Subsonic Radio

Over the past week rumors have been flying about a small expansion to WDW's monorail system. Reports are stating that a new switch and 62 foot long spur line would be built on the EPCOT line near the TTC. Rumors have it that a maintenance tractor and extra monorail would be kept on this line during the day. The monorail would be able to quickly enter service if needed or if one of the other monorails goes down. Reports state that it would be a centralized location to allow quicker responses to any issues with the monorails. This would be the first expansion to the system since 1982.

http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/News. ... acca-49575
http://thedailydisney.com/blog/2010/07/ ... expansion/

In my opinion, it will be nice to have a work/tow tractor near the TTC and readily available to the EPCOT line. It will be interesting to see this built. I also wonder if this will once again start the rumors going for the big expansion that was talked about in the late 90's.

The only reason I think Disney would do the big expansion would be if Florida built the High speed rail with a stop at WDW. If that happened I see Disney extending the monorail to the station.

I wonder how much it will cost to add these 62 feet of track.

I think costs will most likely get leaked once the construction starts. I doubt it will be too much, but it won't be cheap.

Can you imagine the attendance increase if Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom become monorail stops?

DIAC1987 wrote:Can you imagine the attendance increase if Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom become monorail stops?

The hair on my neck stood up just reading that...
Total Monorail coverage would be so awesome--but it would also be totally expensive!

Can't see it happening, but what a thought!!

The only downside to having the monorail stop at DHS is that it would either need to run from the TTC...which is a bit of a trek...or be another stop from Epcot before heading back to the TTC. What this essentially does is add more traffic to the monorail going to Epcot. It also means it would take longer to get to DHS because you would have to stop at Epcot first. Another problem is figuring out where you would drop guests off at DHS. It's not the best park entrance in terms of having the space to build a platform and station. The other scenario means that if you wanted to go from Epcot to DHS via the monorail...you would have to go all the way back to the TTC...switch lines...and then go all the way back over to DHS. The buses would be much, much faster.

"World-wide" monorails sounds good on paper...but would never really work given the existing infrastructure.

I wish the monorail went to DHS and especially to Animal Kingdom, now that would be some expansion worth while.

Hard to really call it an "expansion" when it sounds like a spur line. The basic transportation routes are unchanged. It's only an "expansion" in the sense when measuring the over-all length of track and that's a stretch.

When I was living in Orlando, there were rumors and talks about running a line to OIA from WDW. But nothing ever came from it. It is actually a fairly decent drive from WDW to the airport. It could follow the 418, which goes from OIA to Disney, but still I would guess it is about 15-20 miles if I had to hazzard a guess.

I can only dream of an expansion that would connect all parks!!!

boilerbabe wrote:I can only dream of an expansion that would connect all parks!!!

That would be very cool, but I doubt it would ever be fiscally feasible

I seriously wonder if this is being done as a means to make more storage space for monorails. Keep in mind that the shop only holds 10 (originally there were 10 Mark IV's) and two have to sit out every night. Supposedly they leave one out at TTC on the EPCOT line which has caused issues some mornings when powerful storms blow through overnight and cause it to sway a bit leading to a "derailment". I am starting to think that this spur line will be the parking space for a monorail overnight too and not just during the day. I also think that the current monorails have to be going in the future. I do think that when replaced Disney might opt to buy more than 12 or keep some old ones around.

mindflipper wrote:Hard to really call it an "expansion" when it sounds like a spur line. The basic transportation routes are unchanged. It's only an "expansion" in the sense when measuring the over-all length of track and that's a stretch.

I agree, "expansion" just spurs rumors of a "worldwide" monorail system. Originally it was supposed to be expanded to The studios, and go through the Swan and Dolphin, but they couldn't agree over who would cover the cost.

I'll believe it when Disney starts building it. With TDO as stingy as they are, I don't see them approving anything for Monorails any time soon. Especially with all the cutbacks they have been placing on the Fantasyland Expansion: Pixie Hollow and the Dumbo area are on the chopping block and many of the Princess Meet & Greets are right behind them. The only thing that is set in stone is The Little Mermaid attraction and (I think) the Beauty and The Beast area.