Verdict is in! Monorail expansion is $100 million per mile

[Mongomil]

Ya because the first ones that were built were to expensive? I think they have paid for them selves with the satisfaction and shuttling of customers. To dwell on the cost of it at the moment is silly. What will it bring to the establishment for the future? Again to worry about the profits of today to sacrifice them for tomorrow. As long as I can make my 100 billion today who cares about next year?

 

[BrianV]

That's wicked cheap compared to light rail. The 4 mile green-line expansion in Boston has a price tag of 3 billion dollars. Of course that includes new stations and government contracts, etc.

You have to look at the project as a whole including the location. Obviously these comparison of Boston to wdw is weak.

 

[harryk]

That's wicked cheap compared to light rail. The 4 mile green-line expansion in Boston has a price tag of 3 billion dollars. Of course that includes new stations and government contracts, etc.

You have to look at the project as a whole including the location. Obviously these comparison of Boston to wdw is weak.

Of course Boston must price every contract based on union scale - it is a requirement in all state/government contracts. Doubt if WDW is subject to such requirements when sending contracts out for bid. The monorails should cost no more than one million per mile, if that much at all. You can be sure all the designs and plans were done years ago - now it is just coming up with the will to do the work.

 

[marni1971]

It's time now to end years of debate and speculation concerning the cost of monorail expansion. Las Vegas recently received approval to expand its monorail system a mile south at an estimated cost of $100 milion. Since the WDW monorail uses the same system as Las Vegas, we now have an answer as to how much the cost of expansion could be!

http://m.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/rtc-examine-proposal-extend-monorail

No verdict. Nothing proved, professor.

Costs and economies of scale would vary greatly. It certainly wouldn't be ten dollars a mile but the cost would plummet per mile for a bigger expansion.

 

[P_Radden]

It was interesting that when we stayed at AKL back in 2004, a cast member explained/illustrated for us how the main building was actually designed to have a monorail station, but then said it was too expensive to build.

I wonder if any other resorts were designed to have a monorail station but then had the idea dropped.

It seems to me that if Disney can build parks around the world, then they could afford to expand the Florida monorail system if they only wanted to.

I've never heard of an AKL monorail station concept. LOLOLOLOLOL!

 

[copcarguyp71]

sooo...300 million for My Monorail Plus per mile then?

 

[montyz81]

It's a shame they didn't keep them as it was the closest to anything Disney in the Desert...

And now they sit to rot and get tagged...

I think those monorails have long since been crushed. There is no trace of them anywhere. Those pictures were taken some 10 or so years ago.

 

[thomas998]

This gives us an idea of the cost, but there are a lot of factors that would influence this number.

1. The Vegas price includes 1 station and 2 trains in the $100 million.
2. The article points out that this is just an estimate and might change when the design is complete.
3. The article doesn't mention if that price include the purchase of rights of way which wouldn't be an issue at WDW.
4. Construction costs on Florida's soil conditions may be higher then building in Nevada.

I have to think the biggest cost for the Vegas line is the right of way.... I worked for a pipeline company in the past and if you were putting one in that went through an urban area the cost per mile could skewed off the charts for the cost of right of way.... Every time a landowner would see a pipeline was coming through their property would suddenly become much more valuable than it was before and often times you don't push to hard because the litigation and time in court can be much more expensive than just paying the inflated price to make the landowner go away.

I would expect Disney's cost would be much lower per mile and the station prices would be nominal because they would likely be nothing more than expansions of expected or existing areas in a park or resort that would probably only be undertaken when they were either being built or refurbed.

 

[networkpro]

That does seem to cement the argument alright! No way that was just a coincidence.

Only thing it points to is that cement will be involved.

 

[chiefs11]

Recently in another thread someone was trying to argue that Bombardier wouldn't build the Innovia 200 trains anymore, or wouldn't manufacture such a small number of them, so there was no way WDW would ever get new trains. I think this news puts that to rest at least, since they're going to be purchasing 2 of them for this expansion.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

Recently in another thread someone was trying to argue that Bombardier wouldn't build the Innovia 200 trains anymore, or wouldn't manufacture such a small number of them, so there was no way WDW would ever get new trains. I think this news puts that to rest at least, since they're going to be purchasing 2 of them for this expansion.

No one in this thread mentioned WDW actually is getting a monorail expansion. The op in this thread pointed to an article about the Las Vegas Monorail and tried to connect to WDW by mentioning the costs.

The problem is the article has no connection to WDW getting a monorail expansion at all. It mentioned about a Las Vegas Monorail connection.

 

[chiefs11]

No one in this thread mentioned WDW actually is getting a monorail expansion. The op in this thread pointed to an article about the Las Vegas Monorail and tried to connect to WDW by mentioning the costs.

The problem is the article has no connection to WDW getting a monorail expansion at all. It mentioned about a Las Vegas Monorail connection.

I'm sorry... what was your point? I'm well aware of what the OP was trying to get at.

My point is that the one bit of (WDW related) news you can take from this is that it puts to rest the theory that WDW won't ever get new monorail trains because Bombardier wouldn't want to build them, which was ridiculous anyway.

I didn't mention anything about expansion, I'm referring to replacing the worn out trains currently in service.

 

[orky8]

This is actually interesting, though it unfortunately gives us no insight into the "per mile" cost, it does tell us you can get a new station, 2 new trains, and a mile of track for (only) $100M. To get from Epcot to DHS would only require about 1.5 miles of rail. At $100M, or even let's say $200M, for 4 new trains and the extra rail, that's actually less than I would have expected. To get to AK, would require another 2.5 miles of rail, another station, and probably 2-4 more trains. But, still, just spitballing here, looks like about $500M. Seems reasonable and a good use of funds to me. It's unfortunate it will never happen under the current leadership.

 

[SteveAZee]

Rock solid.

Now we're just aggregating jokes.

 

[Progress.City]

No verdict. Nothing proved, professor.

Costs and economies of scale would vary greatly. It certainly wouldn't be ten dollars a mile but the cost would plummet per mile for a bigger expansion.

But we have a rough idea now. A mile expansion from EPCOT wouldn't require new trains, so that's one less expense. Add the swamp land that would need to be reconditioned and the price goes up and still comes out to roughly $100 million/mile.

 

[Hakunamatata]

But we have a rough idea now. A mile expansion from EPCOT wouldn't require new trains, so that's one less expense. Add the swamp land that would need to be reconditioned and the price goes about and still comes out to roughly $100 million/mile.

Based on what?

 

[Goofyernmost]

Of all the useless conversations we tend to have around here, this one has to be the most useless. Why do we argue about what the cost might be? Armed with that information are we going to picket the place to have them build more Monorail track or are we going to decide that since Disney is unwilling to spend 100mil per mile, that it is not being done just because they are to cheap to spend massive amounts of money on something that isn't really needed? We have an operating Monorail system that is far more in need of new trains then any added length to the track, which will do nothing about upgrading the trains themselves.

As far as the OP, and believe me it hurts to back him up, what he did was tell us what Vegas is spending, which is fine, but to say that it answers any question other then how much Vegas paid for it, is quite a stretch. Everyone just needs to get over it, if Disney had any intention of expanding it here, now, in 2016 there is no indication that they are even thinking about it, much less getting ready to ask the BoD for the money. No matter when or if, it had been talked about decades ago means absolutely nothing, with or without "hidden" footings.

 

[Progress.City]

Of all the useless conversations we tend to have around here, this one has to be the most useless. Why do we argue about what the cost might be? Armed with that information are we going to picket the place to have them build more Monorail track or are we going to decide that since Disney is unwilling to spend 100mil per mile, that it is not being done just because they are to cheap to spend massive amounts of money on something that isn't really needed? We have an operating Monorail system that is far more in need of new trains then any added length to the track, which will do nothing about upgrading the trains themselves.

As far as the OP, and believe me it hurts to back him up, what he did was tell us what Vegas is spending, which is fine, but to say that it answers any question other then how much Vegas paid for it, is quite a stretch. Everyone just needs to get over it, if Disney had any intention of expanding it here, now, in 2016 there is no indication that they are even thinking about it, much less getting ready to ask the BoD for the money. No matter when or if, it had been talked about decades ago means absolutely nothing, with or without "hidden" footings.

No. I just hope you guys will be less of a Disney apologetic and more of a true Disney fan and stop settling for whatever cheap crap the company has been pushing on us. If Disney doesn't deliver, Comcast will.

 

[trr1]

$1,000,000 per mile is the estimate cost to build the monorail system back in the 1970's cost. found here I believe that was just the track and no stations or trains themselves adjusted for inflation $1,000,000 in 1970 equals $6,273,872.68 in 2016. found here

 

[Progress.City]

I'm sorry... what was your point? I'm well aware of what the OP was trying to get at.

My point is that the one bit of (WDW related) news you can take from this is that it puts to rest the theory that WDW won't ever get new monorail trains because Bombardier wouldn't want to build them, which was ridiculous anyway.

I didn't mention anything about expansion, I'm referring to replacing the worn out trains currently in service.

The extent that these Disney apologetics on these boards go through to defend the company's lame excuses for being less Disney probably has Walt turning in his grave. The only reason why the system hasn't been expanded is because the managers lack vision and are only concerned about short term gains.