News DeSantis moves to bring state safety oversight of the Walt Disney World Monorail including suspending the service for inspections

[fgmnt]

Don’t you wonder how the workers who are being pushed around and inconvenienced by all this will respond?

What workers are you referring to? WDW cast members? FDOT employees?

Neither of these are really seen as problems for the governor's administration. If there are any qualified professionals left at FDOT that would be pushed over the edge by the latest stunt by the governor, that just means a public institution gets weaker and those pledging fealty to dear leader get on the government dole to carry out the weakening.

As for the cast members, I can't imagine a voting demographic the governor cares about less than lower class wage-earners in central Florida.

 

[Brian]

Question for everyone: if state oversight of the monorails was proposed on its own, and there was no RCID/parental rights legislation kerfuffle as its predicate, would you still be opposed to it?

 

[Andrew C]

What they need to inspect is space mountain.

 

[GhostHost1000]

What they need to inspect is space mountain.

Or those maleficent dragons

 

[BuddyThomas]

What they need to inspect is space mountain.

It’s inspected all the time. Is there an issue with Space Mountain that you know about that the rest of us do not?

 

[Smiley/OCD]

It’s inspected all the time. Is there an issue with Space Mountain that you know about that the rest of us do not?

Yeah, that’s falling apart like the monorails, lol

 

[Andrew C]

It’s inspected all the time. Is there an issue with Space Mountain that you know about that the rest of us do not?

It was a joke. But there are certain individuals around here that no longer ride it anymore due to “concerns”

 

[Andrew C]

Question for everyone: if state oversight of the monorails was proposed on it's own, and there was no RCID/parental rights legislation kerfuffle as its predicate, would you still be opposed to it?

We could check the monorail threads over the years to get a gauge on that.

 

[BuddyThomas]

It was a joke. But there are certain individuals around here that no longer ride it anymore due to “concerns”

What concerns?

 

[THEMEPARKPIONEER]

After the fantastic incident I think he’s on to something

 

[wendysue]

It was a joke. But there are certain individuals around here that no longer ride it anymore due to “concerns”

We quit riding it about 3 years ago when it smelled like a urinal.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

What concerns?

It was supposed to get a full track replacement during the 2008 refurb, something that was axed from the budget. And in the past decade, they installed new brakes to significantly slow it down and reduce the amount of force being put on the structure. I'm not really expecting anyone getting hurt or dying, but the procrastination and band aid fixes makes me nervous.

Disneyland's version received a full track replacement in the early 2000s because it was deemed unsafe by the government and forcibly shut down by California's government inspectors. I believe Tokyo's got a track replacement as well at some point. WDW's is older (with a more primitive coaster design as well) and the track has never been replaced. It desperately needs it. Whether people claim it's safe or not, I don't trust the thing and haven't ridden it in quite a while. IMO, it's also not even very fun to ride anymore due to the ever increasing discomfort from the wear and loss of speed due to the brakes.

 

[fgmnt]

After the fantastic incident I think he’s on to something

Another example where there is just no institutional knowledge to glean at the state level to have specialists inspect entertainment flamethrowers on mechanical dragons.

 

[Andrew C]

We quit riding it about 3 years ago when it smelled like a urinal.

Someone got REALLY scared.

 

[Minthorne]

As I pointed out in the RCID thread, the Walt Disney Company operates more miles of monorail than every other monorail service in the nation combined. There is absolutely no institutional knowledge in existence at the state level to be leveraged to make it function any better. It's not like FDOT knows how to do anything except highway expansion anyway.

They are subcontracting the inspections to the Vogons. It’s not about institutional knowledge, it’s about the bureaucracy.

 

[Casper Gutman]

This seems like it very well might result in the end of the monorail.

The inspectors will come in and cite numerous, costly violations. This will be done entirely in bad faith and will have NOTHING to do with guest safety - the state’s explicit intention is to punish and control Disney. Disney now has two choices:

1) Play along in a game they can’t win. No matter what they do, how much they spend, inspectors will demand more - again, it has nothing to do with safety, it’s punishment.

2) Close the monorails, a system that current management has never been wild about and which costs a lot of money. In doing so, they can put all the blame for something unpopular they wanted to do anyway on DeSantis. This not only yokes him to an unpopular development, it redefines that entire debate and expands the audience - no longer is DeSantis attacking a “special tax district,” a confusing conflict that he can easily spin in his favor even though he is entirely in the wrong; now he becomes the governor who closed the iconic, widely beloved monorail to spite a private company. That’s a lot less esoteric.

Honestly, why would they do 1?

 

[maxairmike]

Question for everyone: if state oversight of the monorails was proposed on its own, and there was no RCID/parental rights legislation kerfuffle as its predicate, would you still be opposed to it?

Depends on how it was structured. If we’re just talking straight up state oversight/regulation of a passenger rail system that has no equivalent in the state requiring specialized knowledge essentially replacing/overruling the internal expertise of the sole operator of such system with a generally acceptable record, absolutely not. If we were to have a structure that allowed cooperation with the operators and existing maintenance knowledge base that instead gave those already tasked with maintaining the system a better voice and some “push” (as well as protection) when needed to get ahead of issues before they become bigger problems, I would be very much onboard with that.

 

[Andrew C]

This seems like it very well might result in the end of the monorail.

The inspectors will come in and cite numerous, costly violations. This will be done entirely in bad faith and will have NOTHING to do with guest safety - the state’s explicit intention is to punish and control Disney. Disney now has two choices:

1) Play along in a game they can’t win. No matter what they do, how much they spend, inspectors will demand more - again, it has nothing to do with safety, it’s punishment.

2) Close the monorails, a system that current management has never been wild about and which costs a lot of money. In doing so, they can put all the blame for something unpopular they wanted to do anyway on DeSantis. This not only yokes him to an unpopular development, it redefines that entire debate and expands the audience - no longer is DeSantis attacking a “special tax district,” a confusing conflict that he can easily spin in his favor even though he is entirely in the wrong; now he becomes the governor who closed the iconic, widely beloved monorail to spite a private company. That’s a lot less esoteric.

Honestly, why would they do 1?

I’m confused as to why you would attack the character of any potential inspectors. You assume they are just a bunch of crooks that cannot be trusted? They aren’t politicians.

 

[Brian]

I’m confused as to why you would attack the character of any potential inspectors. You assume they are just a bunch of crooks that cannot be trusted? They aren’t politicians.

I was thinking the same thing. It's one thing to be suspicious of political appointees, such as the CFTOD board, but for the average state of Florida employee, there's a pretty good chance they're not a DeSantis fanboy, and moreover, are just trying to make an honest living.

 

[Lilofan]

Guests reactions won't be pretty if trying to use the monorail system and it is shut down due to state inspection.