New Disneyland monorails

The new Monorails just arrived at Disneyland and man, they are h4wt! Be sure to check out the OC Register's gallery of these massive beasts being transported and craned into place.

The first new monorail car in two decades slid onto the Disneyland track on Thursday as the theme park prepares for guests to ride it starting in late February.

Link (Thanks, Justin!)

(Image: New monorail arrives at Disneyland, downsized and cropped, original by Paul Hiffmeyer, Disney)

• [Alex]

  Do the new ones still make that deafening “PSHHHHHH” sound when the doors close?

• [TypoBoy]

  If you want a driverless system that would be less expensive and might work better than a driverless monorail consider CyberTran: http://www.cybertran.com/

  A variation on PRT, where trains are small automated, and calculate schedules on the fly based on demand — 24 hour availability, reasonably direct routes no waiting. Because most of the cost of rail is in track, and these use lighter tracks overall cost is lower. So more convenient and less expensive. The downside: only prototypes have been built. Until a beta version, a live test version, is built we won’t know that these will work in the real world. They have been tested with extensive simulations, quarter scale models, and even a quarter mile run of working prototypes. So a real world test would be the next step.

• [Xenu]

  That looks rad.

  Are the trains driverless? Modern train systems don’t really *need* a driver, and it would be cool to sit up front.

• [Santos]

  Perfect! If we can get Disney to build a loop track from Anaheim to Downtown L.A. to LAX via Santa Monica and return to Disneyland through Long Beach and Costa Mesa.

• [Rick.]

  Damn. I was just there a couple weeks ago and rode the Monorail for the first time in probably 15 years. Wish I’d waited a bit! (It was cool to ride the subs again though.)

• [ndgmtlcd]

  I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned the Las Vegas monorail yet. It’s the exact same technology as the Disney monorails, with only a few tweaks by Bombardier.

  It’s the best example of a long, useful center-city public transit monorail in North America. Even the cost overruns are instructive.

• [UkuleleElvis]

  How often would you visit Disneyland each year Cory?

  I’m curious!

• [JakeK]

  What I would like to know is why Southern California doesn’t go monorail like Disneyland instead of light rail? Monorail is faster to put up since it doesn’t have to be built onsite. It’s off the ground so has a smaller footprint and is out of the way of impatient idiots that end up getting killed on the tracks. It’s quieter and faster so doesn’t have to creep through cranky neighborhoods.

• [schmod]

  #1: Driverless ATO trains are indeed quite popular these days, with systems such as Bombardier’s Advanced Rapid Transit becoming popular for the construction of new lines.

  However, implementing such a system requires an investment far more considerable than rolling stock alone. Switching, platform and signaling equipment all need to be retrofitted as well. For a system as small and proprietary as the Disneyland monorail, it’s wouldn’t be all that surprising if the cost of an ATO system far outstripped any of the alternatives.

  #5: Read up on Seatlle’s monorail woes. Although political corruption played a big role in the demise of the project, it’s done a pretty good job of scaring off any prospective monorail buyers. The situation with their current monorail hasn’t been pretty either.

  Monorails also have some fundamental problems — switching is extremely difficult, and although accidents are rare, evacuations are extraordinarily difficult and dangerous.

  I’d be very surprised if any new monorails ever got built (on the other hand, I’d *really* like to see a Gyro Monorail in operation…)

• [zenhammond]

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• [Jake von Slatt]

  Why the hell can’t I ride one of these to work and were the F&%$ is my jet pack!?

  @XENU – unless things have changed you can ride up front with the driver, at least in Orlando. Just get in the first stall and they’ll often let a few people into the drivers compartment as the last of the passengers are boarding the train.

• [Taryl]

  All I want to add is, “Por favor mantengan se alejado de las puertas.” ;)

• [dannysland]

  ZENHAMMOND: “Is it just me or does that design (and paint job) just totally fall into the lame zone?”

  It’s just you.

  This version is a very knowing update of the original 1950s design. It’s as if Detroit came out with a new version of a big-finned car, but made it look modern. There are clever, subtle echoes of the old Bob Gurr design.

  To use my girlfriend’s term — it’s “swoopy”!