This has been Disneys standard practice for a long time. You see it with almost all the attractions in the parks. They let things go until its in complete disarray, then seem to only do the minimum because of cost and downtime, or just remove the effect/issue. It amazes me that a company that prided it self and was built on its quality standard, can let anything like the monorail quality be available for guests.
That is where I have a problem. You see a decline... I don't! You see a place that has been let go and I see a situation were only someone that doesn't understand maintenance would think that those monorail trains have been running millions of miles without intense maintenance. It just defies all logic to me. I ride them every visit I have made, (44 times over the last 35 years) and I have never encountered a problem either then or now. I find it hard to believe that I specifically have that much luck. Yes, the trains are older, but, when one takes into consideration the mileage along with the numbers of people that have ridden them over those years it seems impossible to think anything other then wow, they are good at keeping things working. I would be surprised if every single train hasn't been rebuilt at some point in time or the other. Mechanical things just plain don't keep working that long and that hard without being taken care of. For what it's worth.
Not that I know of. But I’m not often in that loop.
That would be insanely expensive and less efficient.
How much are they spending on Rat, GotG and Tron again?
Not very much compared to the cost of completely converting monorail track into Peoplemover track. Not to mention those will all be new attraction that to some degree add to the parks where converting monorail to people mover will reduce capacity.How much are they spending on Rat, GotG and Tron again?
Wow! If a monorail running with the door open and people in it doesn't show you there is a problem, I don't know what will.
Well, it does tell a single problem that has, as far as we know, only happened once in over 40 years. Hardly a reason to go running to the woods or being convinced that the sky is falling. If you're driving down the road and have a flat tire does that mean the you junk the car or do you fix the tire. That is all that was, no one was hurt and if anyone stepped outside the door when it was moving was probably dumber then a bucket of rocks so no great loss. Would it have been better to stop the train and make people climb down on firemen's ladders when all they had to do was stay away from the door until it got to the station and then unharmed stepped off the train with no delays, but, an interesting story. It could have been a serious situation, but, it wasn't and the right choice was made because fortunately the train contained a few guest with working common sense. Let's say they did stop the train... what do you think would have happened and while we are at it, exactly how does one anticipate a mechanical failure that has never happened before and is unlikely to every happen again? That could happen to a brand new train, there is no other connection other the mechanical breakdowns happen.
For me its a clear symptom. I see too much laziness around the parks to think otherwise. And what if that happened at park close with a packed car? Just because it hasn't happened before, doesn't excuse it.
You are, of course, entitled to your opinion, however, unless it starts to happen regularly to me it will always be a random mechanical malfunction and not worthy of any real concern. It's easy to read way to much into a situation.
I think the truth is somewhere in the middle here. Yes these are old trains and it is truly amazing they run as well as they do considering just how much use they get. Some of these incidents could easily be chalked up to a one in a million thing because well these trains have made millions of trips. That being said working with these and since riding them regularly I have noticed a gradual consistent decline in maintenance and increase in incidents. There is really no excuse how these trains could be going on 30 years without having a thorough refurbishment. A trip to the paint booth may make them look nice for another few years but even so when you look at them closely you can tell they’re in pretty rough shape.
