You do realize they do maintain the monorails right? There just comes a point in time where a custom built transportation system gets aged where parts are hard to come by. The monorails were just recently all automated and several have been getting new paint jobs. They do work on these monorails but they are also used every day for roughly 18 Hours a day. They get worn down pretty easily. Of course this incident shouldn’t have happened but I don’t think will prompt Disney to announce new monorails tomorrow or anything.
Honestly, what you just posted sounds more like an argument for a new updated fleet. Nobody is saying to throw immense money at the problem just willy nilly. The trains are many years past their expected lifespan, so it's not unreasonable to be wondering why the big delay. I mean, if they are so old that parts are hard to come by, that should say something right there.
Aren't the parks closing earlier than they have in a long time? Aren't PM EMH hours 2 hours now instead of 3? That should have already given them a little more time for maintenance.
I can think of two incidents within the last couple years. This door and the monorail getting stuck on the beam. Other than that what else was there? It’s not like this is happening every week. Sure the monorails will have some service issues periodically but people are never on them for that usually and then we see extra buses brought in to help the crowds move.
If issues are happening at all, eventually don't you think they'll happen when people are on board?
I’m not assuming to know more than you I just think that some here including yourself believe Disney doesn’t do anything to maintain the monorails. If they weren’t safe to run they wouldn’t run them. Disney isn’t going to purposely put something out there that could harm someone. Are the monorail perfect? Of course not. Do they still do their jobs? Yes.
Of course Disney wouldn't purposely operate an unsafe transportation system. But there are degrees of being "safe". And I do worry that Disney's desire to keep margins at such a high level might cloud the judgment of some managers when it comes to budgeting for maintenance.
Cars, boats, planes, trains, shoes, bikes, skateboards, horses, etc. All have issues and snafus from time to time. That doesn’t mean they still don’t work.
I’m not saying the monorails shouldn’t be updated or replaced but it’s not like people are getting hurt on them or from them. This is the first time this door incident has ever happened.
Disney also has evacuation plans for this kind of stuff and RCID has special equipment to deal with that if those problems arise.
Is this the first door incident? Or just the first one to be caught on video?
We just replaced our primary family vehicle. It was 12 years old. Parts are readily available. But there just reaches a point of diminishing returns. Where it's smarter to take the hit and spend the money than to keep throwing money at it fixing things and suffering through the inconvenience of service issues. And foolish to take chances with safety.
If everyone is holding onto hand rails and or seated clear of doors nobody should fall out. In that respect I don’t think it was just luck.
If something happened to a child we would likely have seen the entire system shut down for who knows how long. Thankfully nothing happened to anyone.
Unfortunately it's Disney's job to be one step ahead of their guests. They know not everyone is old enough to understand the dangers. Or careful enough. Or whatever enough. You can't rely on people to follow the rules. You have to be 100% certain your train will not be in motion with a door open.
I mean, come on. This is the company that put lap bars on Splash Mountain. They KNOW people do stupid things.