Miceage Update: New Soarin film by 2015, DHS refurb on the way.

PeterAlt

PeterAlt

Well-Known Member
Cosmic Commando said:
I had not heard anything about that project since it was just a "we should", so I did some quick reading...
-it will supposedly use only dedicated ROW around DLR, so that should help the line move quickly there.
-Disney is insisting that the power cables be buried for aesthetic reasons... but they put up fake wires inside DCA?!?!?
-I think they're really missing the boat with the route. I'm not super familiar with Anaheim the city, so I don't know all what else they're connecting to other than the Gardenwalk, the Intermodal station, the Angels Stadium and the Honda Center, but I would've extended the line further down Harbor Blvd to Chapman. Right now it ends at the Convention Center. There are literally 2,000 hotel rooms/suites at the corner of Harbor/Chapman that are not really included in the line. Plus, it would "catch" more of those hotel guests on Harbor further south of the convention center and encourage development along the route. The problem is that those 2,000 hotel rooms I mentioned are in Garden Grove, not Anaheim, so they don't pay taxes to Anaheim or the resort district. Still, I think Anaheim would have ROW to build up to the intersection and lure those potential customers in... maybe even be profitable. Often, when people get a big pile of money to play with, they build what they want or what sounds good rather than what they need. It seems like they're building a line so that people can take Amtrak and a bullet train to DIsneyland and the convention center, when I think they should be building a commuter line to reach as many hotels as possible and shuttle people from there to the DLR and convention center... that might actually make money.

Keep in mind that this is separate from whatever Disney decides to do when they build a parking garage on the Pumbaa lot or the third gate... you might get your Peoplemover then.
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Wow, thanks for the analysis! One thing I noticed with the current setup is that Disney has exclusive rights of way for trams from the garages to the entrance of the parks. That pathway can easily be converted to a peoplemover system.

In another development, a private company got approval to build a maglev monorail in Orlando, connecting OIA, the Orlando Convention Center, the Florida Mall, and to the edge of WDW. I was skeptical when I heard about this at first, but I found out that this is the same company that is currently financing special tolls lanes currently under construction in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale area... So, this company has credibility.

It would be interesting if this gets built and if the Orlando attractions build connections to it.
 
englanddg

englanddg

One Little Spark...
PeterAlt said:
Wow, thanks for the analysis! One thing I noticed with the current setup is that Disney has exclusive rights of way for trams from the garages to the entrance of the parks. That pathway can easily be converted to a peoplemover system.

In another development, a private company got approval to build a maglev monorail in Orlando, connecting OIA, the Orlando Convention Center, the Florida Mall, and to the edge of WDW. I was skeptical when I heard about this at first, but I found out that this is the same company that is currently financing special tolls lanes currently under construction in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale area... So, this company has credibility.

It would be interesting if this gets built and if the Orlando attractions build connections to it.
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The maglev in Orlando has been a rumor since the mid-90s...when it even made newspapers back then.

Love to see if it happens though!
 
PeterAlt

PeterAlt

Well-Known Member
englanddg said:
The maglev in Orlando has been a rumor since the mid-90s...when it even made newspapers back then.

Love to see if it happens though!
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There have been different companies proposing it. What makes this different is that it has financial backing and that the regional transportation planning organization voted to approve it.
 
articos

articos

Well-Known Member
Cosmic Commando said:
The entire area around DLR was rezoned in the 90's so that it could only be used for theme parks, shops, restaurants, hotels, and other tourist-related things. This is when the area began to get cleaned up. Then there was this timeline of events regarding these parcels at the center of this map East and across the street from the Toy Story parking lot:

Late 2006(?) - Developer SunCal proposes to build 225 low-income apartments (and 1275 market-rate condominiums). There was was originally a hotel component that was later dropped. I don't know when the original proposal happened, but probably around late 2006.

Spring/Summer 2007 - Disney sues the city of Anaheim for this first time in history to keep residential development out of the resort district. Proponents of the development frame it as Disney being against low-income housing.

October 2007 - DCA makeover is announced. I think there were also noncommittal commitments from Disney around this time that a third park would be built on the Toy Story parking lot in the mid-term future (which was still strawberry fields at the time, I believe). Disney makes it clear that it will be investing major money in the resort district in the future.

By Christmas 2007, the project was dead. Keep in mind, at this time DCA was still a loser of a theme park that no one would be seen in. Disneyland was spruced up for the 50th, but hadn't (still hasn't) seen a big splashy expansion in some time. From the outside, it may have looked like the resort district was as big as it was ever going to get. Plus, these parcels are on the edge of the resort district next to I-5. With the announcement of more than $1B of investment and wispy promises on the wind of a third park on a plot of land right next to the proposed development, Disney reasserted its economic hegemony over the area. I don't mean that in a negative way, either: they showed that they weren't done investing in the resort district and that there was still growth to be had and good reason to save the land for more tourist-related development. Personally, I think the resort district is actually pretty small. I don't think it's a big deal to keep residential development out of that small area.
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A good article on the various sides of the Disney/Disney Employees/Anaheim/SunCal issue back in 2007:

http://www.shelterforce.org/article/print/988/
 
englanddg

englanddg

One Little Spark...
PeterAlt said:
So, basically, you're saying this is the same kind of dark power that is trying to stop the Las Vegas monorail from expanding to the LV Airport?
Click to expand...

No, I'm just saying that Mears will put forth a huge political play to keep it from happening, I suspect.

I'm with you, I hope it does happen.
 
PeterAlt

PeterAlt

Well-Known Member
englanddg said:
No, I'm just saying that Mears will put forth a huge political play to keep it from happening, I suspect.

I'm with you, I hope it does happen.
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Just think of what could happen if this happens. Disney will probably be motivated to expand their monorail system to bring in guests from the station planned at the edge of WDW. Universal and Sea World will want to build a people mover to bring in guests from the planned Orlando Convention Center station.
 
englanddg

englanddg

One Little Spark...
PeterAlt said:
Just think of what could happen if this happens. Disney will probably be motivated to expand their monorail system to bring in guests from the station planned at the edge of WDW. Universal and Sea World will want to build a people mover to bring in guests from the planned Orlando Convention Center station.
Click to expand...

You have a great dream.
 

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