Expand the monorail

[JerseyDad]

And what is the budget for this because we have upwards of 2 bil in the MM+ stuff and it's still in testing..

.....being that there is a strict budget due to the 2 billion down the rathole ...WDW will go with a more affordable mode of transportation system update......

...all aboard!!

 

[FettFan]

 

[ParkMan73]

While I agree that it's pretty unlikly to occur, it's fun to speculate and design. One of my favorite things about WDW as a kid was the monorail. It was always so cool & futuristic.

Perhaps we need a re-ocurring thread where folks could debate system design, but stay away from the it will never happen debate.

As I've read the monorail threads over the years, my own thoughts have boiled down to a few concepts

Track design
- a single loop - ala expanding the resort loop now - is not practical. It would just take too long to get anywhere.
- a hub and spoke model could work, but it would be like riding the Disney subway in the sky with a transfer downtown. I'd rather ride 15 minutes in a bus then have two monorail trips and a transfer in the middle.
- point to point would be ideal, but you'd end up with a ton of different routes and need a lot of rolling stock.
- hybrid - You could probably make it work with mini-loops, with a train for each park on a mini-loop. Each train would then service several resorts.
If you went the hybrid route, you'd need more efficient track switching. You'd need a way to get a train from the All-Stars area to MK, Epcot, AK, DHS, etc...

Cost
Disney needs to find a way to get the done less expensivly. Perhaps a modular system instead of a bunch of custom created pieces. Seems like someone should be able to build track for less than the price of multi-lane roadway.

Train design
Once you get to having more trains, you'd need smaller trains. Not all loops would have the density of the current resort loop. These could be similar to busses in capacity. However, since they are not on the roads, they could have greater flexibility in design. That could make it easier to accomodates larger crowds, and loading and unloading of scooters/wheel chairs.

All this said, I think my idea is not far from taking the WDW bus system, but getting it onto a track in the sky instead of busses on the road. Doing that gets you a smoother ride, eliminates the need to navigate roads with cars, and can give you more flexibility in terms of car design.

My gut feeling is that there is an innovative solution out there that is cost effective. If the cost could be reigned in, then WDW could phase it in over time as they retire the bus fleet.

 

[roj2323]

It'll never happen. As others have stated, the future of WDW transportation is busses. Besides being extremely costly, any kind of extension would require additional trains, and WDW can barely maintain the fleet they have now.

I agree. Anyone who has been to the parks in the last year even should have noticed a massive increase in bus infrastructure and a larger fleet. Additionally disney is offing $500 to any cast member who refers someone to drive busses. Basically they are having a heck of a time filling in the holes with the expanding fleet while also loosing drivers to retirement.

 

[Mouse_Trap]

To think, they could have done such a system for far less than the $2 billion blown on the unnecessary wrist bands and had change for some E ticket rides.The problem is, the transport option doesn't bring in extra revenue.
Even at $10 million a mile, MM+ or 100 miles of Monorail and 2 Cars land style expansions?

I don't think that a massive loop running around all the parks and hotels would be the solution, transfer times would be far too long.

I think that something like this maybe the answer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ULTra_(rapid_transit)
I think they would need to be a fair bit larger, but imagine the ability to choose where you want to go, with no wait times (peak period excepted of course).

Even if you said that the amount required to be spent on maintenance and fuel remained a constant, the amount of money saved just in wages from eliminating buses would be massive. Any idea how many drivers Disney has on the payroll?

 

[C&D]

Obviously what you get with buses is flexibility; if the Monorail can expand to a point where it is actually more efficient (than the buses), then perhaps maybe. As they say, "Never say never".

 

[jbolen2]

What if they added a fee to the park hopper or a optional monorail park hopper fee to bring some of the cost back in?

 

[morningstar]

Realistically if you were going to do it, and had the ridiculous amount of money you would need to do it, the best (most affordable) way to do it would be to modify the epcot loop. ...

In your design, how do you connect to the TTC / Magic Kingdom? Do all trains fork onto the parallel tracks to TTC at the point near World Drive and Epcot Center Drive? I think it will be quite a long ride for some connections, like Epcot to Magic Kingdom. Either one way or the other, you'd have to travel almost all the way around the loop. Or between Animal Kingdom and Epcot in one direction or the other, you'd have to up the TTC spur and back.

Now if your new loop were parallel bidirectional tracks all the way then it could work. Where the track exits the Epcot station, connect it to the right (east) side of the current parallel track. The left side gets extended in an outer loop around Future World, then continues around your loop to HS, AK, any other stops, and then back up the west side of World Drive to the TTC. Build a parallel track along the same route in the reverse direction until it connects back to the original Epcot track (the inner Epcot loop) at the entrance to Epcot.

 

[morningstar]

Thanks to everyone who had a suggestion.

I have no idea whether a monorail expansion would be profitable. Obviously it would cost a lot of money, but I have no idea how much, not even whether it would be millions or billions.

I also have no idea how much money it would bring in, but I can think of many ways it could bring in more money.

- They can increase the price of park hopper tickets. The price increase will come with better value, because you can hop more efficiently and lose less time out of your vacation day.
- More people will be motivated to stay on site, if there are resorts in their price class on the monorail. Or if the rooms are already selling out in those hotels, they can increase the price. They can build new "extra-value" hotels with only bus service so that their total on-site capacity can accommodate the increased demand. The monorail would be a way to increase demand to stay on site, but not seem "unfair" like giving on-site guests better FP+ privileges.
- Passing by resorts on the monorail is a stellar way for Disney to advertise those resorts. We who are "in the know" already envy guests who stay at the Grand Floridian and Wilderness Lodge, but perhaps there are guests staying at All-Star Sports and taking the bus to the Magic Kingdom who barely even know they exist. If you get them on the monorail and make it go past those resorts, they will know they exist and that they are stunning.
- It will make shopping and dining at resorts you're not staying at more convenient. Like, I think I heard there was a pretty good restaurant at Coronado Springs, but I'm not gonna eat dinner there if I have to take two buses to get back to my hotel.
- The monorail is an iconic symbol of Disney World. No matter how cool Universal's rides are, or how many popular movie characters they have meet & greets with, they don't have a monorail. It sets a Disney World vacation apart - but not so much if you don't ride it. The monorail helps Disney World compete with Universal and get a bigger share of the vacation market.

 

[Mouse_Trap]

In your design, how do you connect to the TTC / Magic Kingdom? Do all trains fork onto the parallel tracks to TTC at the point near World Drive and Epcot Center Drive? I think it will be quite a long ride for some connections, like Epcot to Magic Kingdom. Either one way or the other, you'd have to travel almost all the way around the loop. Or between Animal Kingdom and Epcot in one direction or the other, you'd have to up the TTC spur and back.

Now if your new loop were parallel bidirectional tracks all the way then it could work. Where the track exits the Epcot station, connect it to the right (east) side of the current parallel track. The left side gets extended in an outer loop around Future World, then continues around your loop to HS, AK, any other stops, and then back up the west side of World Drive to the TTC. Build a parallel track along the same route in the reverse direction until it connects back to the original Epcot track (the inner Epcot loop) at the entrance to Epcot.

You could have a park loop, i.e. only stopping at each park and Downtown Disney. This would run bi-directionally so that no stop would be more than a few minutes away.

Then a number of spur sections from the hotels to the nearest park. i.e you would board at your hotel, travel to the nearest park. Then transfer to the park line to get elsewhere.
Pop & AoA would share a spur, the same goes for the All Stars;
Port Orleans & OKW share.
Water parks would also have a spur each onto the nearest park/DtD.

I sketched this out very quickly, have not added all resorts yet though.

Disney - I'm willing to sell a professionally finished masterplan for a very reasonable price. Just PM me.