New Driverless Monorail for Disneyland!

[Adam]

Disney has recently talked about their plans to upgrade the monorail system at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim (and then later at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida). The concept art for the new attraction is pretty cool. The system will also be fully automated with no more drivers (allowing the trains to travel closer together and run more efficiently). Insane? Yes. Will we ever see one at the 'Dreamworld Resort'?

[Chaos-Maniac]

Once again, Putting people out of a job. But hey, A monorail with a mind of its own! I'd love to see this be put in at SeaWorld, Be a good update.

[tom]

Yeah I agree. Putting people out of jobs isn't very nice... Saves them money I guess. Not that they need it. I know for a fact that Disney World emply 57 000 people which is constantly growing. But I guess thats technology for you. Got to move with the times, especially if it allows a better service. But so cool!! Driverless! Thats mad!!

[Richard]

Walt Disney's vision for the monorail system at Disneyland was to showcase the most revolutionary transport system available. It was intended as an ever-evolving system - the fact that these are the seventh design of monorail train that Disney have introduced indicated that. When you think about the cost that would be associated with developing this technology, I think it's safe to say that it wasn't a decision made to cut costs but rather to advance the technology. The trains will I'm sure still have attendants onboard. This is great news. Though the Disneyland Monorail is a fantastic attraction, it pales incredibly compared with Walt Disney World's amazing system. Though unlike WDW's, Disneyland's was never intended as a transport system so much as just a showcase, the current generation of trains are going on 20 years old and they're certainly showing signs of aging. It'll be great to see airconditioning finally! All they need to do now is extend the WDW network to include all the parks and Disney's monorail systems will be perfect.

[Adam]

There are rumours flying around about a proposed $650 million (USD) dollar upgrade to Disney's California Adventure that, among many other things, would see a complete re-routing of the existing monorail track. The new track would circle the entire DCA park and link up to a new hotel. Included in the massive 5-year renovation budget is also plans for a complete re-themeing of portions of the park and several new e-ticket attractions. Everything would be finished by 2011 in time for the park’s ten year anniversary. Apparently on a good day there are less than 200 single-day tickets sold for entry into DCA. Most of the park is made up from 'hopping guests' and annual pass holders. Disney's management certainly know that this park is underperforming, I wonder if it'll be approved, or at least partly-approved.

[myk]

Well personally I loved DCA, the Paradise Pier section in particular. But I did enjoy Twilight Zone - it was amazing. Though if you go to Anaheim you really don't go for DCA, You go for DL - It's probably the world's most recognised themepark.