News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner -

[mmascari]

Much less annoying to those at the station too...It isn't a big deal to see an empty cabin leave when you are just getting to the station, because you know another is a few seconds behind it.

It's even more than just "less annoying" to see an empty cabin leave the gondola station as you arrive. It's a completely great sight to see.

If an empty cabin just left, that means there isn't anyone waiting in the station. You'll walk right up and board immediately with no wait at all. Like boarding the People Mover with no line at all.

It's even better than seeing a line of full cars departing the stations, since that means there's a line waiting to board that's keeping every car full. Like waiting on the ramp to the People Mover.

 

[Bender123]

It's even more than just "less annoying" to see an empty cabin leave the gondola station as you arrive. It's a completely great sight to see.

If an empty cabin just left, that means there isn't anyone waiting in the station. You'll walk right up and board immediately with no wait at all. Like boarding the People Mover with no line at all.

It's even better than seeing a line of full cars departing the stations, since that means there's a line waiting to board that's keeping every car full. Like waiting on the ramp to the People Mover.

Even with a line, you know its going to steadily go down and not go 15-60 minutes without progress.

 

[flynnibus]

How is there unbalanced load?

There can be a pool of empty cabins ready to insert as needed for when a cabin needs to go down the line and there is not a transfer incoming.

All issues easily resolved with a computer controlled system.

No - for the same reason you get traffic jams at rush hours.

There is an unbalanced load because the demand for each route is not balanced vs the other paths. The demand is also time sensitive making it even more difficult.

The issue isn't nearly as much about 'needing a cabin', it's about 'needing SPACE' for a cabin to transfer. Without space... you have to hold that cabin... which risks cascading... so to solve that you must run your lines at less than full capacity (reducing efficiency). The more unbalanced in terms of volume and demand the two lines get... the bigger the problem gets. The problem is congestion due to unbalanced demand on the routes. (just like most road traffic issues)

The solution to such a problem is you don't run the line at full density... so that vehicles can move in.. and you hope (or force) space to open by forcing vehicles OFF that path for their next trip. But when everyone is trying to goto the same place (like a MK..) you can't avoid the problem and your lines become congested... and then you risk cascading as more cabins want in on the line. But if you reach a cascade point.. you must stop the feeder line or prevent a transfer. And here is the problem for a cable system. If you stop a line, you can't use that line to REMOVE a cabin from the line that is full. So you reach a stalemate. To fix that problem, you have to keep the line moving.. which means either sending cabins back to where they came, or building even more alternate paths.. which still has the same problem eventually.

This is the fundamental issue with the idea of a on-demand route with a system that has shared propulsion.

Switching allows a greater UTILIZATION of vehicles in service, it does not increase capacity.. in fact it greatly HURTS it. (and why traffic moves so less efficiently on non-limited access roads).

Switching allows a guest to not transfer... but at the cost of greatly reducing overall capacity of the system, making it far more complex and at risk for failure. If your goal is to move as many people as quickly as possible. The far better solution is to have extremely efficient lines that move the most people possible and at steady paces that are in agreement with each other so that you don't get backups at transfer points.

To keep it simple... you can't have one line that eats 100 people... being fed by multiple other lines feeding 100 people into it and not have the system cascade.

No matter how many roads you build... you will still find your most in demand road backed up.

 

[mmascari]

To keep it simple... you can't have one line that eats 100 people... being fed by multiple other lines feeding 100 people into it and not have the system cascade.

As an example of this, think of this worst case scenario and how it will play out.

EPCOT is still closed.
DHS is open early and Star Wars is open too.
All DRR guests boarding headed to DHS.
All POP/AOA guests boarding headed to DHS.
All of CBR walking to station, headed to DHS.

In this scenario, 2 lines will be dumping guests into the CBR hub, plus guests are coming through security into the CBR hub. All guests want to leave through the single line to DHS.

At this point, there is going to be a backup of guests and the queue to head out on the DHS line is going to grow. The good news is, the queue is just people standing around not gondolas stacking up somewhere.

To make the line feel less of an issue, and avoid having to many people standing there, they will probably slow down the POP/AOA and the CBR/EPCOT lines. This will limit how fast those 2 lines can dump people into the queue. The security screening at the station will limit how fast CBR guests can arrive. With the CBR/DHS line running at maximum speed to process as fast as possible.


If this was all gondolas making automatic transfers between lines, there would need to be a huge holding area for the gondolas stacking up waiting to go to DHS, as they take up more space than people standing around. ALSO, there would need to be a huge holding area for cars coming back from DHS to feed into the other lines so they don't run out of cars. The holding areas would need to be large enough to absorb and buffer long enough for all the lines to equal back out, otherwise it would all lock up and freeze. All much much more complicated than just having the people get off and walk to the new car, creating a disconnect between the lines. Just like people moving from the MK Monorail loop to the EPCOT Monorail loop disconnects how those 2 loops schedule trains.

 

[truecoat]

Whose willing to bet unless you stay at one of the homes resorts it will be a a $10 fee? Lol

It'll be much more than that but you'll only see it as increased room rates and not separate.

 

[mm121]

A lot of people seem to really miss this point...a bus can transport 50ish people at a time and require a massive amount of time on the road, where people aren't moving at either end. The gondola will be much more efficient at moving people before you get to the costs...

Outside the cost of the buses, you have gas, driver pay, dispatcher pay, maintenance on a fleet, etc...The fleet of buses cost a ton for each resort. Cutting bus from CBR/POP/Animation will be a huge cost ongoing savings. You need one or two staff at each platform, maintenance and a massive reduction in fuel costs. In the end, it will also reduce wait times for transport (both at the depot and en rote), so you get more satisfied customers.

the platforms will need more than one or two staff, as the stations will also have security stations

 

[Clamman73]

I don't know if someone posted this about Pop gondola construction email warning. Got this today for my end of October stay.

 

[disney4life2008]

Something about this system bothers me heavily. The monorail, boats, busses are controlled each by a living person, correct?

This spells disaster to me. But hey who am I.

 

[danlb_2000]

Something about this system bothers me heavily. The monorail, boats, busses are controlled each by a living person, correct?

This spells disaster to me. But hey who am I.

Not sure what you are getting at. A gondola system is controlled by a live human being also, they can stop, slow or restart the line as needed, that is the only control that is needed. As for the monorails they aren't, or at least won't be soon, controlled by a human anymore.

 

[peter11435]

Something about this system bothers me heavily. The monorail, boats, busses are controlled each by a living person, correct?

This spells disaster to me. But hey who am I.

How is this different from any of the many attractions on property whose individual vehicles do not have a living person controlling each one. I'm really not sure what type of disaster you foresee here.

 

[disney4life2008]

Not sure what you are getting at. A gondola system is controlled by a live human being also, they can stop, slow or restart the line as needed, that is the only control that is needed. As for the monorails they aren't, or at least won't be soon, controlled by a human anymore.

I know about the monorail. Something about the gondola rubs me the wrong way. But I am excited to see it

 

[jaklgreen]

I know about the monorail. Something about the gondola rubs me the wrong way. But I am excited to see it

Maybe it's the being suspended in mid air and falling to your death factor that doesn't sit well.

 

[disney4life2008]

How is this different from any of the many attractions on property whose individual vehicles do not have a living person controlling each one. I'm really not sure what type of disaster you foresee here.

LOL exactly. Yet people still out their hands in water on rides or stand up on the tomorrowland ride. I'm not crazy

 

[disney4life2008]

Maybe it's the being suspended in mid air and falling to your death factor that doesn't sit well.

Exactly lol

 

[danlb_2000]

I know about the monorail. Something about the gondola rubs me the wrong way. But I am excited to see it

Not sure why you we be bothered by them. It's a tried and true technology that has been used for decades all over the world with relatively few accidents.

 

[peter11435]

LOL exactly. Yet people still out their hands in water on rides or stand up on the tomorrowland ride. I'm not crazy

Guests will be completely enclosed in the gondola cabin just as they are in a monorail cabin. Monorails have pilots in the cab but the six passenger compartments have no human supervision.

 

[BlindChow]

Something about this system bothers me heavily. The monorail, boats, busses are controlled each by a living person, correct?

This spells disaster to me. But hey who am I.

Exactly! We all remember what happened the LAST time one of Disney's transports was controlled by a machine...

 

[TiggerDad]

Something about this system bothers me heavily. The monorail, boats, busses are controlled each by a living person, correct?

This spells disaster to me. But hey who am I.

I'm guessing you're someone who doesn't ride Peter Pan.

 

[Laketravis]

Something about this system bothers me heavily. The monorail, boats, busses are controlled each by a living person, correct?

This spells disaster to me. But hey who am I.

My bet is you're more at risk of an accident traveling to / from WDW.

 

[flynnibus]

Something about this system bothers me heavily. The monorail, boats, busses are controlled each by a living person, correct?

This spells disaster to me. But hey who am I.

It's actually the opposite of concern here.. it's better. You have one system to control instead of dozens of individuals. A single system ran by one person is inherently less risky than dozens of humans running dozens of systems in the same space.