Rumor - monorail expansion

Okay I was checking a couple of sites and I saw a couple of different posts that the monorail is going to be expanded to include Animal Kingdom and Disney-MGM and also they will add two more hotels with Monorail access. Now at first glance I didn't really believe it until I saw a comment from a creditable user saying that on 3/16/06 he was on Backstage tour (not the one in MGM) and a cast member who was in charge of the tour said:

" Disney IS expanding the monorail system to include MGM and Animal Kingdom AND he said that there would also be TWO NEW Monorail Resorts along the new route. He said that pilings are already being placed for the track supports."

Now for years there was been Rumors about Disney expanding there Monorail system, but with the aging of there busses and the cost of the fuel to run the busses this might really be happening. Disney might be looking for a way to keep the costs down while still providing that same great Disney fun!


What do you thinK!?

 

I have not been to Disney World yet, but I think it's long over due. Disney must pay a lot for the gas and repair costs for there bus fleet. A monorail seems to be cheaper in the long run. However it's not going to be a cheap thing to build. After a couple of years they might recoup the costs. besides who wants to ride a bus when you can ride a sweet monorail! ; ;D ; ;D ; ;D ; ;D ; ;D

 

Sweet!

Not that the busses were bad, but the monorail's so much friendlier (plus, you don't face lengthy delays and massive discomfort when one of the busses has an engine fire basically cutting off one hotel and severly restricting one park... oh, wait, that was just on our trip *laugh*... seriously, though, the busses are in surprisingly good shape for the amount of wear and tear they get).

I will miss the 'personalities', though... the monorail's fast and comfy and all, but it's boring. ; We had one busdriver who basically acted as a tour guide for the trip... pointed out things of interest, told jokes, shared trivia (like... "... and that really tall tree all alone over there... it itsn't really a tree. ; In fact, it's a cell tower!")... and sent us on our way with the Mickey Mouse Club theme song (complete with character voices)!! ; A little odd, but definitely a memorable episode on the trip.

 

Okay Treeo that just sounds so cool! And tells everyone why I love Disney So much!

Was this on the Disney bus or the charter busses? I have been on the Charter ones in the past when they have done nice cool things like that! Once I guy made myself and my Fiancée a couple of Balloon animals but I have never seen the Disney Drivers do something like that! and omg they turned a Tree into a Cell tower.... Rockin'

 

It was on a Disney bus! ; It was certainly unexpected... but very cool! ; We had another driver who did all the standard announcements as a robot personality because the one and only kid on the bus (there were only 7 passengers) was wearing a T-shirt that suggested he was a robot fan... I think it's great when they do things like that... it shows that they get as much of a kick out of working for Disney as so many of us get from visiting!

They didn't so much turn a tree into a cell tower as turn a cell tower into a tree *laugh* ; If you look at it close enough (and it's not easy... we had a 600 mm lens on the camera and could get a really good shot of it... but I'll post one in the gallery if I get a chance) you can see that this tree that sticks up in the middle of nowhere is just a teeny bit off 'true' colour.... but it's really realistic. ; And until he pointed it out, we'd never even noticed that we hadn't seen any cell towers, even though we'd seen everyone using cell phones ;

 

I wonder if they have the room for the Mono-rail expansion, I know Disney has a lot of land, but isn't most of that developed already? This thing can't be cheap, it's should cost them about 25 to 50 million dollars. Think about how many new busses you can buy with that kind of coin!

 

If I remember right, less than 20% of the land is currently developed. ; They've committed to keeping a lot of it undeveloped, but they've still got room to expand quite a bit.

Yeah... 25 - 50 Million would buy a lot of busses... but the maintenance of the fleet and operating costs (gas prices skyrocketing as they are, plus staff) would mean that in the long run, the monorail would probably still be more cost effective. ; Plus its more environmentally friendly. ; And the monorails probably wouldn't need to be replaced as often.

 

You know what, now that I think about it I remember posting that the Monorail was going in one direction, now this was first said to be because of the Finding Nemo expansion that is going on at Epcot, but if you think about it. They could be working on the Monorail as well, adding the pillars and starting the expansion of the Monorail system. Epcot would be great places to have a hub to Animal Kingdom and Disney-MGM they have a ton of room outside Epcot. Not to mention that someone could jump on the main line from Epcot to the TTC….

 

I wanna a good bus driver like Treelo had. ; This past trip, I didn't find any of them that friendly.

But nevertheless, it would be great to have monorail access in every park. ; Less wait time would be nice sometimes.

 

Expansion of the monorail is often the subject of rumours. ; Hopefully it's true this time.

We had a chance to ride in the cockpit last spring. ; Great experience, although our driver barely said a word to us.