Another monorail failure - Do you still trust it?

[Guest]

Originally Posted by DJSwitch

I noticed that the Disney World monorail failed again the other night with reports of up to 100 guests stuck on it after it lost power shortly after leaving the TTC. They were apparently rescued by cherry-pickers two at a time.

mynews13/fl/orlando/...norail-stalls#

Given this is only the most recent incident do you still trust the monorail?

For the first time I'm genuinely unsure if I want to ride it now as what happened in the above story would create a very bad scene in my party with autistic members.

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We were at the MK After Dark event on Thursday night, we finally got on a bus at about midnight (after a very long wait) and there were dozens or emergency vehicles in the area.

We stayed at a monorail resort once and were quickly disillusioned with it. I don’t think it has ever broken down on us but we found it very slow. We were on it the other day and our carriage had no air conditioning.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Gill H

I heard that it is too expensive to renew the monorail - something crazy like several million dollars per car. So the hope is that the skyliner will take pressure off the monorail so it won’t break down as much. The skyliner was much cheaper than refurbing the monorail apparently!

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Each car of the monorail trains costs roughly $2.5 million each. To replace the full fleet of 12 monorails, each of which has 6 cars, would thus cost around $180 million.

I’m not sure why the Skyliner would take the pressure off the monorail. The two go to different places - the monorail goes from MK to the TTC to Epcot whereas the Skyliner goes from Epcot to CBR to HS. The Skyliner doesn’t replace the monorail.

[YorkshireT]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

This article probably best summarises what I was trying to write above:
wdwnt/2018/11/rumor-walt...fety-concerns/

Together with the recently refurbed silver monorail, I think it looks like we aren’t getting new monorails for several years.

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Mmmm... I thought it had all gone quiet on that front.

How the heck does a single car on the monorail cost 2.5m? I am not disputing it does, it just amazes me it would be so much.

[blusteryday]

Originally Posted by YorkshireT

Mmmm... I thought it had all gone quiet on that front.

How the heck does a single car on the monorail cost 2.5m? I am not disputing it does, it just amazes me it would be so much.

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They're pretty much custom made, surely?

[chmurf]

well, I'm not that much concerned about a monorail breaking down
roller coaster break down, planes break down, and if you wan' t to think along the lines of "what if ... " then you may never want to get out of your home again ..

and ... even then ... in the US over 250.000 end up in the ER, each year, for injuries sustained in a bathroom ... 14% of which end up needing to be hospitalised ...

monorail's still safer :p :p :p

Originally Posted by YorkshireT

How the heck does a single car on the monorail cost 2.5m? I am not disputing it does, it just amazes me it would be so much.

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for perspective, when New York replaced their subway cars, 10 years ago, each car was over $2 million a piece.

[monique]

Originally Posted by amy56

I do hope they replace rather than remove though - ‘Por favor mantengese alejado de las puertas’ is literallymy favourite phrase in the whole world and it brings a smile every time I hear it! 🙂

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Same! We always feel we’ve arrived at Disney once we hear those phrases on the monorail! Even our 14 year old says this... 🤣👍🏻 ...

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by YorkshireT

Mmmm... I thought it had all gone quiet on that front.

How the heck does a single car on the monorail cost 2.5m? I am not disputing it does, it just amazes me it would be so much.

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It does seem a lot at first glance but I'm not surprised at the price.

(I once worked on a small contract to make one bespoke electrical cable - about 3m long - plus documentation. That cable cost something crazy - about £100K, I think).

[7SeasSailor]

Why not trust it? All modes of transport break down at some stage its just that some attract more attention than others.

[thingy003]

I'll be gutted if they ever replace the monorail. I first went to WDW 40 years ago and for a 4 year old boy the monorail was the most futuristic and fantastic mode of travel that I had ever seen. My wife and kids think I am mental though so we only really get the ferry now.

more places should have monorails in my humble opinion.

[blusteryday]

Originally Posted by 7SeasSailor

Why not trust it? All modes of transport break down at some stage its just that some attract more attention than others.

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There's breakdowns, and there's "what-in-the-name-of-all-that's-holy-is-going-on-here" breakdowns:

Admittedly the above incident was last year, and thankfully a one off, but... jeeez.

Full story and video here: travelandleisure/tra...rail-open-door