Monorail or Bus?

[WannaBWendy]

Monorail, so I can hear the monorail spiel more often. It makes me happy. But so does the bus spiel. I love to grab hold of my packages and take my 13 year old daughter by the hand. I do it every time and she rolls her eyes with a "bless your heart" and "is this ever going to stop?" look.
And OP, thanks for spelling "buses" correctly. (Poor spelling is one of my pet peeves.)

 

[Goofyernmost]

Monorail, so I can hear the monorail spiel more often. It makes me happy. But so does the bus spiel. I love to grab hold of my packages and take my 13 year old daughter by the hand. I do it every time and she rolls her eyes with a "bless your heart" and "is this ever going to stop?" look.
And OP, thanks for spelling "buses" correctly. (Poor spelling is one of my pet peeves.)

Sadly, and I cannot explain why but either buses or busses are considered correct. Busses just looks foolish to me, but, what do I know. They are bus-es, not bus-ses. I will always and forever use buses.

 

[WannaBWendy]

Busses are kisses.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I'm sort of torn on this one. While monorails are faster, safer, and more environmentally-friendly, they are also expensive, ugly, and would be complex. I'd like it if they expanded the monorail over to the Epcot resort area to DHS. It makes sense to do that, at least in my mind. Then expand the buses for the other resorts.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I know the monorail uses electricity, but isn't it a cleaner mode of transport? Also, no traffic jams or dumb drivers running into the buses.

Yes it is. No exhaust

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I know it could not be done, but I would not mind some kind of waterway from Animal Kingdom to another park/parks like the monorail is to MK and Epcot.

And DHS. You forgot that there are boats to DHS

 

[Goofyernmost]

Yes it is. No exhaust

Everyone always seems to forget that they use fossil fuels to generate electricity. The monorails themselves my not have exhaust but someplace there will be some. I know how that is though, we get so used to having electricity on demand, we tend to forget how we get it.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Everyone always seems to forget that they use fossil fuels to generate electricity. The monorails themselves my not have exhaust but someplace there will be some. I know how that is though, we get so used to having electricity on demand, we tend to forget how we get it.

Not always. There's solar power, wind power, other types of electricity. All I know is I was told it was more environmentally-friendly, so I'll go with it.

 

[luv]

As kids, we were taught that "busses" was the preferred spelling. Maybe that has changed, but it's how I've always spelled it. When I see buses, I first read it as "bewzis" and have to get that it is the plural for bus from context, lol.

But I am getting older.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

As kids, we were taught that "busses" was the preferred spelling. Maybe that has changed, but it's how I've always spelled it. When I see buses, I first read it as "bewzis" and have to get that it is the plural for bus from context, lol.

But I am getting older.

My spell check says buses. But the first few times I spelled it wrong too. It goes against grammatical rules. Oh well.

 

[copcarguyp71]

IMO busses can carry far more than Monorails and it is easier to usher more busses into service than monorails...although I would love to see more resort and DTD service via monorail I think the busses are far more practical and even possible than the single track mode.

 

[Nemo14]

we were taught "Busses" too. Apparently, according to Miriam webster, either is acceptable.




and now you know...

 

[copcarguyp71]

As to the pollution dispute...all new diesel trucks/bus(s)es need to have a urea scrubber system to meet stringent EPA guidelines.

How Urea SCR Systems Work
Urea SCR cleans the exhaust after combustion. The urea solution is held in a separate storage tank and injected as a fine mist into the hot exhaust gases. The heat breaks the urea down into ammonia—the actual NOx-reducing agent. Through a catalytic converter, the ammonia breaks the NOx down to harmless nitrogen (N) gas and water vapor. The exhaust is no longer a pollutant; the atmosphere is about 80% nitrogen gas.

 

[MOXOMUMD]

Pneumatic tubes big enough to hold one guest per container. Reminds me of the drive-up bank systems.

This reminds me of the scene in The Polar Express when the kids jump into the elves transport on their way to find Santa.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Not always. There's solar power, wind power, other types of electricity. All I know is I was told it was more environmentally-friendly, so I'll go with it.

Well, you are not wrong, they are more environmentally friendly than fuel powered vehicles in and of themselves and I am not savvy enough about central Florida to know what power is available there, but I would guess that at the very least they have nuclear or coal or fuel. I don't recall seeing any wind generators or solar power modules other then on the roof of the Energy Pavilion at Epcot. Those I'm sure stopped operating years ago, but they left them there because it looked good.

 

[Thrill]

Well with the new park ticket price increase, I think we deserve a monorail refurb or expansion

No.

People don't seem to understand the sheer cost of a monorail system. People occasionally throw around the "$1 million a mile" figure. If only it were that cheap. You're looking at $30 million, maybe even $35 million, per mile. Throw in stations and trains, and it's an extremely expensive venture. Not worth the cost for a system which is inflexible (tracks are less easy to maintain than roads, you can't add trains as easily as buses).

If Disney expanded the monorail system resort-wide, it would probably cost enough money to build Beastly Kingdom 4 times. Take your pick.

I know the monorail uses electricity, but isn't it a cleaner mode of transport? Also, no traffic jams or dumb drivers running into the buses.

Electricity tends to be cleaner than gasoline vehicles. That said, Disney could acheive more or less the same environmental effect by getting electric buses.

Monorails do get traffic, though. Various delays hold up the whole track, and the worst part is that you can't route around it. Again, it's an inherently inflexible system. Trains are great for long distances, not for precision. The exception is the city, where cars stop at nearly every light and there is no way around it other than a subway system. WDW is nowhere near New York City or Washington, DC in terms of traffic.

 

[GoofGoof]

Everyone always seems to forget that they use fossil fuels to generate electricity. The monorails themselves my not have exhaust but someplace there will be some. I know how that is though, we get so used to having electricity on demand, we tend to forget how we get it.

Any monorail expansion should be done in conjunction with a build out of solar power. Even without a monorail expansion WDW is ripe for solar power. Panel prices have come way down to the point that they are getting close to being on pace with fossil fuels and the PR from being "green" would go a long way. Disney could also potentially get green energy sponsors to fund part of the monorail expansion. "This monorail line has been brought to you by Green Mountain Energy". Buffet's Mid American Energy has been getting heavily into renewables too. Another possible sponsor. Large sections of the Northeast, Midwest, CA and Texas have de-regulated energy markets where renewable players like Green Mountain are looking to add customers. A large number of visitors to WDW come from these key areas, especially the NE. It would be a great way to get the name familiar with millions of people if every time you got on the monorail you were reminded who was powering it.

Look at what's been happening in the NFL these days. New England, NY, Philly, Washington DC, SF and probably soon others have added solar panels to the stadiums to be more green. It makes perfect sense to extend a program like this to WDW.

 

[GoofGoof]

As to the pollution dispute...all new diesel trucks/bus(s)es need to have a urea scrubber system to meet stringent EPA guidelines.

How Urea SCR Systems Work
Urea SCR cleans the exhaust after combustion. The urea solution is held in a separate storage tank and injected as a fine mist into the hot exhaust gases. The heat breaks the urea down into ammonia—the actual NOx-reducing agent. Through a catalytic converter, the ammonia breaks the NOx down to harmless nitrogen (N) gas and water vapor. The exhaust is no longer a pollutant; the atmosphere is about 80% nitrogen gas.

Still doesn't address the Carbon issue. There have been pretty steady advances in reducing NOX emissions from electic generation as well, but an older coal plant without scrubbers will produce more NOX emissions than a fleet of new busses so it could be possible depending on the mix of generation that electric busses could pollute more than diesel if you are just considering NOx.

 

[Genie of the Lamp]

More Monorail fleets please!

 

[CP_alum08]

If it were really just as simple as monorail vs. bus expansion, I'd choose monorail all day.

I haven't ridden a WDW bus in years, but now that we no longer live in FL and will (probably) not have a car the next time we visit WDW I think I may be forced to