Monorail Refurbishment

[Ash]

I would assume any decision on the monorail will play into the wider future plans for the park.

If,and it’s a big if, the long term plan is convert the meadows into semi hard standing car park space. It has the space to replace all the existing parking which could be used for more accommodation, resort activities or attraction space (second gate?)

And if the meadows are used it is still an extremely long way for people with kids to get to the entrance so something will need to be put in place.

As others have said, monorail train replacement, monorail extension, second entrance and land trains could all be on the cards.

Much like we’ve seen at CWOA, Thorpe and Warwick recently, Alton has been faltering in long term manor investment and plans for a number of years, hopefully Merlin are stating to put that right and think in the longer term to restablish Alton as the UKs no.1 park.

 

[flyingguitar]

It's about what is the realistic prognosis. If it's down to two trains as has been stated then it is likely to in final stages of life. Trains are expensive to maintain and operate. Not sure they would operate with one, but maybe they would. Replacing trains would be very expensive, and I suspect you would more likely get a new entrance(s) to kill off the thing once and for all.

but there are more than 2 trains that are able to run, they only operate 2 on one day, at Alton despite the system being fully autonomous they have a person in each cab meaning each requires staffing, and often due to the lack of air gates the trains sit at the load station for way to long and when running 3 or more the trains start to stack, so running more than 3 doesn't provide a capacity benefit in its current configuration.

This is a good point, when I’ve been at towers this year it was only the Heritage and Strawberry trains operating, has anybody seen any others running this year?

I wonder if it’s come to the point they’re using other trains (other than the long abandoned Daisy train) for parts.

I have seen four of the trains running this year, the splash train, adventure, strawberry and sea life train, I don't think I have seen the cow or ballon running though for a very long time.

I still think that purchasing 4 new trains alone would run into the tens of millions. But should the odd support or track section be replaced as and when needed on a rolling basis? Can each train be refurbished as needed? I just get this feeling that, rather than upgrading it continuously, they've just kicked it into the long grass every year, and carried on cannibalising other trains.

depending on how the control and how the monorail is driven it varies heavily for a price, if the front one pulls the entire train (like an older type of train) then it would be relatively cheap (but I doubt that is how it works) if each car is driven it could be quite expensive, and then there is the control systems and variety with that being a massive difference in cost, but I doubt it would be more than a couple million per train.

 

[John]

I'll admit I'm not there often enough to confirm whether or not it's always the same 2 trains in use but I really don't think they'd choose to run it on just two trains on busy weekends if they had more available, even with recent budget cuts. You get gaps between trains when it ran 3 but with just two those gaps are long. It certainly started the year with more trains available but I'm convinced at least one has been deemed unserviceable at some point this season

 

[Matt.GC]

I thought they still had a good 4 trains that were still serviceable? Maybe naivety on my part that.

If it is indeed the case that they only have 2 left, then it's not so much another nail in the coffin for what remains of the resort's dignity, but a gravestone, half a tonne of filled in mud, and a vicor saying "from ashes to ashes, dust to dust", with the gravediggers waiting nearby to pat the soil down.

 

[MaxPower]

If rumours of further cost cutting are to be believed, taking the monorail out of service would be a massive overhead slashed in one swoop.

There were plans a decade ago to install a permanent second entrance so we're lucky it's made it this far in all honesty.

It'll be wound down, closed due to 'unforeseen maintenance issues' for a few years until they construct a new entrance in FV, and that'll be it.

It'll be a very sad day when it does close for good, it's been a real icon for the park.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

from ashes to ashes

Ashes to ashes, funk to funky, we know Towers season's been janky, strung out in Heaven's high, hitting an all time low...

 

[WillPS]

How long have they been taking trains offline to harvest for spares ('christmas trees')? Must be a decade at least now.

I'm amazed they've managed to limp on as far as they have.

 

[BarryZola]

Ashes to ashes, dust to Smiler restraint crust, if you're going to Alton Towers, Fastrack or RAPstrack is a must.

 

[Poisson]

At least with so many sat about, if they did want to try upgrading them they can modify one of the demic ones as a prototype

 

[venny]

I keep seeing assertions that the monorail is ruinously expensive to operate, but could someone clarify where this information has come from? They evidently don’t spend much money on cleaning or maintaining it.

 

[Tom]

Do you remember a ride that's been
In such an early generation?
I've heard a rumour from Cost Control
Oh no, don't say it's true!

 

[flyingguitar]

I'll admit I'm not there often enough to confirm whether or not it's always the same 2 trains in use but I really don't think they'd choose to run it on just two trains on busy weekends if they had more available, even with recent budget cuts. You get gaps between trains when it ran 3 but with just two those gaps are long. It certainly started the year with more trains available but I'm convinced at least one has been deemed unserviceable at some point this season

during busy days I often see it running 3, only during less busy (week days) I have seen it running 2 trains.

I thought they still had a good 4 trains that were still serviceable? Maybe naivety on my part that.

I have seen 4 running this season (splash, adventure, strawberry and sea life)

 

[rob666]

Personally, I think they will shut the monorail for good around the time the skyride reopens.
Then they might open a second disabled gate by Galactica, and increase express parking there for greater profits.
Money all the way.

 

[WillPS]

Personally, I think they will shut the monorail for good around the time the skyride reopens.
Then they might open a second disabled gate by Galactica, and increase express parking there for greater profits.
Money all the way.

This is my thinking. Why spend new rollercoaster money when they could instead create an up-charge with minimal investment.

From guest experience perspective it stinks but when has that ever stopped them.

 

[BSwiss]

Personally, I think they will shut the monorail for good around the time the skyride reopens.
Then they might open a second disabled gate by Galactica, and increase express parking there for greater profits.
Money all the way.

Similarly, I think there’s potential for an extra-cost Galactica Gate entrance. Thrillseekers Fast Track or something which might include preferential parking and access through that gate. Paired with a Disabled access through that gate, they could ease the requirement for transfers to the main entrance.

That might even justify the installation of a lower-cost, lower-capacity transport system from parking to main entrance (personally, I vote massive trebuchet).

 

[rob666]

What about one of those super fast zippy conveyor belts they have on the slide at Oktoberfest?

 

[DiogoJ42]

I was going to say they should go for one of those high speed travelators that stretches the floor segments as it speeds up....

.... But we all know they should really go with a floorless omnimover.

 

[Matt.GC]

Those suction tubes out of Futurama would be great.

 

[John]

If the cost of getting it shipped from Canada was prohibitive Broome would have just ordered some new, surely?

My assumption was that he picked up a bargain, but yes civil engineering is expensive there's no two ways. I was told once (back when the monorail was only half as old as it is now, cripes...) that there was a problem with the track supports very early on which caused the whole lot to be overhauled after a season. Just hearsay from someone who worked there at the time.

It's a real sadness to see the Monorail in the state it's in.

Bit late to the party on this one but there were indeed structural issues in the early days. In our company archive we have a copy of an article from a 1990 issue of The Structural Engineer (specifically volume 68, issue 1) that goes into detail about the design and installation of the monorail. As is often the case, the entire process was a massive rush job with the design process starting in March 1987 and the ride due to open in Summer. Due to the time constraints, they designed it with a view to going back later and strengthening some of the foundations once they'd had time to figure out exactly what the effects of thermal expansion would be, presumably just making the whole thing bombproof was cost prohibitive.

The park requested that the track be welded throughout with no expansion joints to make for a smoother ride and due to temperature variations the track would want to expand/contract by up to 1.3m in total, assuming an annual 40 degree ambient temperature range. Unfortunately just before the end of the 1987 season an early frost resulted in several foundation bolts failing before the planned strengthening work could take place that winter. Apparently they failed exactly where they'd predicted strengthening was needed, though I'm not sure how much of a reassurance that was at the time

I may have posted this before, but the article has a quick facts box with basic information about the system. I'm not sure how many trains it would actually have to run to hit the stated capacity figure:

 

[DiogoJ42]

75 seconds between trains‽‽‽ Try sticking a zero on the end of that!