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Monorail Refurbishment

First thing KIRKBI needs to invest in when they take over tomorrow is an overhaul or replacement for the monorail. It gives an horrible first impression of the park and is so inefficient that 90% of the time we give up and walk.
 
AT86 said:
Perfect example here of how Merlin are such a crap theme park operator.

There is absolutely no pride in the appearance of the parks, there is no excuse for a company the size and scale of Merlin to allow attractions to operate in this state.

Especially one that gives the first impression to millions of guests to one of their flagship parks.

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Zeerust at it's finest. Litterally.
 
My partner has no interest in coasters, I have no interest in long distance travel anymore.
Very happy with my coaster lot.
Less travel, more coasters.
 
I'm not opposed to the monorail. But when queuing before you go on its so plain and boring. This is meant to be getting you hyped for the day. I think using TVs and having something like ads for the rides like a fake news report for the nemesis and generally getting people excited is needed.

Obviously a overhaul of the monorail is needed with the screens going and a clean up. But it just feels like the experience is dampened by the current monorail experience
 
The whole entrance experience needs a refurb... I'd like to know how many trains would be needed for a good service.

Could you imagine if they completely refreshed the whole experience? Adjust the buildings, modernise them. Add basic projection mapping in the darker sections maybe? (Stars magic dust etc)
Currently the stations remind me of an old carpark from a shopping center that needs to be pulled down. The monorails themselves need to be rebuilt. What would a new set actually cost? Would the system cope with 5 trains if airgates were installed?
 
I'm of the opinion that it just needs to be allowed to die and instead use some of the money saved to build another entrance towards the Forbidden Valley side somewhere. When the Grand Entrance was first installed there was no Forbidden Valley or Haunted House so it made sense that you'd have to travel via the monorail or something when more parking was needed to get over to the main entrance near to where many of the rides were. This is just not the case any more though and it would be totally acceptable to enter somewhere over the FV side and be able to start enjoying your day straight away.

It makes little sense to have to travel around the perimeter of the site passing lots of rides either walking or using the monorail (passing over rides in the case of the monorail). You could then have 2 entrances and Towers Street could pretty much stay as it is but with less staff needed at that entrance. Parking could then be spread across all areas (coaches would obviously be forced to still use the coach park).
 
Would be nice to see them pull a Hershey Park/ Ceader Point and build a new entrance with an integrated signature coaster/ Ride like Gatekeeper and Candymonium. We will see what happens now post Merlin buyout and delist
 
BarryZola said:
I'm of the opinion that it just needs to be allowed to die and instead use some of the money saved to build another entrance towards the Forbidden Valley side somewhere. When the Grand Entrance was first installed there was no Forbidden Valley or Haunted House so it made sense that you'd have to travel via the monorail or something when more parking was needed to get over to the main entrance near to where many of the rides were. This is just not the case any more though and it would be totally acceptable to enter somewhere over the FV side and be able to start enjoying your day straight away.

It makes little sense to have to travel around the perimeter of the site passing lots of rides either walking or using the monorail (passing over rides in the case of the monorail). You could then have 2 entrances and Towers Street could pretty much stay as it is but with less staff needed at that entrance. Parking could then be spread across all areas (coaches would obviously be forced to still use the coach park).
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I think the entrance is quite iconic. It would be a shame to see it go. The basic beam infrastructure is still of great value. It's just the ride vehicle that need replacing. If it's to bill itself as a resort I feel they have to keep it. The infrastructure is not built for a entrance in FV the paths to the rest of the park are too small. Towers street gives you that grand entrance, and shopping options. Let's hope the new group see the potential in the system and current site and really enhance it.
 
Once you are through the gates and walking down Towers Street, it feels better and especially if entertainers are there (rare but still) you get a good feeling.

But up to that point it feels dull. Like they aren't interested in you until you have paid.
 
Although nowhere near as cool, it would probably be easier to purchase several land trains and use them instead. Busch Gardens Tampa has a system like this
 
speedy said:
Although nowhere near as cool, it would probably be easier to purchase several land trains and use them instead. Busch Gardens Tampa has a system like this
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I agree and personally I think it would actually be more fun on the land train. Maybe have a £1 charge per person to use it also to pay for the drivers etc. Do this along with a new 2nd entrance in my opinion. So basically if you want to start at Towers Street you can either walk for free, pay £1 for the land train or pay over £10 for express parking. Alternatively you could just take a small walk to the sparkly new closer 2nd entrance for free. May as well stick the cross-valley woodie in while they're at it too to save the builders coming back at a later date.
 
I think a second entrance would be a mistake. Walking down Towers Street and seeing the Towers for the first time is iconic and magical, almost like the Disney castles. It'd be a shame to lose that. Towers Street also provides commercial opportunities such as shops, cafes and photo points that would lose income.

As for a land train, as much as I like the idea I can't see that getting past Merlin's safety policies.
 
Interestingly the solution to getting people between the car parks and the entrance plaza before the monorail opened was - land trains. You can see them in the classic video of Treasure Hunt with Anneka Rice from around 1986.

I think as regular visitors we can easily fall into the trap of not appreciating the ‘theatre’ and excitement of taking the monorail and walking down Towers St to start your day. As a child I remember this being a part of the Alton Towers magic, no where else had a monorail, and seeing all the rides you would be going on during the day built up the anticipation.

I know the state of it at the moment means it doesn’t work that way right now, but with some cash it easily could be back to its heyday. I say spend the money on the monorail and not a new entrance.
 
I think if they replace the rolling stock they will install driverless automatic system. This would cut the running costs as they would only need station staff and one central controller to oversee the rolling stock operations.

Also automated operations could add capacity to the system. As they could make it a 6 or 8 block system.

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