Hello all,
After a somewhat lengthy absence, I found this thread and decided to offer my opinion.
Many of you have mentioned the severe problems regarding buses and other transportation. I have to say that I am in complete agreement. The bus system is pathetic and that is being kind. We were there in September 2008 and stayed at Port Orleans Riverside. Unfortunately, we were forced to ride the buses and we noticed that they showed up whenever they felt like it and were on no set schedule.
First and foremost, let's look at some of the major disadvantages of the bus system.
- Limited passenger capacity. At an average of 65-80 people with limited seating, it makes the ride with that kind many people on board uncomfortable.
- Fuel consumption. If you figure a full tank of Diesel/Biodiesel fuel per bus at an average of $80 per tank per bus (fueled daily), the costs to maintain this kind of fleet is staggering.
- Danger prone. The stations for these buses always have a risk of someone being injured or even killed. Someone could step in front of one and it's all over.
- Environmental impact. Does anyone care to guess just how much exhaust gets sent into the air daily?
Here's the big advantages of a monorail expansion:
- Much more environmentally friendly. The trains operate on electrical power and therefore there is no exhaust.
- Passenger capacity for a 6 car monorail train is 365 passengers. That translates to reduced wait times.
- Elevated beams/tracks. This is another big point. The monorails ride on elevated beams and as a result they don't contribute to the traffic jams on the roads.
- July 2009 was the first and only fatality on a monorail system that has been in continuous operation for 38 years. There is no bus system that I know of that can match that good of a safety record.
The biggest drawbacks for the monorail expansion are twofold:
Time and Money
The money problem is the obvious issue here. In 1971, the cost to build a monorail system was roughly $1 Million per mile. It's considerably more today. The time factor is another big one. It would probably take close to 5 years to have an expanded monorail system that would be able to stop at all of the resorts, parks, and perhaps even the airport (yes that has been discussed). The environmental impact as I mentioned before would be minimal. The beams would be elevated so there would be no need for extensive excavation or land clearing like there would be for a railroad system.
Somebody brought up an interesting question about how it would work with stops, etc. My suggestion would be general stations at the major resort clumps. The Boardwalk area was mentioned and, as it was correctly pointed out, it sits just outside of EPCOT. Let me ask a dumb question: What about the people wo do NOT want to go to EPCOT and want to go to someplace like the Animal Kingdom? That justifies a station by itself.
Here's the big thing I would STRONGLY suggest for Disney to consider: If there is only going to be a minimal expansion, then run a line to Animal Kingdom from the Ticket Center.
This could be done using a similar layout to EPCOT's. Put a long loop over the park so that the trains can simply be facing the opposite direction when they drop off passengers. You build the station where the buses drop people off now.
