Monorail Refurbishment

[djtruefitt]

I’m guessing with the current COVID rules we won’t see the monorail open when the park opens in April with it being all indoor?

 

[Josh]

I’m guessing with the current COVID rules we won’t see the monorail open when the park opens in April with it being all indoor?

It will fall under different guidelines as it's classed as transportation. So as long as it follows the same rules as regular commuter trains/buses it will be able to open.

 

[siralgenon]

It will fall under different guidelines as it's classed as transportation. So as long as it follows the same rules as regular commuter trains/buses it will be able to open.

That may be true but I wouldn't be surprised if they keep it closed until later in the year.

 

[AstroDan]

Staff training is taking place on the system currently. That said, the park were half ready to open it last year, but never did.

We'll see, I guess.

 

[Tibble]

Id be annoyed if they haven't cleaned up the monorail seeing as it was barely used last season, (if at all?) If they have just been sat in storage and no improvements have been made it would be seen as a missed opportunity for them

 

[djtruefitt]

Id be annoyed if they haven't cleaned up the monorail seeing as it was barely used last season, (if at all?) If they have just been sat in storage and no improvements have been made it would be seen as a missed opportunity for them

It was only used for the buy out days in March.

 

[jon81uk]

Thought it was better to put this here although it’s about current changes not future refurbishment.


New path has been added, I assume linking the main car park to the Splash Landings car park.
I can’t see how this helps? Already the station is set up to queue all the way round to the toilets at the back. Unless they are adding a cattle pen queue in the splash landing car park?

 

[Josh]

The path past golf/toilets has always been a massive bottleneck, something they obviously can't have with social distancing in place. Looks like they've routed the queue the other way to avoid the queue blocking the path past the toilets

 

[Alsty]

The monorail queue always used to come direct from the car park. It never used to be routed around the back of the toilets. Now it looks like they're changing it back to how it used to be?

 

[AT86]

The monorail queue always used to come direct from the car park. It never used to be routed around the back of the toilets. Now it looks like they're changing it back to how it used to be?

Yeah they changed it when they built the golf as they they wanted everyone to walk past it to encourage them to have a go.

It worked much better before when you just walked straight to the front entrance instead of having to walk all the way around the station.

 

[jon81uk]

It worked much better before when you just walked straight to the front entrance instead of having to walk all the way around the station.

but it was also run with enough trains and decent batching so the queue was manageable.

 

[AstroDan]

To be fair, they still run it with enough trains. It's the batching now that slows the whole thing down. You often find trains are stacked up.

 

[Skyscraper]

To be fair, they still run it with enough trains. It's the batching now that slows the whole thing down. You often find trains are stacked up.

Hopefully the new boarding aisles and air gates will rectify that to an extent.

 

[siralgenon]

Hopefully the new boarding aisles and air gates will rectify that to an extent.

Has it got new boarding aisles and airgates?

 

[Skyscraper]

Has it got new boarding aisles and airgates?

Yes, Leek signs posted photos a while back showing numbered bay signs for the Monorail, indicating bay batching is returning. Towers wouldn't use the bays properly without air gates.

 

[Josh]

Yes, Leek signs posted photos a while back showing numbered bay signs for the Monorail, indicating bay batching is returning. Towers wouldn't use the bays properly without air gates.

Or they could be using those numbers to help the staff to batch one group at a time to a specific bay to aid social distancing, as opposed to the mass stampede to the bays there usually is.

Numbering the bays is definitely no concrete evidence that air gates are being installed.

 

[Skyscraper]

Or they could be using those numbers to help the staff to batch one group at a time to a specific bay to aid social distancing, as opposed to the mass stampede to the bays there usually is.

Numbering the bays is definitely no concrete evidence that air gates are being installed.

They won't put guests into the bays without air gates though for safety reasons. That's why they always cut the line at the top of the ramp, and only let guests onto the platform once a train had parked. Without gates someone could easily fall onto the track, which Towers unsurprisingly want to avoid.

 

[jon81uk]

They won't put guests into the bays without air gates though for safety reasons. That's why they always cut the line at the top of the ramp, and only let guests onto the platform once a train had parked. Without gates someone could easily fall onto the track, which Towers unsurprisingly want to avoid.

which I still find ridiculous. Almost all public transport train systems have unprotected platform edges. It should be possible for guests to be responsible enough to wait on a monorail platform, same as they can on a tube train or any other train platform.

 

[AT86]

They won't put guests into the bays without air gates though for safety reasons. That's why they always cut the line at the top of the ramp, and only let guests onto the platform once a train had parked. Without gates someone could easily fall onto the track, which Towers unsurprisingly want to avoid.

This still doesn’t mean that air gates are being installed.

Train pulls into station.
Staff then direct guests to numbered bays to ensure social distancing.
Monorail doors then open and guests board.

It could actually slow down loading on the monorail - not speed it up.

 

[Skyscraper]

which I still find ridiculous. Almost all public transport train systems have unprotected platform edges. It should be possible for guests to be responsible enough to wait on a monorail platform, same as they can on a tube train or any other train platform.

A lot of tube stations have doors now, and as was mentioned a few pages back, Walt Disney World's Monorail stations have air gates.

We will just have to wait and see when the rides open on April 12. Do we think the monorail will open on that date or later?