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Monorail Refurbishment

siralgenon said:
Because then you could use the monorail as the queue wouldn't stretch back to the other end. As long as they space it out like at Thorpe then it wouldn't be a problem.
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As I say, a cattle pen won't be good for social distancing of 2m. It would have to be massive, and let's face it, a misery to stand in even if it does move.
 
Burbs said:
As I say, a cattle pen won't be good for social distancing of 2m. It would have to be massive, and let's face it, a misery to stand in even if it does move.
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I mean every other Theme Park has managed it so I wouldn't see it being a problem.
 
siralgenon said:
I mean every other Theme Park has managed it so I wouldn't see it being a problem.
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I've been to 15 different theme parks in Europe this summer, only 1 of which had any semblance of a "cattle pen" outside the main entrance, though nothing like the sort of thing you're suggesting. These parks seem to cope fine, and so is Towers. I'd love for the monorail to run again, it'll be a great shame if it doesn't, but there's no point running it while it's still busy during COVID. It's counter-intuitive to have guests get on the monorail, be taken to the entrance, then sent half way back the way they came to join a queue line for temperature checks.
 
Burbs said:
I've been to 15 different theme parks in Europe this summer, only 1 of which had any semblance of a "cattle pen" outside the main entrance, though nothing like the sort of thing you're suggesting. These parks seem to cope fine, and so is Towers. I'd love for the monorail to run again, it'll be a great shame if it doesn't, but there's no point running it while it's still busy during COVID. It's counter-intuitive to have guests get on the monorail, be taken to the entrance, then sent half way back the way they came to join a queue line for temperature checks.
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Disneyland, Pleasure Beach, Thorpe Park, Chessington and Drayton all have / had them and they worked fine. There isn't a problem with how Towers are doing it, but if it was contained next to the entrance Plaza it wouldn't just allow the use of Express Parking and the Monorail without sending guests on a two mile walk.
 
Remember when the monorail used to run on several trains, and the queue was a steady shuffle up the ramps?
Lack of investment in general, death by a thousand cuts.
The monorail could be run effectively as the entrance batcher it was designed to be, but that would involve money.
So just shut it instead, using covid as an excuse.
 
The monorail queue was (generally) fine until they decided that having people in the bays as a train approached was too dangerous. Since they did that it tends to run 5 trains more often than before in an attempt to offset the reduction in capacity (3 train operation had become common in the previous years) but the benefit of the 5th train was minimal as it spent most of the time waiting for the station to become available.
 
If the Monorail isn’t to reopen and Towers’ finances were in a good position, I’d actually like to see them repurpose the Monorail track that lies outside of the theme park boundaries into some form of elevated walkway akin to the High Line in New York.

I believe someone said it’d probably be expensive to rip out all the track entirely so I’m imagining it’d cost a decent amount less to clad over the top with a wooden/stone walkway and turn it into a mini entertainment experience.

I’m not even thinking the full blown entertainment zone that we’ve all been dreaming of for years. Maybe just a few craft food and drink stalls dotted along the top (coffee, burgers, pizzas, maybe a bar) - the sort of stall that is small and usually portable, just to test out the idea.

This might be a bigger - i.e. more expensive - idea that I first realised but it’d be a nice option to fill the gap if the Monorail goes.
 
Andrew said:
If the Monorail isn’t to reopen and Towers’ finances were in a good position, I’d actually like to see them repurpose the Monorail track that lies outside of the theme park boundaries into some form of elevated walkway akin to the High Line in New York.

I believe someone said it’d probably be expensive to rip out all the track entirely so I’m imagining it’d cost a decent amount less to clad over the top with a wooden/stone walkway and turn it into a mini entertainment experience.

I’m not even thinking the full blown entertainment zone that we’ve all been dreaming of for years. Maybe just a few craft food and drink stalls dotted along the top (coffee, burgers, pizzas, maybe a bar) - the sort of stall that is small and usually portable, just to test out the idea.

This might be a bigger - i.e. more expensive - idea that I first realised but it’d be a nice option to fill the gap if the Monorail goes.
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Just the cost of the railings and guards along the side would make it too expensive to be worthwhile.

As it passes over paths and rides there will need to be high fencing to prevent items being thrown.
 
jon81uk said:
Just the cost of the railings and guards along the side would make it too expensive to be worthwhile.

As it passes over paths and rides there will need to be high fencing to prevent items being thrown.
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Sorry, I meant only convert the track that runs from the car park station through the car park, not into the theme park itself.

It likely would be expensive but, you know, I can dream haha
 
Andrew said:
Sorry, I meant only convert the track that runs from the car park station through the car park, not into the theme park itself.

It likely would be expensive but, you know, I can dream haha
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In that case if it doesn't improve the ability to walk to the main gate, the whole thing would be rather pointless unfortuantly. Just going up to track level to get a view of the car park doesn't seem worthwhile.
 
Jonathan said:
Has lockdown been getting to you a bit, mate? ;)
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A man can dream, Jon... A man can dream :tearsofjoy:


jon81uk said:
In that case if it doesn't improve the ability to walk to the main gate, the whole thing would be rather pointless unfortuantly. Just going up to track level to get a view of the car park doesn't seem worthwhile.
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I know what you mean but if it proved popular then it could provide the springboard to expand it into a proper entertainment area.

This is all just a hypothetical, something a bit different idea obviously. I in no way think it’d ever happen because of the state of the park but worth throwing a different idea out there for a change
 
My anecdotal experience of monorail throughputs is that they were never an issue until the last few years. There were of course queues on busy days and coming back to the car parks at closing times. That said, the queue moved really quickly.

It was quite rare for the queue to pass beyond the toilets and more often than not you were in the train within 5-10 minutes. Over recent years the number of trains running has been cut, resulting in lower throughputs even before the current (and frankly ridiculous) batching system was implemented. Now with the batching system, efficiency is cut rather dramatically. Add to that the lack of maintenance resulting in unreliability and you have the recipe for huge queues.

If the monorail does not reopen, it’s some cheek to charge so much for a car park which is a mile away from the entrance. It amazes me that there are not more issues with parking in the village. There’s nothing more frustrating than being charged £7 to park, walk a mile past Nemesis, enter the park, realise Skyride is closed for some tenuous reason and have to hike back to Nemesis, having passed it half an hour before.
 
This is what will happen in order of unlikeliest to most likely. 2 and 4 are particularly grim:

1. The system will be fully refurbished, the true AT experience will be restored and all will be well. Red water on Nemesis will return, hell will freeze over and the London Resort or whatever it's called these days is actually built. Mmmm, perhaps that last one is a little too much.

2. The system will be closed, demolished at great expense and the Air entrance will continue to be used for hotel guests. The miserable walk that no one actually chooses unless the queue for the monorail is unbearable will be tarted up slightly to limit the misery.

3. Trains will be harvested for parts to keep the system going as it has been in more recent times.

4. The system will be closed and left as a modern ruin of a bygone era. A few sloppy fences will be erected to cover parts of the infrastructure but no one will be fooled. Urban explorers will sneak in to the old infrastructure and post their adventures on YouTube. Almost everyone will remember the monorail and wonder where it went, the parks reputation will be tainted even further and guests will be welcomed to the park with one of the most visible symptoms of chronic underinvestment there for all to see before they even start their day. The Air entrance will be used for hotel guests, everyone else will begrudgingly walk to the park entrance grumbling about how much they used to enjoy AT back in the day and had they not bought such a dirt cheap season pass or cut their ticket off a Corn Flake box, they wouldn't bother going again.
 
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We get free Sun tickets and spend the entrance money on express parking.
Done so for a decade at least.
This year I just couldn't be arsed, due to a combination of covid and cuts.
 
Since this thread was last posted in, we have seen what a full season (albeit a shortened one) without the Monorail open is like. There don’t seem to have been too many complaints about the ride being shut, so my question to you is; what does the future of the ride hold, in your opinion? Will it reopen once COVID restrictions get eased, or could it be the end for the ride?

Personally, I think we will see the ride reopen in 2021. Alton have previously said that they were intending to give the ride a refurbishment for 2020, so I think we may see refurbished trains and a general lick of paint like we saw in 2008. I don’t think the stations need any work doing to them, as I think the car park station was overhauled fairly recently (I believe it was 2016, correct me if I’m wrong?). Maybe they could refurbish the entrance end station into the same style?

Long term, I’m not really sure. The ride is knocking on a bit now; it will be 34 years old in 2021, and the trains are even older, as they did get used at Expo ‘86 prior to arriving at Alton Towers. I’m not sure how much life the ride in its current form has left in it, so I think at some point in the not too distant future, maybe the next 5-10 years, we might be saying goodbye to the ride, at least in its current form.

In terms of what it will be replaced with, I think land trains would be a really good idea. I’ve been to numerous places where they work really well; Walt Disney World uses them effectively in all 4 theme parks, and Center Parcs has a really effective system in place to take guests around its holiday villages.

A land train system would also get around what I believe is one of the main shortcomings of the current monorail system; due to the ride being built very early on in the park’s life, before any of the hotels or resort activities were built, the car park station is now a fair trek in itself from certain parts of the resort. If you’re staying in the Enchanted Village or doing Tree Top Quest, for example, there’s still a fairly lengthy walk ahead of you to reach the car park monorail station.

In my eyes, I think a land train system with stops at various points around the Resort would work very well. You could have the following stops, as an example:
  • Theme Park Entrance
  • Car Parks
  • Splash Landings Hotel
  • Alton Towers Hotel
  • Enchanted Village
  • Tree Top Quest
Admittedly, a route like this would be mildly inefficient for day guests getting to the park, but I suppose you could theoretically run two separate routes; one for day guests that only goes between the theme park entrance and the car parks, and one for hotel guests & people wanting to see other parts of the resort (e.g. the Waterpark) that spans all of the stops. You could have the trains be coloured differently to indicate different routes so people could differentiate between the two.

I personally think this would be a really good idea because it would function as an effective, high throughput transportation system that fits the park’s current needs, while also costing far less to implement & run than a brand new monorail system. The stops would only need to be fairly minimal in terms of decoration and general infrastructure; Center Parcs’ stops are literally wooden shelters with benches in them, and they work well. You could even make the trains electric so as to cut down on the park’s CO2 emissions.

What do you think of my idea?
P.S. Apologies for kind of doing two posts in one!
 
Matt N said:
Since this thread was last posted in, we have seen what a full season (albeit a shortened one) without the Monorail open is like. There don’t seem to have been too many complaints about the ride being shut, so my question to you is; what does the future of the ride hold, in your opinion? Will it reopen once COVID restrictions get eased, or could it be the end for the ride?

Personally, I think we will see the ride reopen in 2021. Alton have previously said that they were intending to give the ride a refurbishment for 2020, so I think we may see refurbished trains and a general lick of paint like we saw in 2008. I don’t think the stations need any work doing to them, as I think the car park station was overhauled fairly recently (I believe it was 2016, correct me if I’m wrong?). Maybe they could refurbish the entrance end station into the same style?

Long term, I’m not really sure. The ride is knocking on a bit now; it will be 34 years old in 2021, and the trains are even older, as they did get used at Expo ‘86 prior to arriving at Alton Towers. I’m not sure how much life the ride in its current form has left in it, so I think at some point in the not too distant future, maybe the next 5-10 years, we might be saying goodbye to the ride, at least in its current form.

In terms of what it will be replaced with, I think land trains would be a really good idea. I’ve been to numerous places where they work really well; Walt Disney World uses them effectively in all 4 theme parks, and Center Parcs has a really effective system in place to take guests around its holiday villages.

A land train system would also get around what I believe is one of the main shortcomings of the current monorail system; due to the ride being built very early on in the park’s life, before any of the hotels or resort activities were built, the car park station is now a fair trek in itself from certain parts of the resort. If you’re staying in the Enchanted Village or doing Tree Top Quest, for example, there’s still a fairly lengthy walk ahead of you to reach the car park monorail station.

In my eyes, I think a land train system with stops at various points around the Resort would work very well. You could have the following stops, as an example:
  • Theme Park Entrance
  • Car Parks
  • Splash Landings Hotel
  • Alton Towers Hotel
  • Enchanted Village
  • Tree Top Quest
Admittedly, a route like this would be mildly inefficient for day guests getting to the park, but I suppose you could theoretically run two separate routes; one for day guests that only goes between the theme park entrance and the car parks, and one for hotel guests & people wanting to see other parts of the resort (e.g. the Waterpark) that spans all of the stops. You could have the trains be coloured differently to indicate different routes so people could differentiate between the two.

I personally think this would be a really good idea because it would function as an effective, high throughput transportation system that fits the park’s current needs, while also costing far less to implement & run than a brand new monorail system. The stops would only need to be fairly minimal in terms of decoration and general infrastructure; Center Parcs’ stops are literally wooden shelters with benches in them, and they work well. You could even make the trains electric so as to cut down on the park’s CO2 emissions.

What do you think of my idea?
P.S. Apologies for kind of doing two posts in one!
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Realistically speaking I think if they do scrap the monorail and want to put some other form of transportation in place they'll call someone like d&g or Notts&derby to get a shuttle bus.
 
I think the senior team at ATR will be doing everything in their power right now to ensure not one more ride or attraction is lost. They know how much has gone from the park in the last 5 years and how the very experience that Alton Towers is relies on even things like the Monorail. Just look at how much they keep on doing to ensure Blade and Enterprise can keep working. On the horizon these rides will, of course, be replaced - but they will keep trying to get them running up until that time comes.

The lack of complaints this year is obvious. People expect things to be different due to Covid. If it was a normal year, would they have had complaints? You bet.
 
From the drone video taken a week or so ago. Does anyone know what this red thing is? Is it sat over the track? Some maintenance/inspection type work?

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A land train would not be a suitable solution. Not enough capacity, and the new transport system would have to be able to avoid the traffic comming in the entrance, a land train wouldn't be able to do this..
 
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