• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Monorail Refurbishment

I often walk to the park these days; as much as the monorail provides great views, the walk gets you into the park more quickly a lot of the time, and there's something about a nice brisk walk that I find quite refreshing! Not to mention it wakes you up and prepares you for the day ahead, as a day in Alton Towers certainly isn't short of walking!
 
I often walk to the park these days; as much as the monorail provides great views, the walk gets you into the park more quickly a lot of the time, and there's something about a nice brisk walk that I find quite refreshing! Not to mention it wakes you up and prepares you for the day ahead, as a day in Alton Towers certainly isn't short of walking!
Merlin will copy and paste this comment, close the monorail completely, then use your words to justify it under the heading of "Guest Feedback".

Sent from my VOG-L29 using Tapatalk
 
Imagine getting the families with prams etc on to those coaches! The monorail track itself is fine, they just need new trains to run on it.
I passed comment on train in nov. It would be in the operating interest of the park to go for a automated driverless system. As this would reduce staff costs for running it.

Sent from my SM-J600FN using Tapatalk
 
Driverless you say...

handcar.jpg
 
Merlin will copy and paste this comment, close the monorail completely, then use your words to justify it under the heading of "Guest Feedback".

Sent from my VOG-L29 using Tapatalk
I'm not advocating the closure of the Monorail without some form of replacement, as I know that there are many who struggle to walk that far; I was only saying that I personally walk. I am ultimately a microscopic proportion of Alton Towers' annual guests (even if you count my parents too, we only make up 0.0001% of Alton Towers' annual guests, taking the figure from 2018!)
 
I'm not advocating the closure of the Monorail without some form of replacement, as I know that there are many who struggle to walk that far; I was only saying that I personally walk. I am ultimately a microscopic proportion of Alton Towers' annual guests (even if you count my parents too, we only make up 0.0001% of Alton Towers' annual guests, taking the figure from 2018!)


How may parents do you have ?
 
The cost of any realistic monorail replacement would surely be prohibitive. Whatever form it took, it would be the biggest investment in the history of the park for zero commercial benefit. The question then becomes how long can they justify keeping the current system running vaguely reliably? As it is, I very rarely use it as the capacity is now so poor, even when running 5 trains, that the queue is usually so long that it just isn't worth it. At a guess, I'd say that each train now makes at least 1 less round-trip per hour since they stopped letting people wait in the loading bays, a capacity loss of around 500 people/hour.
 
The cost of any realistic monorail replacement would surely be prohibitive. Whatever form it took, it would be the biggest investment in the history of the park for zero commercial benefit. The question then becomes how long can they justify keeping the current system running vaguely reliably? As it is, I very rarely use it as the capacity is now so poor, even when running 5 trains, that the queue is usually so long that it just isn't worth it. At a guess, I'd say that each train now makes at least 1 less round-trip per hour since they stopped letting people wait in the loading bays, a capacity loss of around 500 people/hour.
For the cost of building a new monorail I'm willing to bet they could relocate the main entrance of the park to the main carpark.
 
For the cost of building a new monorail I'm willing to bet they could relocate the main entrance of the park to the main carpark.

Under Merlin ownership the monorail will never be replaced. They will just gradually run it down / leave it to rot. The process has already started with not allowing guests to wait in the loading bays for trains, thus reducing hourly capacity. As has been said above, a monorail replacement would be an enormous investment for pretty much zero financial return, as a new monorail is not going to increase visitor numbers like a Secret Weapon ride would.

It's also worth remembering that the monorail was installed in the Broome era, when Alton Towers was going to be "the Disneyland of the UK". Broome was trying to copy many of the Disney park features, so a monorail was an obvious choice to solve the transport issue from the car parks... and one was up for sale second hand from Expo 86 in Vancouver. On the transport issue from car parks to main entrance, it's worth noting that Disney still use land-trains in the parking lots of all 4 Florida parks to get you to the main entrance / ticketing & transportation center.
 
I doubt it will ever be replaced but I doubt it needs to be.

I'm no expert on monorails but surely all of the parts on it should be serviceable or changeable?
 
I doubt it will ever be replaced but I doubt it needs to be.

I'm no expert on monorails but surely all of the parts on it should be serviceable or changeable?

Its mainly the actual frame and the vehicle body that will be the issue once they get really old.
 
Its mainly the actual frame and the vehicle body that will be the issue once they get really old.

Back when I worked at Towers it was fairly common knowledge that the monorail was "ageing fast" - and this was some years ago (close on 15yrs ago). It's days are numbered unless Merlin want to dump a shedload of cash at it for serious upgrade. I think we all know the answer to that one, as the financial return will be close to zero.
 
It'll ended up closing, (and not being removed, because that'll cost a fortune as well) and they'll just run shuttles to the Park Entrance instead.
 
Top