Think about this logically. If there was a monorail from the Ticket Center (Yes you would have to add a fourth platform to make it work) directly to the Animal Kingdom, then they would be able to run it at about 60 MPH-ish because of the long distance involved. The design could be almost identical to how EPCOT's is set up. It could go into a gradual loop over the park and unload at a station where the buses currently unload.
Remember that the platforms for the monorail are elevated so it would be very easy to still have ground transportation.
There was a point raised about people not wanting to transfer from one monorail/bus/boat/train to another and I agree to some extent. Here's something to think about; if you're at Hollywood studios and you want to go to the Magic Kingdom (for example), then you need to get on a bus, go back to your hotel (if you're staying on property), get off the bus, and wait who knows how long for another bus going where you want. That would be a major reason for expanding the monorail system.
kramden88
Member
Precisely. And this type of setup would lend itself to expansion of the system to HS as well. What they could very simply do is keep the Epcot-TTC track as the Epcot line and add a passing lane. Then they could take the TTC-Epcot track and extend it to MGM and possibly some Epcot resorts. If they couldn't justify the cost of going to AK, they're at least 75% of the way to HS with what they have already.
Unfortunately for us monorail lovers, Disney laid out AK backwards. If they had put the entrance on the opposite side it would have been just about as far from TTC as is Epcot.
Figment25
New Member
Ok if they would expand it. How many miles would they need? Could you make it one big loop? start building it at Epcot and run it to the other two parks and end it on the track that goes back to the TTC. So you would need 2 new loading stations one at DHS and one at AK and use the current one at Epcot.. So my question is from Epcot to DHS to AK back to Epcot how many miles would that be?
kramden88
Member
I definitely think one big loop would not be feasible because people going to the farthest point would be on board a long time. And if you get parks clearing out all around the same time they couldn't just add more trains to handle the flux in passengers.
If they played their cards right (going off my idea, see above), they could extend the existing Epcot track to HS and need to build less than 2 miles plus passing zones. The current TTC-Epcot track is about 3 miles each direction.
Bulldog1653
Active Member
According to MapQuest, it's about 5.5 miles from EPCOT to Animal Kingdom Lodge.
To add a line to run to Animal Kingdom from EPCOT, you'd need at least another beam added to the existing EPCOT station, 2 rail switch Junctions, about 5-6 miles of double beams (parallel track to allow 2 monorails on the line at the same time) and 2 stations at Animal Kingdom. One of them would be at the park, the other at the Lodge.
If you figure on about a million dollars a mile, double it for the dual beams, then add about $1.5 million per station.
If you went from the TTC to Animal Kingdom directly, you're looking at roughly 12 miles.
With those figures in mind, I figure costs at about $15 million for the EPCOT to Animal Kingdom addition.
If you added a fourth beam and platform at the TTC, the stations at Animal Kingdom, plus about 12 miles of dual track, it would be about $30 million.
Keep in mind that this is being very conservative with a rough guess at costs.
In my opinion, Disney would see this pay off exponentially over a few years because they would cut back the buses and save themselves a TON in fuel costs.
To add a line to run to Animal Kingdom from EPCOT, you'd need at least another beam added to the existing EPCOT station, 2 rail switch Junctions, about 5-6 miles of double beams (parallel track to allow 2 monorails on the line at the same time) and 2 stations at Animal Kingdom. One of them would be at the park, the other at the Lodge.
If you figure on about a million dollars a mile, double it for the dual beams, then add about $1.5 million per station.
If you went from the TTC to Animal Kingdom directly, you're looking at roughly 12 miles.
With those figures in mind, I figure costs at about $15 million for the EPCOT to Animal Kingdom addition.
If you added a fourth beam and platform at the TTC, the stations at Animal Kingdom, plus about 12 miles of dual track, it would be about $30 million.
Keep in mind that this is being very conservative with a rough guess at costs.
In my opinion, Disney would see this pay off exponentially over a few years because they would cut back the buses and save themselves a TON in fuel costs.
DznyGrlSD
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
Agreed. Not. Gonna. Happen. Money could be spent better expanding parks & resorts. Not that I wouldn't LOVE to see it happen
EPCOT Explorer
New Member
I don't think we have seen one this long in a while.:dazzle:
EPCOT Explorer
New Member
I'm not even that psyched for it to even happen.:lol:
peter11435
Well-Known Member
:lol:
If monorails would only cost "about a million dollars a mile" Disney woud have expanded them years ago.
redkoala245
New Member
I heard that rumor a long time ago and it never happened…
chaggy102
Member
And now I have the theme to Friends running through my head.
krankenstein
Well-Known Member
Bulldog1653
Active Member
Interesting pic of the bus.
Now that it's out of the way....they're schedule and operations are still a joke.
Now that it's out of the way....they're schedule and operations are still a joke.
peter11435
Well-Known Member
and yet still more efficient than the monorails.
DrewDAK5150
Member
I think Disney World will be made smaller before the monorails are made longer.
If you don't catch my drift, think about what almost happened in the mid 80s.
If you don't catch my drift, think about what almost happened in the mid 80s.
Kamikaze
Well-Known Member
Holy moly, did you ever underestimate the costs. A million a mile? Thats laughably low.
http://monorails.org/tMspages/HowMuch.html
Even if you take the lowest number on there, which is $10 million per kilometer, thats still $16million per mile for each track, not counting stations, trains, etc. Thats just single track, one direction. And not counting the cost of building on a swamp.
SirGoofy
Member
Bingo.