Upgrades and Improvements to Disney Transport

[Monorail Mike]

The story of how the current tram tractors came to be is really fascinating. You can read Bob Gurr's article here...

http://micechat.com/28474-design-those-were-the-times-no-11-1969-walt-disney-world-tram-design/

 

[tissandtully]

Any idea what they did to them to make them quieter?

 

[Monorail_Red_77]

It's not the turbocharger it's the straight pipe with no muffler, The Disney tram motors are modified airport tugs. The turbo is the high pitched whine on acceleration.

I've seen video on youtube of some MK soft opening videos where there were actual airport tugs used. The one I saw it was like a baby blue and white color. Weird looking for sure compared to todays version.

 

[DisneyJeff]

Ah yes, the Walt Disney World bus system. It's like a Highway in the Sky, except on the ground, because it's cheaper!!

 

[Monorail_Red_77]

It's not the turbocharger it's the straight pipe with no muffler, The Disney tram motors are modified airport tugs. The turbo is the high pitched whine on acceleration.

I'm sure it doesn't help that the trans gearing or governing is set so that the driver has to practically floor it to get those things to do 12 mph.

 

[Monorail_Red_77]

Ah yes, the Walt Disney World bus system. It's like a Highway in the Sky, except on the ground, because it's cheaper!!

I'd hate to think of how WDW would have turned out if the current management was in charge back then. Probably would have ended up with something that makes Six Flags look like Disney. I hope we get management in place soon that actually cares about WDW and is willing to make the investments to make it better than it is today. I know people don't much like monorails due to their costs. But I say add more monorails for the larger connections between all parks, springs, resort clusters. Then add peoplemovers between individual resorts and those monorail stations at the resort cluster areas. Heck, even increasing the water transport options would go a long way in improving things. Though they'd have to pick up a little bit more speed so it doesn't take 45 mins between parks (I'm looking at you guys EPCOT & DHS).
Rant Over.
Drops Mic.
Logs off.........

 

[COProgressFan]

For the guest experience, it makes no difference is there is a driver or not. The monorail still breaks down every day, and the guest cabins are in appalling condition.

This times a thousand.

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

Adding more buses to help alleviate this will end up creating more traffic and less bang for the buck for guests.
What you are saying honestly feels like great justification for an expansion in the Monorail system. I would expect that they could recoup all of their expansion investment between 2020 and 2030 easily.

By expansion, I mean connecting all 4 parks, Springs and Water parks plus maybe 14 new trains at a minimum. If that costs $1b, it feels like they could make that back and then some in that 10 year period, assuming guest attendance jumps because of the additions.

It's a fun dream, but monorail expansion will never happen. Good news is that there are a myriad of other options, like dedicated bus lanes, bus route overhauls/consolidation, bus-rapid transit, light rail, street-car, tramways, PRT, people movers, new waterways/watercraft, or something else I haven't listed. Point is, Disney really needs to do better than new paint and costumes. They need to put the (rumored) resort and parking fees to good use.

The current system of direct bus routes from point A to point B, with a vague commitment to having arrivals every 20 minutes, is wildly inefficient and increasingly inadequate (we all have our horror stories). The resort has become too big, with too many destinations, and too many guests, for such a model to be sufficient. When you're putting disclaimers on dining reservations saying "allow up to 1.5 hours travel time" when using Disney transportation, there is something wrong with your transportation system.

 

[DisneyJeff]

Though they'd have to pick up a little bit more speed so it doesn't take 45 mins between parks (I'm looking at you guys EPCOT & DHS).

Yeah, when you pass two boats while casually walking between EPCOT and DHS, you know that your transportation isn't the most efficient system.

 

[MrPromey]

I would love to see: Total cost of new bus investment since inception + Bus maintenance costs since inception vs total cost of monorail investment + monorail maintenance. The bus investment can be all buses that mirror routes that the monorail takes. This is just out of curiosity. I know everyone is going to say hands down the buses are cheaper because of the lower start up costs, but they do replace them pretty frequently. I just have to believe the cost isn't as low as people think. Remember gas wasn't cheap for a few years there.

I will always advocate for new monorails. It is a direct connection to Walt Disney's imagination of the future. The buses... not so much.

I can't give you numbers but if the Monorail was currently cheap to maintain and operate, you can be sure that TDO would be shutting down the ferry boats to and from the Magic Kingdom in the middle of the day to reduce costs rather than the express monorail line. Instead, they've been doing significant work in recent years to increase capacity with the setup of a new dock and completely reworking the loading side at the Magic Kingdom.

Seriously, as cool as Monorails are, they are not the answer. They can't be re-routed, can't handle surge traffic and cannot be easily modified to handle changes to paths or traffic patterns over time. You'll see Disney dig trenches and add more boats before you see them adding more monorail lines and I don't see them adding more boats anytime, soon, either.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Saw the new-ish changes, like "Charmed to meet you!", "Ready for your closeup?", "Welcome Race Fans", etc. on the buses 2 weekends ago. Not impressed. In fact, we thought they were rather annoying. The dull, drab announcer on the bus is just dreadful. He could not sound more monotonous or boring.

And... where did the "You're getting close to the park" music go???

I said this one other time - If they ever get rid of the monorail, I'm done going to WDW. Period. It is THAT integral to the experience to me.

 

[larryz]

I think anyone who discusses monorail expansion should be banned on the first offense.

Is that you, Doc?

 

[DABIGCHEEZ]

Anything about the new distance based pricing structure for the Tram ride from parking lot to park entrance?

 

[roj2323]

The story of how the current tram tractors came to be is really fascinating. You can read Bob Gurr's article here...

http://micechat.com/28474-design-those-were-the-times-no-11-1969-walt-disney-world-tram-design/

Thanks for posting this. It was a really interesting read.

 

[Monorail_Red_77]

Here a screen grab from a retro Disney video in 1971 showing the parking trams driving on world drive around seven seas lagoon. For a short time they used actual airport tugs. You can see that in the pic below. Quick notations on pic show the trams passing each other with contemporary in background.

As a side note. I found some B-Roll from EPCOT circa 1986-1994 showing the generation of trams right before the ones we have now and they seemed to be quicker and quieter than our current generation. (you know the orange and brown ones)

 

[Andrew C]

Here a screen grab from a retro Disney video in 1971 showing the parking trams driving on world drive around seven seas lagoon. For a short time they used actual airport tugs. You can see that in the pic below. Quick notations on pic show the trams passing each other with contemporary in background.

View attachment 187601

They drove from TTC all the way around to the front gates of MK?

 

[aladdin2007]

Yeah, when you pass two boats while casually walking between EPCOT and DHS, you know that your transportation isn't the most efficient system.

I love that walk, well not in the summer lol, but yeah quicker than the boats for sure.

 

[Monorail_Red_77]

They drove from TTC all the way around to the front gates of MK?

Yes, they did this for a short time since the ferry boats could not keep up with demand. I think it was right before all of the monorails came on line. So maybe first month or so. Or I could have this backwards. I think it was also mentioned in Bob Gurr's video as well. So the tractors were designed to pull the trams up the 6% grade on the water bridge by Contemp. Initially they could not do this very well and would overheat regularly. This is why the design has not changed much from the orange/brown trams to current purple/white ones.

 

[Monorail_Red_77]

They drove from TTC all the way around to the front gates of MK?

Here's where they would pickup guests at TTC. Afterwards this was used for Disney Busses before the upgrades to MK bus area. Now it is used for taxi and charter bus area mostly. Maybe some CM transport as well. This road is called topiary lane and used to have plant topiaries all along it.

 

[Monorail_Red_77]

I heard from a bus driver that they were going to be getting these next year to pull the parking trams. They were going to be able to get you from park to park in about 10 minutes. TDO is getting pretty bold. LOL