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Monorail Refurbishment

Not really, with the current setup there is no difference between running 3/4 trains and running 6/7 as the lack of air gate means the length of time waiting the the station cause train to tack even when running only 3
 
Thought I mention it saw Celebration Train first time one track yesterday and Jelly Bean was on in the morning.

Should be noted I don't know but the Cow Train was moved to the very back of the sidings not sure if it did it on its own or was shunted.

Pirate Train was off which is a rarity most used train and Strawberry was nowhere to be seen
 
I was watching a video on the Elizabethan line upgrades (linked below), and it was mentioned that Alstom are actively building a new monorail in Cairo, so there’s certainly scope for a monorail refurbishment at Alton Towers, as UK industry has the capacity and the expertise to do so.

Obviously it would be a heavy capital investment to upgrade the monorail, but so many guests nowadays just skip the monorail in favour of just walking it, because they don’t want to walk between the car park and entrance. So I feel there’s the capacity to improve the guest experience so the monorail can handle queues, particularly the obvious surge at the start and end of the day.

I think there’s an opportunity to elevate the brand and theme of the monorail, doubling up effectively as an extra ride experience and a transport system. Something like a Steampunk Station would present opportunities so some good first impressions to the theme park, and suit the retro-futurist aesthetic of a monorail. I do find it weird that a theme park would have its first impression as something minimalistic and utilitarian whilst everything else is a high-concept immersive experience.

 
Speaking to a ride operator of the Monorail today and they are hoping to have Cow Train back next year. With the exception of Cow Train all the trains are capable of running
 
Hid said:
Jelly Bean ran first day of the season. Just Cow Train.

Means in theory now Monorail can run with 6 or 7 trains now so no real excuse
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Say That Again Fantastic Four GIF
 
AT86 said:
Footage here of the monorail in its former life at Expo86.

Never really thought about it before, but was the track layout the same as it is at Towers and installed exactly the same, or was it altered to fit the park?


From: https://youtu.be/f1wWfos7sow?si=j3D-eiZTRwKXPfn5
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I’ve always wondered this, especially since the monorail spans the breadth of the park, particularly somewhere with historic assets and a lot of green space (not that Broome really gave a care about planning permission).

Nothing in that video suggests that it was altered in layout though, you can see the turn by Nemesis/Sub Terra and the turnaround that is now the entrance plaza. Was it designed with the intention of ending up at Alton Towers afterwards? Would be interesting if there’s an online POV of the Monorail in Ontario!
 
It was a very different layout in Vancouver, with a lot more right-angles for a start. I suspect it was quite a fun jigsaw puzzle when they were working out how to put it back together in a different format at Alton Towers.

You can see the original layout here, wrapping around the Expo's waterfront:

expo86map[1].jpg
 
It looked more integrated into the expo as well. Wonder if it ran all its trains there and whether it had the same siding structure the Monorail has today.
 
I had an interesting call this afternoon at work (I supply a lot of wholesalers of electrical test equipment) the bones of it are they are still trying to get all the trains on the monorail working which would suggest it’s staying. Sadly can’t say much more than that other than parts suitable for it are proving difficult to source. Nothing was mentioned other than that so have no clue on the structural rumours but I would lean towards them being false or easily fixable.
 
Bert2theSpark said:
especially since the monorail spans the breadth of the park, particularly somewhere with historic assets and a lot of green space (not that Broome really gave a care about planning permission).
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This turns out to be a popular myth, everything that was installed in the John Broome era had planning permission in one form or other. The only exception was the Corkscrew and Springfield attractions in 1980, because Alton had believed they wouldn't need planning approval because they were 'dismountable'. Permission was granted the following year retrospectively.

Some later rides like the Thunder Looper only had temporary planning permission and were just planned to be there for a few years then leave. So the monorail was properly planned with the right consent etc
 
The Lynch Effect said:
I had an interesting call this afternoon at work (I supply a lot of wholesalers of electrical test equipment) the bones of it are they are still trying to get all the trains on the monorail working which would suggest it’s staying. Sadly can’t say much more than that other than parts suitable for it are proving difficult to source. Nothing was mentioned other than that so have no clue on the structural rumours but I would lean towards them being false or easily fixable.
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It would be nice to fix the system to allow all 8 trains to continuously operate and push people through the ride would make the queues move a heck of a lot quicker, wonder how it ran at the world expo its original home
 
Hid said:
It would be nice to fix the system to allow all 8 trains to continuously operate and push people through the ride would make the queues move a heck of a lot quicker, wonder how it ran at the world expo its original home
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It has been explained to you quite a few times now... Even when faster operations, the monorail would still stack on eight trains.
 
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