Note: runs faster than actual high-speed rail.
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Then you may want to be reminded of this nightmare:
Glad to see the new concept train for Amtrak in action. We’re taking back rail.
Its definitely faster that anything running in the Eastern I-95 Corridor.
But its a lot s-l-o-w-e-r than any high speed rail in Europe, Japan or China.
We can thank GM together with Standard Oil of California (now Chevron), Firestone, and other auto-related firms for setting up a holding company that bought up trolley lines, dismantled them, and replaced them with smelly diesel buses.
Big Money giving us a massive “FUCK YOU UP THE ASS!!!”
You know, as I listened to (part of) these videos I couldn’t help but think that “ITS TOO FRIGGIN’ NOISY!”
This is supposed to be fun? Screw that!
why why waste money on this Amtrak has never made a profit we have air travel out the wazzoo so why build trains, waste tax dollars on something no one will ride .
quit subsidizing Amtrak and let the free market fix the mess the govt made
Did I see Justin Beiber?
I always liked the people mover at disneyland… then they replaced it with those stupid rocket cars… and then pulled those… now it’s just empty track looking pathetic around the park…
40+ years later the two best Disney rides are still Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion.
OMG!!! glad i could never afford to go to a disney theme park, you spend more time going from section to section then there is anything to see in them… what a waste of money… i wanted to throw myself in front of this ‘train’ to end it all.
horrible… just horrible
Twice as boring as I remember it. One visit to Disneyland and one visit to Disneyworld/Epcot and I was done forever. No need to go back. Bah humbug!
Nobody goes to Disneyland anymore because it is too crowded.
#9 You definitely have something there. One should note that these are the last 2 rides that Walt Disney had a major hand in developing. Pirates more so than the Mansion, and it shows. Even after the politically correct and Jack Sparrow revamps, Pirates of the Caribbean is the best ride there.
But Space Mountain, Indian Jones and Star Tours aren’t bad.
Not that it matters much. Disneyland’s entry fees got too much for me to stand about 5 years ago, and apparently, they aren’t rich enough, as they just raised them again!
Personally I misse the hokey submarine ride that used to be at the Anaheim ark.
#4 While technically true, the writing was on the wall for the trolley lines. They were facing economic factors that would lead to their demise anyway. Most importantly, was the need to maintain a huge infastructure of rails and wires in the streets that, they could not afford to replace. Add to that the regulatory environment of the time which kept them from raising fares, 25 cents a gallon gasoline, new urban and suburban freeways popping up everywhere, a public lust for the luxury of private cars, moving to the suburbs that weren’t served by the trolleys anyway, etc.
While GM et al are guilty as charged, they only acted as a catalyst. One should note that the private trolley companies that they took over and replaced with buses still lost money and were nearly all wards of the state within 10 years.
While this PeopleMover attraction doesn’t go terribly fast (only 7 mph), the technology has the ability to do much more and go much faster. The same technology shown here, developed by Walt Disney’s team at WED (now Walt Disney Imagineering) is used to accelerate the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith at Disney’s Hollywood Studios from 0 to 60 mph in fewer than three seconds. However, this system has the power to accelerate infinitely.
The United States Navy is currently exploring the possible use of the technology to launch jets from aircraft carriers more quickly. NASA is also currently exploring the possible use of the technology for use in the launch of spacecraft.
The noise that can be heard is likely not coming from the ride system itself, because it is designed to operate with little to no sound, as there are no moving parts.
Clearly, it is nothing to be scoffed at.
More information about this technology can be seen on the Walt Disney World episode of Modern Marvels.
# 16 – the linear motor system was invented in Canada in the 70s and is used in Vancouver since 1985. The NY subway link to JFK uses the same technology.
It’s not really good for very high speed trains – the big advantage is in stopping and starting quickly since you have lots of torque and no wheel slippage, so great for subways.
# 17 – This system was made by Walt Disney’s Imagineers for use in the Ford Magic Skyway pavilion at the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair.
See Here:
# 6 PMitchell said:
“why why waste money on this Amtrak has never made a profit we have air travel out the wazzoo so why build trains, waste tax dollars on something no one will ride .
quit subsidizing Amtrak and let the free market fix the mess the govt made”
Every time I’ve ridden on Amtrak it has been packed. If we are to cut the Amtrak subsidy, we should also cut back the TENS OF BILLIONS we spend every year on highways and airports. Compared to that, Amtrak is a drop in the ocean.
“Love for your fellow man” is a wonderful theory that’s debunked promptly when you are forced to spend any length of time with your fellow humans. If they are to compel people to use mass transportation they need to issue either tranquilizers or knives to everyone who boards.
I can see it’s gonna be a knock-down drag-out to keep our private automobiles.
Uh, the People Mover at Disneyland in California was not a linear induction setup like the Vancouver Skytrain. It was powered by electric motor powered wheels with tires embedded every few feet in the roadbed. These motors turned continuously, whether a train was over them or not. Lots and lots of moving parts, just not on the trains themselves.
Skytrain uses linear induction where magnets embedded in the roadway attract the train forwards. No moving parts needed to move the train.
High speed rail as envisioned in the US doesn’t seem likely to profitable unless all other forms of transit become prohibitively expensive and some way is found to make the rail service cost a sane price.
The people with money will fly long distances and the people without more convenient means of transport will ride the bus.
The bus lines may not be trendy but they are still in business. Greyhound now services my little burg after dropping us for a few years. You can still take the bus to and from a great many locations in the US not served by passenger trains or airlines.
#2 John C Dvorak – The People Mover is in Tommorowland. It’s a Small World is in Fantasyland. Tommorowland had extensive renovations done to it. Now, major renovations are occurring in Fantasyland.
#23 – The entire city of EPCOT was not going to be domed, but rather, the international shopping center at the very center of the city, with the cosmopolitan hotel to be placed at the center.
See Here:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kcOhS_A3tnc/SC9JFlkMC2I/AAAAAAAAARk/DHexAhLOvEg/s1600-h/dgfold4.jpg
As for the cars, they certainly would have been allowed, but they would have existed only underneath the city, as public transportation options, such as monorails and the WEDWay PeopleMover, would have been more efficient and prevalent within the city.
See Here:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kcOhS_A3tnc/SC9Cb1kMCqI/AAAAAAAAAQE/eOtDngVd0vU/s1600-h/transportation_lobby_large.jpg
EPCOT was also designed to be very pedestrian-friendly.
The Airline industry is heavily subsidized by tax dollars. Probably far more so than the rail system. Air traffic control across the country is under federal control. That’s how Reagan was able to fire those striking controllers, back in the 1980s. I don’t know if the Airlines kick anything into paying for all the radar and operations personnel. But I tend to doubt it. They put more money into modern computerized ticket reservation systems. Than they ever did in modernizing approach radar systems at airports. Relying on the Feds to keep old obsolete radar systems going with vacuum tube based technology. At one time the US government was the largest buyer of vacuum tubes for such system. Supposedly, by the 1990s, these were all phased out and replaced. But a 1998 Tv movie drama claimed otherwise (“A Wing and a Prayer”). I still remember some actor fixing a problem by using a rubber band, to install a large vacuum tube into a shielded socket. Pointing out such problems with airports, probably didn’t make this a popular movie, to repeat.
So just like National Health Care. The US can’t have modern high speed railways, compared to the rest of the industrialized world. The US can only, mostly, have air travel. And safety of that, has been steadily been whittled down, for cost savings, by deferring maintenance to secondary entities, not owned by the airlines. And final leg routes, contracted out to less regulated regional carriers. Which account for the majority of the crashes we hear about. Add to this all the intrusive body searching, mainly to protect the airlines’ bottom line. Which is also paid for by tax dollars (TSA).
#22 “unless all other forms of transit become prohibitively expensive and some way is found to make the rail service cost a sane price.”
You mean like when oil runs out?
#25 Justin – Great pictures.
I’ll take a future shown on the top floor of the interior picture, with its monorails and people movers, over automobiles, any automobiles. I probably wrote about this before, but shifting the tax burden from gasoline & diesel to electric or wherever is going to be difficult.
Below is a link to the homemade documentary film, Disneyland Dream. It was added to the National Film Registry in 2008. It’s 30 minutes long & describes a family winning a trip to Disneyland in 1956. Great historical images of Disneyland after it has been open just one year. According to comedian Steve Martin, he’s the boy with the top hat at about the 20 minute mark. It’s as far away in time to us now as Main Street, U.S.A. was to this family.
http://archive.org/details/barstow_disneyland_dream_1956
Here’s a more recent video that does the attraction justice:
Our state fairgrounds had a monorail that was made of cheap fibreglass and used automobile tires as runners.
It felt like the future, provided you was from the year 1910.