I know this must have been discussed before, but...

[Timekeeper]

...why isn't there a peoplemover in TDL? I know there is reason because it would ether be to expensive or some minor written law in Japan's Transportation Laws? Also, just wondering, if was planed to have a peoplemover, than cut at the last minute?


Timekeeper

[Timekeeper]

Anyone?


Timekeeper

[simmer]

You know, I'm just as curious about this myself, especially considering OLC's then-insistence near-replicas of the stateside attractions. Considering how some classic attractions were eventually built later in the park's life (Swiss Family Tree House, for example, didn't open until '93, a whole decade after TDL's opening), my guess is that it was considered, just never built.

[steve76]

I remember reading somewhere that it was just down to the fact that when DL/WDW was built, the people movers were considered futuristic, whereas when they built TDL the Imagineers thought that they were no longer considered futuristic enough. I can't remember where I read that though.

I don't think it's anything to do with transportation laws, as I understand it that only effects things with multiple stops, not a complete round-trip like the people mover (and all other rides at TDL).

[MactheMan]

People Movers and Monorails were commonplace when the resort opened in Japan. The Monorail was still built as a traditional means of transportation, however, but a People Mover didn't belong in Tomorrowland.

[Fukai]

I think it would have been very difficult to put a People Mover in Tokyo's Tomorrowland. Its topography is entirely different. The Tomorrowlands in the parks which already existed at the time of Tokyo's opening--Disneyland and WDW--have a long straight entry into the land. Tomorrowland in Tokyo has no long straight shot at the entrance. It curves around almost from the start and only gets straight after you pass most of the buildings on the right and can see the Rocket Jets in the distance.

[lazyboy97O]

Regulation makes the most sense. The only non-Disney installation of a WEDway PeopleMover at George Bush Intercontinental Airport opened about four months after Tokyo Disneyland, so maybe WED Transportation Systems was hoping to get more orders. There are some who believe that Disneyland actually ended up hurting the monorail establishing its association with entertainment and not "real" transportation, maybe there was a similar concern with the WEDway PeopleMover.

People Movers and Monorails were commonplace when the resort opened in Japan. The Monorail was still built as a traditional means of transportation, however, but a People Mover didn't belong in Tomorrowland.

The Disney Resort Line opened in 2001.

[simmer]

I think it would have been very difficult to put a People Mover in Tokyo's Tomorrowland. Its topography is entirely different. The Tomorrowlands in the parks which already existed at the time of Tokyo's opening--Disneyland and WDW--have a long straight entry into the land. Tomorrowland in Tokyo has no long straight shot at the entrance. It curves around almost from the start and only gets straight after you pass most of the buildings on the right and can see the Rocket Jets in the distance.

Out of curiousity, I looked up Tokyo's Tomorrowland layout and made up a (very simply-drawn) hypthetical PeopleMover route. In a way, it could be possible to put in a PeopleMover, even without the straight-shot entrance (assuming the entrance you're referring to is from the Hub and not World Bazaar):



Just for reference - Yellow = track, and orange = loading rotunda (of course, with the Star Jets being more-or-less on the same level as where the Peoplemovers are Stateside, this could be problematic). Direction of flow would be counter-clockwise.

Obviously, building it in the present day would be impractical. But hey, blue-sky thinking is fun!