PHOTOS - New monorail track spur nears completion

[JungleTrekFan]

It is mentioned that prts can go between 25 and 40 mph. If disney could have their prt models maintain that speed while fitting 6 - 8 people, it would be an ideal option to compliment existing options.

Yeah but when you have 8 person vehicles and most of the parties are not that large, you get a 1/2 filled vehicle which makes for innefficiency. 4 people per vehicle would allow small families to travel together and large groups could just use more than one vehicle.

 

[MarkTwain]

It isn't even about making money, it really is just about doing something practical. Monorails are insanely exensive and there is really no business model that would make an expansion anything more than just a money vaccuum. This isn't exclusive to Disney either, which is why you don't see every major city with a monorail system. Las Vegas tried it, and it is a disaster. No one rides the monorail because they had to charge a lot in order to just keep up with the costs of maintaining it. It was forced into bankruptcy last year because people are still taking cabs to get where they need to go. Then take the entire scenario of a breakdown or power outage crippling the system at any given time and you have even more to worry about. Buses might not be magical, but they are practical and offer the most efficient transportation for an area the size of WDW. I don't blame Disney one bit for continuing to use them.

We see a lot of threads like this come up on the forums. However, I never really see a reason besides for aesthetics that people ever want to change the transportation system. Monorails and Peoplemovers would look a lot cooler and would probably be more fun than a bus, but I would rather the hundreds of millions of dollars it might take for that be used in the parks where I spend the majority of my time.

Are they that expensive to operate, though? I thought the bulk of expense with monorails came with the initial construction, while the operation was relatively cheap... or at least comparable to a city bus.

I think lite-rail would be an interesting solution, though.

 

[Pioneer Hall]

Are they that expensive to operate, though? I thought the bulk of expense with monorails came with the initial construction, while the operation was relatively cheap... or at least comparable to a city bus.

I think lite-rail would be an interesting solution, though.

Even if the monorails aren't that expensive to operate, the initial building cost in itself far exceeds hundreds of buses. Then in a situation like Disney they have no way to recoup that cost unless they add it into the resort cost. People already complain about the cost of a hotel room on property...imagine how much the added cost would be if they had to try and make back money spent on a monorail system.

 

[rpk4444]

Maybe Monorail number 12 will come back when the spurs is finally used.

 

[Rob562]

Even if the monorails aren't that expensive to operate, the initial building cost in itself far exceeds hundreds of buses. Then in a situation like Disney they have no way to recoup that cost unless they add it into the resort cost. People already complain about the cost of a hotel room on property...imagine how much the added cost would be if they had to try and make back money spent on a monorail system.

But there are savings over time in getting rid of the buses. The problem boils down to finding a transportation solution that a) they're willing to shell out $xxx millions of dollars up-front, thereby eliminating the buses and saving $y millions of dollars a year in fuel, driver and insurance costs. The sticking factor becomes how many years of saving $y does it take to equal the $xxx outlay? And at what length will the people in charge decide that yes, that is now a good investment.

It's similar to a private high school in my area that built a large wind turbine. Sure, it was a few million dollars to build (minus some state and federal grant money), but their electricity is now "free". In 8 or 9 years they'll have saved the equivalent electricity cost to equal the construction price of the turbine. After that, the electricity truly will be free (until the end of the turbine's life, when it'll have to be replaced in 25-30 years, but at lower cost than initial construction, at which point the pay-then-save-until-break-even cycle begins again).

Then there's Disney's corporate partners. Siemens has a transportation division that includes light rail. I'd bet that somewhere in their R&D department they've also explored PRT systems. What if Siemens footed the bill for part of it, and then used WDW as a testing ground and real-world demonstration of their technology? (Can anyone say original EPCOT?)

-Rob

 

[flavious27]

Yeah but when you have 8 person vehicles and most of the parties are not that large, you get a 1/2 filled vehicle which makes for innefficiency. 4 people per vehicle would allow small families to travel together and large groups could just use more than one vehicle.

Yes it will be inefficient to have 1/2 filled vehicles, but disney would need to run vehicles that hold more than 4 people to keep the system flowing. Disney could have 4 and 8 person vehicles running in the same system, with the 8 person vehicles being disabled during off peak times.

 

[Admiral01]

The wait from epcot to ttc did not have anything to do with not having the 12th train in service it had to with how many monorails were running on the epcot beam 3 or 4. They never have more than 4 on the epcot beam at once.

I realize that each line doesn't get more than 4 trains at the same time. But, I disagree with the reasoning for the wait and that the missing 12th train has nothing to do with it. The EPCOT line had 2 monorails at that point in time that day. TRONorail was off the system at that time for some reason. So, Express had 4, Resort had 4, EPCOT had 2. With #12 back in service that could have raised the EPCOT line to 3 trains, thus reducing the wait. Later on in the day EPCOT had 3 trains, Express 3, and Resort 4. That 12th trains makes a difference, especially when a monorail is pulled for maintenance.

 

[flavious27]

But there are savings over time in getting rid of the buses. The problem boils down to finding a transportation solution that a) they're willing to shell out $xxx millions of dollars up-front, thereby eliminating the buses and saving $y millions of dollars a year in fuel, driver and insurance costs. The sticking factor becomes how many years of saving $y does it take to equal the $xxx outlay? And at what length will the people in charge decide that yes, that is now a good investment.

It's similar to a private high school in my area that built a large wind turbine. Sure, it was a few million dollars to build (minus some state and federal grant money), but their electricity is now "free". In 8 or 9 years they'll have saved the equivalent electricity cost to equal the construction price of the turbine. After that, the electricity truly will be free (until the end of the turbine's life, when it'll have to be replaced in 25-30 years, but at lower cost than initial construction, at which point the pay-then-save-until-break-even cycle begins again).

Then there's Disney's corporate partners. Siemens has a transportation division that includes light rail. I'd bet that somewhere in their R&D department they've also explored PRT systems. What if Siemens footed the bill for part of it, and then used WDW as a testing ground and real-world demonstration of their technology? (Can anyone say original EPCOT?)

-Rob

I think that the future of disney transportation will be a mix of different modes of transit. There still will be buses, but Disney can work with Volvo to replace their current fleet with bio-diesel hybrids.

 

[Admiral01]

Nobody has mentioned about the fire evacuation on the monorail. Read the procedures they are crazy and if you are in a wheelchair forget it. Your suppose to get out of the roof climb down the front of the monorail to the beam or into another section of the monorail. It is this sole reason I think the monorail will never be expanded. Just as there will never be any more none ADA compliant rides built ever again.

Granted the WDW monorail system (and DL monorail system) don't have a good escape process, but current design of the monorail track (and regulations, I believe) for use in transit systems does have a walkway along side the monorail tracks. If you look at the Las Vegas monorail tracks, you can see the escape walkway running alongside the tracks. When the track is close together, a single walkway runs down the middle of the track. When they are separate each beam has it's own.

http://world.nycsubway.org/us/lasvegas/

So, there is a way to make escape plans easier.