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Monorail Refurbishment

Matt.GC said:
Investment needs to be made to keep the current monorail in service. Whether that means a refurbishment or new rolling stock. It would be a massive waste of built in infrastructure not to do so.

Towers Street is a purpose built entrance to the park and should ALWAYS remain the main way of entry. Sorting the monorail out is essential to the park experience. I hope the new private equity owners are smart enough to see that.
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It cant have helped they got a second hand system that wasn't really intended to be used for as long as it has.

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ihaveaspergers said:
It cant have helped they got a second hand system that wasn't really intended to be used for as long as it has.

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It wasn't really second hand though was it? It was an exhibition exhibit. The infrastructure itself is probably fine, it's likely the rolling stock that's coming to the end of its life.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
Why can’t they just have the main entrance that you go in and out of during the day then at ride close open all the gates around the Left side of the park so guests can go walk to there cars from Katanga Canyon,
Gloomy wood or Forbidden Valley like they did it during the fireworks event so can’t understand why they can’t open them all the time.
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They're not really cut out for that, unless by exception. Plus, if you're taking vast sums of money from people at the various Towers Street retailers, it would be counter intuitive to provide further diversions from them.

The Galactica gate is more out of necessity to make RCR work.
 
Matt.GC said:
It wasn't really second hand though was it? It was an exhibition exhibit. The infrastructure itself is probably fine, it's likely the rolling stock that's coming to the end of its life.
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Whilst I have no direct knowledge of the current condition of the equipment, the track isn't 2nd hand at all as it was custom designed for AT (it's not just a series of standard straight and curved sections bolted together in a different order as I once assumed). At any rate, given that it's now been operating at AT for 30 years, the fact that the trains had a short service life at the expo is becoming increasingly irrelevant.
 
John said:
Whilst I have no direct knowledge of the current condition of the equipment, the track isn't 2nd hand at all as it was custom designed for AT (it's not just a series of standard straight and curved sections bolted together in a different order as I once assumed). At any rate, given that it's now been operating at AT for 30 years, the fact that the trains had a short service life at the expo is becoming increasingly irrelevant.
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I was once told that track and/or supports had to be completely redone after a season or two because the first attempt wasn't built to the correct tolerances and was already fatigued.
 
That's (sort of) true. My understanding is that some of the supports/foundations weren't strong enough to withstand the forces caused by thermal expansion of the track. Due to the very long straights on the layout, certain bases experience very high stress but weren't strong enough. Apparently this had in fact been anticipated during design but it was built on the cheap.
 
The Monorail trains are really in no satisfactory presentational state for a major theme park's first impression and neither are the stations. Saying that, I would say the use of the Monorail is now half what it was due to its dramatic loss in capacity over the years. The walkway is hardly satisfactory either in spite of minor investment in fences recently and the golden pathway.

Infact, the entire arrival experience between getting out of your car and walking into the turnstiles is largely inadequate. Considerable £millions would be required to get it up to an acceptable standard.
 
AstroDan said:
The Monorail trains are really in no satisfactory presentational state for a major theme park's first impression and neither are the stations. Saying that, I would say the use of the Monorail is now half what it was due to its dramatic loss in capacity over the years. The walkway is hardly satisfactory either in spite of minor investment in fences recently and the golden pathway.

Infact, the entire arrival experience between getting out of your car and walking into the turnstiles is largely inadequate. Considerable £millions would be required to get it up to an acceptable standard.
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Out of interest, what would you consider an "acceptable standard"? The walkway seems no different to the ones in any other theme park to me...
 
Matt N said:
Out of interest, what would you consider an "acceptable standard"? The walkway seems no different to the ones in any other theme park to me...
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Clean with no big flaking patches of paint for onr.

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Speaking of WDW, maybe Alton Towers could replace the monorail with trams from the different car parks like they have at the WDW theme parks; I imagine they'd certainly be much cheaper to maintain, and they would still provide a useful form of transport to the main entrance! They could even make them electric so that they have a lower environmental impact!
 
AstroDan said:
The walkway is hardly satisfactory either in spite of minor investment in fences recently and the golden pathway.
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They have done a good job of softening the AVB to look like a normal fence.

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ihaveaspergers said:
I mean on the system in general.

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Ah, the monorail system! Thanks for the clarification; I was referring to the path to the park, which was upgraded a couple of years ago!
 
Matt N said:
Out of interest, what would you consider an "acceptable standard"? The walkway seems no different to the ones in any other theme park to me...
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The walk between the Alton Towers car park and the main entrance. Which is pretty much the longest walk between a theme park car park and main entrance I have yet encountered - in the world - if you are walking. The Monorail capacity is nowhere near what it was originally, and as such more people are walking.

I don't wish to enter into some sort of debate into walkways at theme parks, but the vast majority would be properly signed, landscaped, paved perhaps and certainly not the length that the walk at ATR is.
 
AstroDan said:
The walk between the Alton Towers car park and the main entrance. Which is pretty much the longest walk between a theme park car park and main entrance I have yet encountered - in the world - if you are walking. The Monorail capacity is nowhere near what it was originally, and as such more people are walking.

I don't wish to enter into some sort of debate into walkways at theme parks, but the vast majority would be properly signed, landscaped, paved perhaps and certainly not the length that the walk at ATR is.
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Whilst I understand what you mean, I don't fully agree.

In terms of the monorail, am I not correct in thinking that there was a possibility mooted at some stage of having a new entrance where the monorail depot is?

It would make sense to remove the monorail, create a new entrance where the monorail depot is. That would then free up towers street for future development.
 
ScottishChris said:
Whilst I understand what you mean, I don't fully agree.

In terms of the monorail, am I not correct in thinking that there was a possibility mooted at some stage of having a new entrance where the monorail depot is?

It would make sense to remove the monorail, create a new entrance where the monorail depot is. That would then free up towers street for future development.
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Which part don't you agree on? It wasn't immediately clear in your reply what you didn't agree with :blush:
 
AstroDan said:
Which part don't you agree on? It wasn't immediately clear in your reply what you didn't agree with :blush:
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The longest walk in the world part.

I don't think it's a good thing, but not bad either. To be honest, I have never understood why towers haven't installed a kiost or vending machines half way along the path.
 
Well, forgive me for a little hyperbole :p

Although, in all seriousness, I can't think of another park I have been to where the walk is really any longer than what you would do at ATR. It is easily 15 minutes at a minimum from the car park monorail station to the admissions turnstiles by walking.
 
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