• 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

Towers monorail is automatic - the driver just presses a button selecting the destination, e.g. Main Entrance / Maintenance track-switch / Maintenance halt (where staff can exit the front cab via a gang-plank type walkway) or Car park station. They may have some input to control the speed of running depending on weather conditions - i.e. wet or possibly icy main-beam, but that's it. The operator just keeps their hand or finger on the e-stop button for if a track obstruction is seen.

Only place the monorail runs manually is when trains are being added / removed from the system. As to heating... you are joking aren't you? The drivers cabs have small fan-heaters, but those of us who have frozen in the main passenger sections of the monorail on cold days will wonder where the heating is.

The driver only control the doors and the eStop (they might have an enable button too), dispatch is done by the platform operator.
 
What is this crazy-ness, monorail windows you can see out of?!

Riding the EP Express makes you realise how shoddy the Towers monorail has become. It is also a rather chilly -4 degrees in Rust right now, EP Express is running no problem, Towers take note!

49451D2A-78A4-441E-A2AE-209BE16E9328.jpeg
Love the Euro style bus seats
 
I think the purple makes sense It’s not a themed monorail a such, the theme is Alton Towers really so works well being the brand colours.
 
I don’t mind the station being purple, I suppose it matches towers Street and the general theme of towers.

However I’m not a fan of the generic coloured bins and benches dotted around the park. Nothing says historic towers than sitting in front of it on a purple bench with a green bin next to you
 
A Squadding Quads video on the monorail. You can see just how dirty they are.

From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0R3wBs2qIU

Granted not a good look overall, but it is the roofs of the trains and generally they can't be seen, except for the edges and joins of the carriages I suppose. It's no wonder they are as grubby as they are when you see where they are stored during the dampest and coldest parts of the year. A lot of that grime wouldn't exist in the first place if that huge storage area had some sort of canopy over the top protecting them from the worst of the elements. A glorified car-port attached to the maintenance shed if you will.
 
I'm probably in the minority here and maybe it's because I usually walk instead. But I really don't see the point in upgrading the monorail. You're on it for about three or four minutes, it gets you from the carpark to the entrance and that's that. Moan about the queues? Get there earlier
 
I'm probably in the minority here and maybe it's because I usually walk instead. But I really don't see the point in upgrading the monorail. You're on it for about three or four minutes, it gets you from the carpark to the entrance and that's that. Moan about the queues? Get there earlier
It’s reaching the end of its life I think, new trains would be more about keeping it running than making it look shiny again.

Also they do need to do something about the stupid platform policy. Either allow people to wait on the platform like a real train or install air gates.
 
They won't bother with air gates while the monorail is in the state it's in. They'd cost an absolute fortune and require some pretty substantial work to install. With the monorail limping through season to season at the moment, there's no guarantee they'd actually get their money's worth out of them if it were to die a death in a couple of years too.

Until they can a) decide whether or not they're keeping it or going with an alternative mode of transport longer term and b) secure the funding for substantial refurbishment and/or replacement it'll remain as a member of staff opening and closing the gate. It's not great from an operations perspective, but it does the job and doesn't require a massive upfront investment for a system that's not guaranteed to stick around.

With everything going on elsewhere with Duel and Nemesis, I can't see the money forthcoming this closed season.
Quite. The current human method of seeing people on isn’t exactly the best looking but it’s the cheapest at the moment considering how little passengers the monorail is taking. Many forget that years later, Towers are still reeling from that big fine and the cutbacks they made may not be as severe, but are still there in the minority - where they can save, they will. The monorail isn’t getting any younger and just like the Sky Ride, it may one day need new trains. I see some posts on here about it’s being removed completely. I hardly doubt it, it would leave a gaping hole throughout segments of the park. And Nemesis’ helix would seem odd without it diving underneath it.
Can confirm it's 100% the same purple that's used on the entrance plaza, and it's 100% @djtruefitt causing trouble on social media 😂
Someone please tell me the RGB values. 😂
 
Quite. The current human method of seeing people on isn’t exactly the best looking but it’s the cheapest at the moment considering how little passengers the monorail is taking.
But it’s also chicken and egg. The queue is long because they aren’t running efficiently so why get all the trains in working order. But not all the trains work well so why fix the platform issue.
 
I'm probably in the minority here and maybe it's because I usually walk instead. But I really don't see the point in upgrading the monorail. You're on it for about three or four minutes, it gets you from the carpark to the entrance and that's that. Moan about the queues? Get there earlier

It serves more of a purpose for resort guests staying in the hotels/Enchanted Village.

If/when the monorail goes, I think there still needs to be some form of transportation system available, even if it’s limited to resort guests, and those visiting for the day walk. Towers could perhaps create some nicer/wider paths that lead along/past the car parks towards the entrance plaza.
 
If it's just for resort guests they could just get their own minibus and driver and run a shuttle bus service that leaves from the hotel every 25 minutes or so and goes to the entrance plaza and back. Hotel booking confirmation needed to get on board.
 
I'm probably in the minority here and maybe it's because I usually walk instead. But I really don't see the point in upgrading the monorail. You're on it for about three or four minutes, it gets you from the carpark to the entrance and that's that. Moan about the queues? Get there earlier
That's great if you have good mobility...disabled people, families with small children and babies...not as easy.
You are on it for three or four minutes, but is saves an hours walking over what is already a long walking day.
Get there earlier...easy if you live close, not so easy for the majority.
It was an excellent efficient transport system that has suffered death by a thousand cuts, typical of the Merlin ethos of build the new stuff, neglect the old stuff.
 
A lot of resort guests don't use the monorail as they can use the Galactica entrance, though admittedly that's a long walk from the back of enchanted village. Day guests only use the monorail if they're in the main car parks (including J). Before EV and the sheds were built there was also a lot of grass parking beyond the hotels that would have used the monorail but now anyone using overflow parking will walk.

Capacity is probably around 1200/hr these days. On a medium-busy Saturday (say 12k people on park) I'd expect around 2/3 of guests will walk in. The monorail could probably carry twice as many people with more trains and faster boarding (either with gates or just relaxed rules)
 
Top