Automated monorail system update

[Alektronic]

Imagineering

Magic Band

FastPass Plus

Magic Band and FastPass + are all done by outside contractors and the equipment is leased by Disney not owned. We just swap out a bad piece and they give us a new one. The infrastructure was installed by outside contractors and all the components also. Attractions Engineering Services and Data Com just maintain and not supposed to repair it or fix anything, just reset it or change it out.

Most WDI work is contracted out per project or some of WDI management is regular employees.

 

[Rob562]

Yeah, my only point would be that the monorial handles way more people AT SAME TIME vs the usual 4 (or 8?) per unit.

Yet the automated monorail would only be dealing with 10 or 11 trains at one time. Test Track easily has twice as many vehicles as that running at one time.

-Rob

 

[PeterAlt]

Magic Band and FastPass + are all done by outside contractors and the equipment is leased by Disney not owned. We just swap out a bad piece and they give us a new one. The infrastructure was installed by outside contractors and all the components also. Attractions Engineering Services and Data Com just maintain and not supposed to repair it or fix anything, just reset it or change it out.

Most WDI work is contracted out per project or some of WDI management is regular employees.

Oh. You know, telling a Disney fan that Disney doesn't do their own imagineering is like telling a kid that Santa Claus isn't real...

 

[PeterAlt]

Yet the automated monorail would only be dealing with 10 or 11 trains at one time. Test Track easily has twice as many vehicles as that running at one time.

-Rob

Why don't they just convert the monorail into Test Track technology and expand it (with TT technology)? It would be cheaper to build, operate, handle more passengers per hour, and be faster...

 

[Rob562]

Why don't they just convert the monorail into Test Track technology and expand it (with TT technology)? It would be cheaper to build, operate, handle more passengers per hour, and be faster...

Now you're starting to get into the realm of the Personal Rapid Transit ideas that have been kicking around for 10+ years...

-Rob

 

[Gabe1]

Hasn't (OIA) Orlando Airport approved funding to link the (MIA) and (OIA) airports together with expansion to WDW and Port Canaveral with a high speed train type system? I believe I saw that this was being funded to help boost tourism into Orlando, and also provide funding to do the expansion to the Orlando airport as well. I believe the company is All Aboard Florida

The Governor of Florida decline to accept the 2.5 billion from the Feds. because someone would have to put up the 1 billion to finish the project and there were takers willing to take on the 1 billion debt. So the Governor sent off a letters to Dept of Transportation that said no thanks. Other states then took the declined dollars. It would have made travel from all around central to southern Florida quick and likely developed tourism outside the theme park areas.

Illinois is one of the ones that accepted the funding for high speed rail. Thanks Florida. : )

 

[DisneyJoe]

Why don't they just convert the monorail into Test Track technology and expand it (with TT technology)? It would be cheaper to build, operate, handle more passengers per hour, and be faster...

Doesn't test track break down often?

;-)

 

[montyz81]

Oh. You know, telling a Disney fan that Disney doesn't do their own imagineering is like telling a kid that Santa Claus isn't real...

Wait Santa isn't real???

 

[lazyboy97o]

The Governor of Florida decline to accept the 2.5 billion from the Feds. because someone would have to put up the 1 billion to finish the project and there were takers willing to take on the 1 billion debt. So the Governor sent off a letters to Dept of Transportation that said no thanks. Other states then took the declined dollars. It would have made travel from all around central to southern Florida quick and likely developed tourism outside the theme park areas.

Illinois is one of the ones that accepted the funding for high speed rail. Thanks Florida. : )

The state high speed rail project would have decreased average travel time between Tampa and Orlando by about 5-10 minutes over car and conventional rail. Lots of extra costs for very little gain. It was like buying a Ferrari for your daily, stuck in traffic commute.

 

[danlb_2000]

Doesn't test track break down often?

;-)

Doesn't the monorail break down often?

 

[montyz81]

Doesn't test track break down often?

;-)

Yet they don't crash like their human controlled counterparts!

 

[PeterAlt]

Wait Santa isn't real???

I was waiting for that....

 

[PeterAlt]

Doesn't the monorail break down often?

Everything breaks down. Even buses break down. Fixed rail systems require less parts and therefore, theoretically, be less costly to operate. LIM systems have no tires, for example, and that's one less part to always have to change out when it breaks down.

As always, breakdowns can be avoided with better maintainence.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

The state high speed rail project would have decreased average travel time between Tampa and Orlando by about 5-10 minutes over car and conventional rail. Lots of extra costs for very little gain. It was like buying a Ferrari for your daily, stuck in traffic commute.

Now, if we were ambitious and created a long term funded plan for a national high speed rail system it would make a lot more sense.

 

[PeterAlt]

The Governor of Florida decline to accept the 2.5 billion from the Feds. because someone would have to put up the 1 billion to finish the project and there were takers willing to take on the 1 billion debt. So the Governor sent off a letters to Dept of Transportation that said no thanks. Other states then took the declined dollars. It would have made travel from all around central to southern Florida quick and likely developed tourism outside the theme park areas.

Illinois is one of the ones that accepted the funding for high speed rail. Thanks Florida. : )

Actually, the whole thing was paid for, minus a very small difference. The real reason why Gov. Scott killed it was because he is in bed with the parent company of All Aboard Florida (FEC). This would have killed AAF's chances of success, if it was fully built as planned from Tampa to Miami. The fact that AAF is privately funded versus FHSR being government funded has a lot to do with it. Read Atlas Shrugged to fully understand why Tea Party Republicans are against government-funded high speed rail systems. Personally, I think this is a radical view of capitalism, but to each his of her own.

 

[Gabe1]

The state high speed rail project would have decreased average travel time between Tampa and Orlando by about 5-10 minutes over car and conventional rail. Lots of extra costs for very little gain. It was like buying a Ferrari for your daily, stuck in traffic commute.

I understand what you are saying but there is more to high speed rail. Look at Europe their systems are great and you have to start somewhere. I live in Northern IL and aside from Chicago spurs there is little public transporation to move you around at convient times.

Yes, it can cut time only a small amount between 5-10 minutes when roads are not congested between Orlando and Tampa when the roads are grid-locked which they frequently are far more. It would have brought trains to different areas where they were not frequently available before. Tampa would have been a travel option to MCO if the rails went close to Disney like initial designs were indicating. Florida tourism is big and not everyone wants to drive there or rent a car especially the large international groups. In a heartbeat I'd hop a train and go to the gulf for a day. Others might hop a train to tack on Miami, a chance to see the ocean.

Me, I travel to central IL frequently and I will hop the high speed rail during the snow storms over driving like many others will. Our high speed rail is coming along nicely and will ultimately connect Chicago to St. Louis much quicker than I can or will drive especially in the winter months. I like the idea of developing our rails into the 21st century, will keep those expressways from having to be expanded on a regular basis. Just look at all the bottlenecks on the expressways around Disney. It certainly couldn't hurt to have a rail from MCO to that area.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Now, if we were ambitious and created a long term funded plan for a national high speed rail system it would make a lot more sense.

Even as a national system, route selection needs to be based on need and potential usage. That just did not exist between Tampa and Orlando and is not likely to exist in the forceable future. That is part of what makes high speed rail so difficult, it only works in places where it will be hard to build. The rest of the transit system needs to be built first. It will never follow high speed rail because people will just see incredibly expensive, empty trains running through farmland and reject more projects that will be painted as fund suckers.

Actually, the whole thing was paid for, minus a very small difference. The real reason why Gov. Scott killed it was because he is in bed with the parent company of All Aboard Florida (FEC). This would have killed AAF's chances of success, if it was fully built as planned from Tampa to Miami. The fact that AAF is privately funded versus FHSR being government funded has a lot to do with it. Read Atlas Shrugged to fully understand why Tea Party Republicans are against government-funded high speed rail systems. Personally, I think this is a radical view of capitalism, but to each his of her own.

Only the building costs were covered. The State was still going to be the one financing actual operation of incredibly expensive trains that offered little competitive advantage over other means including other rail potentials that the federal government would not have financed for failing to be high speed rail, despite offering nearly identical results with lower costs.

Yes, it can cut time only a small amount between 5-10 minutes when roads are not congested between Orlando and Tampa when the roads are grid-locked which they frequently are far more. It would have brought trains to different areas where they were not frequently available before. Tampa would have been a travel option to MCO if the rails went close to Disney like initial designs were indicating. Florida tourism is big and not everyone wants to drive there or rent a car especially the large international groups. In a heartbeat I'd hop a train and go to the gulf for a day. Others might hop a train to tack on Miami, a chance to see the ocean.

Even over building a conventional rail or higher speed rail line along the same route the time savings would have only been in that 5-10 minutes range. A stronger rail connection is probably a really good idea, just not an incredibly expensive high speed system that would never actually be utilized. It'd be like proposing to replace the El trains with high speed trains. Nobody would propose that because it is not the appropriate application of high speed rail technology.

 

[Gabe1]

Now, if we were ambitious and created a long term funded plan for a national high speed rail system it would make a lot more sense.

You have to start somewhere. Many states took the Fed funds to be the starting point. We took it in Illinois and the bonus is all the jobs it has created too. They've been plugging along well since spring.

 

[PeterAlt]

Now, if we were ambitious and created a long term funded plan for a national high speed rail system it would make a lot more sense.

That was the plan. Here it is...

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Doesn't the monorail break down often?

Over the last few years Igers bean counters had cut the maintaince and refit budgets way down and therefore over time the rides and the Monorail (no matter how well it was designed) started having break downs.
If you remember, 2 years or so ago, things started changing and many new refits and longer ones were scheduled and the Monorail last year went though a long spring and summer of scheduled repairs and rebuilding to the fleet and the track. Now you rarely hear of any break downs.