Appalling state of the monorail cabins

[MonorailMan]

My hope is that Disney is planning on a monorail fleet upgrade in the next 5-7 years. The original Mark 4 monorails lasted roughly 19 years which was a really long life span (for constantly and daily run monorails). The "new" Mark 6 monorails are going into their late 20s, and are starting to become not worth maintaining. This is evident by how Disney is starting to not care about maintaining the monorails.

 

[Marc Gil]

The Monorails used to run even longer hours in the past. Epcot used to stay open to ten o'clock and the Magic Kingdom regularly had summer nights open until 1 AM along with longer hours in general. The Extra Magic Hours gimmick still doesn't add up to the hours that they used to run in back in the day. I'm sorry, but it's about dollar and cents, not the usage of monorails.

Yes, but back then the monorails were new and we didn't have the technology to post on forums to notify other that the monorails were filled with trash and ridden with dirt.

I'm also pretty sure that the monorails had it's fair amount of trash in the cabins after a long afternoon or day at MK or Epcot.

 

[ptaylor]

That's what I'm saying! It's also nothing compared to the NY Subway System... Eww... Have you been to New York recently?

Did you see the video with the rats running around in the subway cabin?

Yes I have, and I have seen NYC subway trains that are in better condition than some WDW monorails trains. Shocking really.

 

[Communicore]

This makes me want to bring a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser with me on my next trip to WDW.

Yea, and a Febreze and Damp Rid!

 

[ptaylor]

My hope is that Disney is planning on a monorail fleet upgrade in the next 5-7 years. The original Mark 4 monorails lasted roughly 19 years which was a really long life span (for constantly and daily run monorails). The "new" Mark 6 monorails are going into their late 20s, and are starting to become not worth maintaining. This is evident by how Disney is starting to not care about maintaining the monorails.

They are currently installing automation systems in the trains and track. They expect these trains to keep on going indefinitely. The best hope is that we can at least get new interiors at some point. But based on the last 25 years, it does not look likely.

 

[Marc Gil]

Would that argument hold up for airlines, or resort rooms? No.

Just because you are busy does not mean that you ignore maintenance, cleaning and investment.

It is very clear that Disney should have added more capacity to the monorail system years ago to allow proper downtime and maintenance for each train. They chose to reduce maintenance on the monorails, rather than increasing spending on improvements.

The current problems are purely a case of poor management from those making top level decisions about the monorail system. All of the issues could be resolved with proper investment.

Unfortunately Disney treat all transportation as the red-headed step child. It does not directly make money, and is therefore neglected.

Well, airplanes and hotel rooms are usually under maintenance and upkeep for a about an hour or two before guests arrive, while monorails are being constantly filled up every few minutes, giving Cast Members little time to tidy up the cabins.

 

[ptaylor]

Well, airplanes and hotel rooms are usually under maintenance and upkeep for a about an hour or two before guests arrive, while monorails are being constantly filled up every few minutes, giving Cast Members little time to tidy up the cabins.

If you say an airliner has a couple of hours before guests arrive, that argument would also apply to the monorails.

The monorails start at 7am through 1 hour after park closing. So for much of the year they have somewhere around 5 or 6 hours of complete downtime each 24 hours. On the busiest days, they may have 3 hours. Surely that is enough, since it is more than airliners get?

 

[MonorailMan]

Would that argument hold up for airlines, or resort rooms? No.

Just because you are busy does not mean that you ignore maintenance, cleaning and investment.

It is very clear that Disney should have added more capacity to the monorail system years ago to allow proper downtime and maintenance for each train. They chose to reduce maintenance on the monorails, rather than increasing spending on improvements.

The current problems are purely a case of poor management from those making top level decisions about the monorail system. All of the issues could be resolved with proper investment.

Unfortunately Disney treat all transportation as the red-headed step child. It does not directly make money, and is therefore neglected.

The thing with airlines is that their fleets include hundreds of planes and they can easily take planes out of service for maintance and overhaul. The same goes for the resort rooms. Disney has thousands of resort rooms, making it not such a big deal when they have to close parts of a resort to do renovations. The monorail system is not the same case. Disney has 12 monorails and no more. They cannot just build more monorails to solve the problems. The monorails are a necessity for transporting people to and from MK and Epcot and when not all 12 monorails are running, it becomes very crowded and there are lots of unhappy guests. If Disney closed the entire monorail system for a month or so to do a complete overhaul on the trains, Disney would receive so much sh*t from people, it would be unreal.
So, do the monorails need a lot of TLC? YES!!!! But, is it feasible to take monorails out of service to do major overhauls? NO!!!

 

[ptaylor]

The thing with airlines is that their fleets include hundreds of planes and they can easily take planes out of service for maintance and overhaul. The same goes for the resort rooms. Disney has thousands of resort rooms, making it not such a big deal when they have to close parts of a resort to do renovations. The monorail system is not the same case. Disney has 12 monorails and no more. They cannot just build more monorails to solve the problems. The monorails are a necessity for transporting people to and from MK and Epcot and when not all 12 monorails are running, it becomes very crowded and there are lots of unhappy guests. If Disney closed the entire monorail system for a month or so to do a complete overhaul on the trains, Disney would receive so much sh*t from people, it would be unreal.
So, do the monorails need a lot of TLC? YES!!!! But, is it feasible to take monorails out of service to do major overhauls? NO!!!

I understand the entire system cannot be shut down, but why can't more trains be added to the system to allow more capacity during maintenance periods?

I would also refer you to the occasions when monorails have been out of service for weeks or even months for various issues, and have returned back to service with NOTHING being done to the interior condition. If there was any desire to improve things those downtimes could have been used to clean and refurb the interiors.

Simply, Disney does not care about the condition of the monorails. It is plain for all to see.

 

[MonorailMan]

If you say an airliner has a couple of hours before guests arrive, that argument would also apply to the monorails.

The monorails start at 7am through 1 hour after park closing. So for much of the year they have somewhere around 5 or 6 hours of complete downtime each 24 hours. On the busiest days, they may have 3 hours. Surely that is enough, since it is more than airliners get?

Here is the difference between monorails and airplanes. It is a federal requirement that every 6 years, airplanes be completely stripped down to the bone and checked inside and out for even the smallest of details. This process takes roughly 5-6 weeks to complete. If every 6 years, Disney lost a monorail for 5-6 weeks for renovation, it would completely screw up the entire system. Disney uses all 12 monorails every day and each one is usually filled to capacity.

 

[ptaylor]

Here is the difference between monorails and airplanes. It is a federal requirement that every 6 years, airplanes be completely stripped down to the bone and checked inside and out for even the smallest of details. This process takes roughly 5-6 weeks to complete. If every 6 years, Disney lost a monorail for 5-6 weeks for renovation, it would completely screw up the entire system. Disney uses all 12 monorails every day and each one is usually filled to capacity.

Why not invest in the system and add a 13th train to allow one of the other trains to be properly serviced? That is exactly what airlines do to allow a plane to be taken out for extended maintenance.

I would remind you that Disney made nearly $2 billion in profit for second quarter 2014.

 

[ptaylor]

Here is the difference between monorails and airplanes. It is a federal requirement that every 6 years, airplanes be completely stripped down to the bone and checked inside and out for even the smallest of details. This process takes roughly 5-6 weeks to complete. If every 6 years, Disney lost a monorail for 5-6 weeks for renovation, it would completely screw up the entire system. Disney uses all 12 monorails every day and each one is usually filled to capacity.

Just something else on that point. Disney took monorails out of service for around a month to install wraps on the exterior to promote movies three times. That seemed to be acceptable to have a monorail out of service for all that time for a trivial purpose. It was also the case that during that time, nothing was done on the interiors.

 

[COProgressFan]

Here is the difference between monorails and airplanes. It is a federal requirement that every 6 years, airplanes be completely stripped down to the bone and checked inside and out for even the smallest of details. This process takes roughly 5-6 weeks to complete. If every 6 years, Disney lost a monorail for 5-6 weeks for renovation, it would completely screw up the entire system. Disney uses all 12 monorails every day and each one is usually filled to capacity.

So whose fault is it that losing a monorail would screw up the system? Disney made the decision that having enough capacity to both move guests AND doing basic maintenance was not important.

I'm not going to continue the back-and-forth here, but the bottom line is that Disney both created and maintains the monorail system. They have simply made a conscious financial choice, that providing a clean and well maintained system is just not important to them. (And note that in the first 25 or 30 years of operation this was a priority).

Any argument that it's too hard to maintain the system, or that there's no time for maintenance, or that taking a monorail offline will wreak havoc on transport, etc. is just excuses for management that simply doesn't care about the product.

 

[Marc Gil]

I understand the entire system cannot be shut down, but why can't more trains be added to the system to allow more capacity during maintenance periods?

I would also refer you to the occasions when monorails have been out of service for weeks or even months for various issues, and have returned back to service with NOTHING being done to the interior condition. If there was any desire to improve things those downtimes could have been used to clean and refurb the interiors.

Simply, Disney does not care about the condition of the monorails. It is plain for all to see.

Well I can't argue with that! Like I said, I'm all for a new fleet, but I'm trying to make a point and say that it's difficult to keep the cabins clean if there's a constant flow of guests riding the monorail.

Yes, they're old, yes, they're looking shabby, yes, it's about time for new Monorails!

 

[CDavid]

Well, airplanes and hotel rooms are usually under maintenance and upkeep for a about an hour or two before guests arrive, while monorails are being constantly filled up every few minutes, giving Cast Members little time to tidy up the cabins.

Granted, but there is no excuse for not thoroughly cleaning the trains every night. At least they would start out each day looking shiny, but when you have mold growing in the trains, you know such regular attention either isn't happening or isn't adequate.

If every 6 years, Disney lost a monorail for 5-6 weeks for renovation, it would completely screw up the entire system. Disney uses all 12 monorails every day and each one is usually filled to capacity.

Well, they are already down two trains, so clearly it is possible to have some out of service. Taking a third train down, however, may be another story.

Why not invest in the system and add a 13th train to allow one of the other trains to be properly serviced? That is exactly what airlines do to allow a plane to be taken out for extended maintenance.

Building just one monorail would be prohibitively expensive. I doubt Bombardier would even do it, and a different design would present (expensive) problems. if a new fleet should ever be ordered, then perhaps they should get more than 12 trainsets, but we have no reason to believe that is happening in the foreseeable future.

 

[ptaylor]

Building just one monorail would be prohibitively expensive. I doubt Bombardier would even do it, and a different design would present (expensive) problems. if a new fleet should ever be ordered, then perhaps they should get more than 12 trainsets, but we have no reason to believe that is happening in the foreseeable future.

Yes it is not feasible now, but it could have been done previously OR a new fleet could be built with the needed capacity.

Sometimes I think we treat the monorail like it is the space program. At the end of the day it is just a vehicle driving along a concrete beam. It is far from cutting edge. If there was a desire to improve things it could be done.

 

[marni1971]

Building just one monorail would be prohibitively expensive..

Iger made 34 million last year. Just sayin'.

 

[COProgressFan]

Iger made 34 million last year. Just sayin'.

When do you think Iger last rode in a dirty, smelly old monorail?

 

[Cesar R M]

Iger made 34 million last year. Just sayin'.

I wonder how much money he made for the Stockholders.

 

[Tomi-Rocket]

You should send those pictures along with an email to WDW. Not that they don't know but if more ando more people spoke up I don't think they'd ignore it as much.