Appalling state of the monorail cabins

[s8film40]

would that amount of time really be needed? with a small group of dedicated employees for the task? unlike some other people i dont see a pure need for all new trains but a total refurb yes..replace carpet (go to wood so you can wash) replace seat coverings using a more neutral color. (grey for example) replace the plastic moldings of at least upper portion of cab to remove the pink. possibly color key for train color add LED back lighting. i could also see adding a brief info screen on each end of each car (to tell you what is currently out windows) replace poles so they are smear resistant (not gloss) replace the AC units with newer more efficient units. (could even come up with some make believe green energy term for the changes for PR spin) LED lighting and efficient HVAC.
add underglow LED "warm" lighting under seats. (add hand loops for standing riders)

Actually probably would take longer. What I am suggesting would be to take it off the beam disassemble it and rebuild it from the ground up replacing and repairing as they go. It would be like getting a new train every 6 to 12 months. They could even change the design and look a little.

 

[Figment2005]

The trains are old, simple as that. All the trains get cleaned at night and its not feasible to pull a train off to clean in the middle of the day. That process takes up to 30 minutes on its own as long as the 40+ year old infrastructure doesn't cause any problems. New parts are not an option as they are no longer available. Every replacement part is a refurbished older item. Many of you refuse to look at the situation from any other perspective than your own. The people who drive them are sad at there condition, the maintenance cress wish they had more time and money to put into them. The trains, with the exception of Lime, are all still running a windows 95 based operating system. The full focus right now is getting the train automation installed as quickly as possible and get each train tested and adjusted. Downtimes are part of this process and are a necessary evil.

We still transport more people than any other monorail system in the world, and it is still extremely reliable when you look at the whole picture.

 

[matt9112]

Actually probably would take longer. What I am suggesting would be to take it off the beam disassemble it and rebuild it from the ground up replacing and repairing as they go. It would be like getting a new train every 6 to 12 months. They could even change the design and look a little.

my first sentience was more or less that i don't think the exterior look has gone out of style.

 

[s8film40]

my first sentience was more or less that i don't think the exterior look has gone out of style.

Yeah I agree. Either way though it's time for those bodies to be replaced.

 

[xdan0920]

The trains are old, simple as that. All the trains get cleaned at night and its not feasible to pull a train off to clean in the middle of the day. That process takes up to 30 minutes on its own as long as the 40+ year old infrastructure doesn't cause any problems. New parts are not an option as they are no longer available. Every replacement part is a refurbished older item. Many of you refuse to look at the situation from any other perspective than your own. The people who drive them are sad at there condition, the maintenance cress wish they had more time and money to put into them. The trains, with the exception of Lime, are all still running a windows 95 based operating system. The full focus right now is getting the train automation installed as quickly as possible and get each train tested and adjusted. Downtimes are part of this process and are a necessary evil.

We still transport more people than any other monorail system in the world, and it is still extremely reliable when you look at the whole picture.

That's not the guests problem. It's Disney's. If they can't maintain the current trains, then buy new ones. It's as simple as that. I was staying at BLT and I found the monorails to be pretty much universally awful. Not to mention the fact that they don't start running till 8:30 is a joke.

 

[xdan0920]

Only took 1 pic of beat up monorail, there were always other people in my cabins, and I wasn't interested in looking like a freak show. Anyway, this was right above my head....

I could have taken a dozen similar pics on this cabin.

 

[Victor Kelly]

Unfortunately, there is no excuse for the conditions of the monorails. Nor is there any excuse for downtime such as closing the monorails early, before people have completely left the parks. The parks have run since 1971 with no issues like this. Only recently has there been such problems. Closing the rails before all guests have exited is deplorable.

I have a friend that is currently at Disney for a 17 day visit. Not only is it unfair to resort loop guests, but also unfair to the guests eating at resorts that need the transportation of rails to get where they need to be.

Yes, rails broke down when we were there plenty, I remember it from all the visits we took.

 

[Uncle Lupe]

That was very interesting. I've always enjoyed riding, and learning about the monoraii. This is the first time I've seen one of the beams move into a different position. Thank you for sharing that clip.

If you have time this is a fun video to watch. Also get an understanding of the reuse of chassis over the lifespan.

 

[TP2000]

We still transport more people than any other monorail system in the world, and it is still extremely reliable when you look at the whole picture.

While I always appreciate what the front-line CM's do, if the WDW monorail system averages 150,000 riders per day using 10 trains, it's very debatable that WDW's system transports the most people.

There's a monorail line in downtown Tokyo from Haneda airport that averages over 300,000 riders per day, plus another dozen similar monorail systems in other Japanese cities. There's a monorail system in China that regularly sees 500,000 riders per day on just one line.

The Tokyo Disneyland Resort monorail system only has 4 of their 5 trains in operation at any one time but sees up to 19 Million riders per year, and their trains are pristine and gorgeous and magnificently operated by smiling and crisply attired white-gloved Cast Members.

Yes, that Tokyo Monorail CM is wearing a suit, hat and gloves. Yes, Tokyo can be just as brutally hot & humid as Orlando.

The Tokyo monorails are kept pristine by their expert maintenance team, but the front-line hourly Monorail CM's also help. During slower times in the afternoon the CM's wander the trains as they travel between parks and clean and sweep the passenger cars.

The Tokyo CM's even do windows! No task is beneath them if it improves customer service, or the view out of a Mickey shaped window.

An average of 150,000 riders each day at WDW equals a total of 54 Million riders per year. Spread across 12 trainsets in circulation that's 4.5 Million riders per trainset per year at WDW. Tokyo Disney Resort averages 20 Million riders per year. Spread across their 5 trainsets that's 4 Million riders per trainset per year. The WDW system is over-burdened and needs two or three additional trains to help with the daily and annual maintenance load, but the Tokyo and WDW systems are fairly equitable when you consider how many passengers are using each trainset each year.

The daily monorail reality in Tokyo shows that the monorail reality in WDW is due to poor daily management and a lack of investment over the years by management's executive minders. It shouldn't be excused by simply saying a lot of people use the WDW monorail system each year, that's just not a good excuse.

 

[lazyboy97o]

The trains are old, simple as that. All the trains get cleaned at night and its not feasible to pull a train off to clean in the middle of the day. That process takes up to 30 minutes on its own as long as the 40+ year old infrastructure doesn't cause any problems. New parts are not an option as they are no longer available. Every replacement part is a refurbished older item. Many of you refuse to look at the situation from any other perspective than your own. The people who drive them are sad at there condition, the maintenance cress wish they had more time and money to put into them. The trains, with the exception of Lime, are all still running a windows 95 based operating system. The full focus right now is getting the train automation installed as quickly as possible and get each train tested and adjusted. Downtimes are part of this process and are a necessary evil.

We still transport more people than any other monorail system in the world, and it is still extremely reliable when you look at the whole picture.

There is no issue of perspective except your desire to protect your empMoyer whom you acknowledge has not properly cared for their equipment. Bigger transit systems do far better with older equipment and more difficult circumstances in more complex systems. Automation is not related to the issues that face guests, it is just a distraction. Windows 95 can't rip up seats or use duct tape to hold stuff together. Windows 95 is not sentient, controlling the transportation operations on its own.

 

[alphac2005]

It's not a fact of them being filthy, but that they have ripped seats, broken A/C, broken side panels and other mechanical issues which don't seem to get fixed. Unfortunately filthy happens after 18 hours of constant running 1000's of people through them before being taken out of service. As the OP said, the monorails unfortunately cannot be taken offline for a mid day spit shine like the busses.

I'm well aware of them being in disrepair, but them being filthy isn't about a day of rough wear. They were cleaned and maintained on a daily basis and they aren't nor have been in quite some time. I've seen the same trains with the same dirt and nastiness over several days. This isn't the case of some kid and their random booger on the wall or a bag of chips left on the floor. The mechanical issues and broken panels all go along with the daily maintaining of the vehicles, which prevented them from getting into disrepair.

I liken it to our society today. We're reactive about things instead of proactive. In Disney's case, it is about the bottom line. They'll fix things only when they are so far gone and even that will take awhile such as the issues you've pointed out. Time and again when companies do this, their long term costs are substantially higher than having stuck to taking care of things in a timely, routine basis, but short term revenue targets are their only mission at this point. It's a rather sad indictment of how much of our society is being run now.

 

[sean4066]

So much of the Walt Disney resort looks this way . So sad. Fix it. At least clean it. Sad!!

 

[peachykeen]

One anecdote I'll share from my time in the department that I think shows the mentality of SOME cast. I forget what color it was, but the Monorail had just been repainted and was looking very nice. I was working in the center of the MK platform and the train came into the station with an alert that one of the wheel wells was hot. Maintenance came to check it out.

To access the wheel wells while the train is on the beam, a couple clips are loosened and the panel covering the wheel pivots up. There is a small flap at the bottom that hinges so the panel can clear the platform. I was standing next to the maintenance CM who was checking the wheel well, and when he was done, he just dropped the panel down and that freshly painted hinge slammed into the ground and chipped big chunks off and scuffed up the rest of it. THIS TRAIN HAD JUST BEEN PAINTED. I cringed, because there was clearly no respect or pride shown for the train by this person. It would have taken just slowly lowering the panel and kneeling down to guide the hinge back into the trough and it would have remained new looking.

Like I said this is only the mentality of SOME of the people there, not all, but there's enough of them that it adds up. A scuff here, a broken panel there, and we have the condition we have today.

 

[TP2000]

Like I said this is only the mentality of SOME of the people there, not all, but there's enough of them that it adds up. A scuff here, a broken panel there, and we have the condition we have today.

That's a sad story. And yet another example that the lower and middle management of the facilities in WDW aren't doing their jobs correctly. A person like that should never have been hired, but since he was hired he certainly should have been given one chance to shape up or ship out. If the front-line hourly CM's have no pride in their jobs or their workplace, ultimately that is management's fault.

 

[NormC]

There is no valid excuse for the conditions of the monorails. It is just apathy on the part of management. If they wanted them clean and fully functional they would be.

 

[COProgressFan]

That's a sad story. And yet another example that the lower and middle management of the facilities in WDW aren't doing their jobs correctly. A person like that should never have been hired, but since he was hired he certainly should have been given one chance to shape up or ship out. If the front-line hourly CM's have no pride in their jobs or their workplace, ultimately that is management's fault.

This is exactly it. At the end of the day, or whenever it was noticed, a manager should have said "Who scuffed up the brand new paint job!?" and found answers. But it seems like the culture there is, "it's good enough".

 

[Cesar R M]

A smart plan, that has been brought up before. But even that wouldn't be entirely necessary, if they simply gave each monorail a thorough cleaning at night. And just like happens (or should happen) in a resort room, every 30 days (or whatever the schedule is) each train should get a complete deep clean.

Most of the complaints are not about trash left by guests or fingerprints on windows. Those are legitimate problems but the bigger issue is the lack of any cosmetic maintenance that takes longer than 10 minutes to complete. Scuff marks, dirty floors, broken plastic and metal trims, door panel damage, torn or filthy seats, moldy air conditioning vents. They're just not doing what they need to do to adequately maintain trains that have 25 years of life and will be running for the foreseeable future.

The problem is not about cleaning every day.. but the filthy that slowly gets accumulated during extended operating hours.
Having a crew cleaning 12 hours constantly (rotating the monorails) would keep them as clean as some bathrooms.

Then they could give an extended cleaning every week or so.
And I agree with you, its not only cleaning.. but maintenance.

 

[Cesar R M]

The trains are old, simple as that. All the trains get cleaned at night and its not feasible to pull a train off to clean in the middle of the day. That process takes up to 30 minutes on its own as long as the 40+ year old infrastructure doesn't cause any problems. New parts are not an option as they are no longer available. Every replacement part is a refurbished older item. Many of you refuse to look at the situation from any other perspective than your own. The people who drive them are sad at there condition, the maintenance cress wish they had more time and money to put into them. The trains, with the exception of Lime, are all still running a windows 95 based operating system. The full focus right now is getting the train automation installed as quickly as possible and get each train tested and adjusted. Downtimes are part of this process and are a necessary evil.

We still transport more people than any other monorail system in the world, and it is still extremely reliable when you look at the whole picture.

Question.. why automate something that is falling apart (parts wise)?
should have been cheaper to just buy NEW trains with NEW technology?
aka a full fledged full update?

The whole automation seems to be to cut costs by removing crew .. a bandaid on the falling apart monorail units.

 

[Cesar R M]

This is exactly it. At the end of the day, or whenever it was noticed, a manager should have said "Who scuffed up the brand new paint job!?" and found answers. But it seems like the culture there is, "it's good enough".

The question is.. do current management even leave their offices?

 

[xdan0920]

So much of the Walt Disney resort looks this way . So sad. Fix it. At least clean it. Sad!!

This is not accurate. I found the vast majority of the guest areas to be in impeccable shape. The monorails were the only area that was like this. Whoever is overseeing the Monorails is either asleep at the wheel or else completely incompetent.