What is going on with the WDW monorails?

[qscott86]

As someone who has visited WDW a number of times over the years (most notably 90's and early 2000's), I have very fond memories of the WDW monorail system. That said, I've visited a few times recently (now that I live much closer) and I have to say the monorail trains are really showing their age. No matter how much "refurbishment" they do, the interior of the trains look ragged and run down. In some cases, air conditioning doesn't work and the last several times I've noticed they barely even play the monorail spiels anymore or have them turned way down (which is a big let down) -- sometimes not even the "please stand clear of the doors" announcement. Not to mention they scaled down the content of the spiels significantly over the past several years.

I would think after 30 years in operation (for the Mark VI trains), they'd be considering a serious modernization of the system, but seems they are just focused on trying to spruce up the trains and pretending that a certain silly, inefficient, impractical ski-lift-like "transportation system" makes any sense.

 

[freediverdude]

I agree that since the current trains are from the early 90s, that it is time to upgrade, although I'm not sure that company is still in business. And since it's a proprietary track and monorail system, they might be looking at prohibitively expensive to replace. But I'm not the expert on this part of WDW. I think they have been putting it off though, because the cost is very high. I also suspect that is part of the reason for building the new walkway from GF, is that someday they may be faced with taking down the monorail. It won't be anytime soon, but I could see it happening 10 years down the road. I still miss hearing the original authoritative sounding "Please stand CLEAR, of the doors. Por favor, mantengase se alejado de las puertas!"

 

[wlodge_man]

Well with the acquisition of Bombardier Transportation (who made the Mark VI monorail cars) by Alstom at the beginning of 2021, not sure how this will impact any talks of alleged upgrades of WDW's monorail cars. They need to get this done sooner rather than later IMHO.