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Monorail Refurbishment

A quick google seems to suggest there are various Von Roll monorails running across the world including at Newark Airport in New York.

Parts are now supplied by Bombardier, so they should still be able to run the monorail and get parts. So it’s just Merlin’s willingness to pay for them that comes into question.
 
Robert Jones said:
https://www.cheshire-live.co.uk/wha...ester-zoos-popular-monorail-scrapped-16492269

I have a Park Programme and map lying around that lists the monorail as a new attraction. I think it's from 1991/2.
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From the link you posted...

"The monorail has transported millions of visitors around the zoo since it first opened in 1991, allowing stunning views of the animals, habitats and gardens."

"The Chester Zoo monorail was opened by the Duchess of Kent in 1991 but it broke down on its first trip round the zoo with the Duchess still on it!"
 
I may be wrong, but im sure in the future plan for AT which was published a few years ago, the monorail would be removed, and the main entrance moved to near Galactica. This would make a lot of sense in terms of guest access particularly from the hotels, but I would assume they would have to remove some of the car park and build a "new" Towers Street plaza area to welcome the guests. Seems a lot of money to do this, may be cheaper to put new monorail trains on the track!
 
In the long term plan they floated the idea of moving the theme park entrance to around Duel/Gloomy Wood which would allow for the removal of the Monorail. Pretty sure that these plans have since been scrapped.
 
I believe Mr Burton said in an interview a couple of years back that there were plans to refurb the monorail. But who knows what has changed in that time.
 
Squeezing a new entrance in a horrible featureless location to save money operating the monorail would have been a massive joke.

The whole park would also be back to front, you'd start with big thrill rides, get rammed in forbidden valley without the routes to spread crowds around the park, have guests pouring into the gardens and reach the scenic areas around the Towers/ lawns much later
 
Towers street and the view of the gardens, lake and the towers itself is one of the best features of the park. Be crazy to lose that.

To us it's become the norm but every so often you see tourists who visit and they are blown away by that view for the first time. We take it for granted somewhat.
 
It could be an entrance for hotel guests and/or MAP holders, with the FV rides put onto ERT, I suppose.
 
A new entrence would have to be a colossal project to be at all decent, something on the scale of what Ceader Point did with theirs or Hershy Park have planned. A new monorail or a cable car or even travelators like universal-orlando would be far far cheeper and preserve the iconic view of the Towers.

I love the monorail concept but the batching is just so slow. Either a new monorail is needed or something like the gates you find on modern tube stations are needed to alow people to be batched in the air gates.
I couldn't see a dumb system for doing this opeing by a monorail oppperator pressing a button costing far beyond 100k.
 
Cant remember the exact time but Im sure the new entrance & monorail scrapping plan was drawn up years before they stopped using the monorail bays too
 
BarryZola said:
Just as an aside. Co-incidentally I was browsing through some old folders of photo's last night, one of which was one of the behind the scenes tours from quite a few years back. One of the pics I took was of Broome's map of his 'masterplan' for the park which was quite accurate to what ended up being actually implemented but what wasn't realised was the plan for the monorail to actually run far more extensively around and through the different areas of the park. What the park ended up with was only a small part of what had initially been envisaged with regards to the monorail.
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Let's be honest - a lot of what Mr Broome wanted to build never happened (cough, Battersea project). Of course, he has to be credited for turning Alton Towers into the pay one price theme park it is today - although with all the up-sells now the pay one price aspect could be questioned! Mr Broome did have scant regard for the local planning authority (Staffordshire Moorlands District Council) and often installed flat / portable rides without planning permission, safe in the knowledge he could operate them for a season before the enforcement notice was served. It was only the major infrastructure rides (Corkscrew, Flume, Black Hole, Rapids etc) that he bothered with planning permission for.

With regard to the monorail, I agree it has to be on it's last legs now with the trains over 30yrs old. I've no idea what plans (or indeed budget) Merlin have set aside for any replacement. The Long Term Development Plan that people are referring to on here that mentioned a new entrance / monorail retirement are all from 2012. The events of June 2015 will have blown that out of the water in some respects - or at the very least added a couple of years onto the plans as the park recovers.

My personal view is that we will see the monorail quietly retired / wound-down (they've already started with the slow loading / batching). As long as not too many people notice or complain, Merlin will see it as a welcome cost saving. They will probably lay on shuttle-buses to help some guests reach the main entrance - but as with the monorail at present, you'll have the choice of a 30min queue or 15min walk.
 
The parking area immediately behind the Gloomy Wood toilets was a staff carpark - Pinewood Lodge - about 15yrs ago. The staff gate into the park was under the monorail switch-track behind the Gloomy Wood kiosk (that was once a Guest Services kiosk), just after the exit from the toilet block when heading to Forbidden Valley.

No idea exactly why this carpark was closed, but would suspect it was down to the entry gate being left open by lazy staff & then the pedestrian gate into the park being left unlocked too. Free entry for people in the know.
 
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