Anaheim considering new gondola system to Disneyland

Let's say you are visiting and wanted to take a train from LAX to Disneyland. When the LAX people mover opens next year, you can take that to the new LAX/Metro transit center and pick up the Metro C-line to Norwalk. Then you take the Metrolink from Norwalk to ARTIC.

Except that the Metro station in Norwalk is located three miles away from Norwalk's Metrolink station, requiring a 15-minute bus ride between the two. Best case, you are looking at about an hour and a half, total, for that trip.

So the "last mile" between ARTIC and DLR is not the only problem here.

There is a zero percent chance this is done before the Olympics. How long has California been working on the high speed rail project? The permitting and environmental reviews alone will take four years. Someone will ultimately sue because there is an endangered species will be impacted. The San Bernardino kangaroo rat prevented the filling of California's Seven Oaks Dam reservoir, and the delta smelt affect how much water can be pumped out of the fish’s habitat in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta during the wildfires to name two recent examples. I am all for a solution to the transportation issues getting to the park, but this isn't happening in the next four years. Plus, as Robert points out, the last three miles is not the only issue...

@MLB - You're absolutely right. Even if the city broke ground today on a transportation solution, which assumes all those lengthy environmental impact studies have already been completed, there is no way they could finish a project of this scope in less than 3 years. Over here in my neck of the woods, the DC region has one of the most bloated boondoggles in the history of transportation projects with the "Purple Line". After nearly 20 years of back and forth and debate on the form of an east/west transit corridor to connect the current Orange and Red lines of the Metro subway system, leaders settled on a mostly street-level light rail concept that would start in New Carrolton (end of the Orange line) and end in Bethesda (halfway up the western leg of the Red line). For some perspective, this discussion started when I was in college at the University of Maryland (in the mid 90's), which is now being bisected this project. The original budget was $2 billion, and when the pandemic slowed construction in 2020, it had already consumed over half of its budget, forcing the original contractor to walk away due to "unforeseen" costs and inability to recover losses incurred during the initial phases of construction. By the time a new contractor was brought on board, the budget had ballooned to $3.4 billion with overall costs to build, operate, and maintain the new line through 2057 to nearly $10 billion. While the Pandemic was part of the reason for slowed construction and was partially responsible for the original contractor walking away from the project, the overall construction timeline has dragged on seemingly forever with a planned completion date of 2022 now anticipated in 2027.

The lesson, massive transit projects are really hard and expensive, and the rules put in place to ensure fair contracting, labor, and other considerations typical of publicly financed projects (including P3s), make things even more complicated because there simply isn't profit (at least not enough profit to satisfy the thirst of Wall Street) in building or operating public transit, and municipalities don't have enough money to afford projects of this scale on their own. In other words, unless Anaheim is rolling in dough, a project like a gondola (or light rail or rapid bus) that requires clearing of right-of-way and hard infrastructure like towers, rails, or rebuilt lanes (for a dedicated transit corridor) is not something that could be completed in under 3 years, if at all.

My biggest issue with this is that while it's nice to have a direct link between Disneyland and the local transit hub (ARTIC), the question is how many Disneyland visitors would actually travel to the resort through ARTIC? Transfers are the bane of public transit, and it's been proven time and time again that when given the option, riders will NOT choose public transit if they have to make more than 2 connections. This is true even when traveling within the same system, and even more likely when multiple systems/modes are involved (even when separate systems have integrated payment and schedules). The reality is that if people can get to ARTIC either by driving or in a single bus/rail trip, a transfer there to Disneyland would be a popular option. But for riders who have to change lines or take multiple modes of transit just to get to ARTIC, that final leg to Disneyland is not going to make any difference in persuading people to choose public transit over a car trip (either personal car or Uber/taxi/rideshare) straight to the Resort. I don't know what the overall usage numbers are for ARTIC and how many people currently use the hub as a way to get to Disneyland, but establishing a direct public transit link to the Resort probably won't move the needle enough to justify the cost of a line that will be perceived by the public as a service to a private company. Maybe if Disney were coerced into helping to pay for the link (frankly Disney probably knows that such an investment is probably not beneficial from the company's standpoint), Anaheim could justify the expense, but as a straight public works (or even a P3), the juice probably just isn't worth the squeeze with so many other transit issues facing the City.

Let's say that this project really does begin, but they fall behind schedule due to environmental concerns. Well now they're partway through construction of a major transportation system during the Olympics. If this even begins to fall behind schedule, they should cancel it before it causes more problems later down the line.

All I could think of was the Gondola in the Sky at Disney World.

hahahahahahaha

There is no way this is happening by the Olympics in less than three years. Lead time for a new Doppelmayr gondola (the ones who built WDW's Skyliner) is 2-3 years, so they would pretty much need to be signing contracts now to ensure it was ready. Even if they did, with all the regulatory hurdles in California, I'd say a five year timeline is optimistic for something of this scope, and that's assuming any property owner affected is willing to play nice. It's fun to think about, but it really is something that should have been in the planning phase back when the Olympic bid was secured.

Honestly, were it actually built, I might use it once for the novelty, but couldn't see it replacing driving. For me, it is a 30-40 minute drive to Disneyland depending on traffic conditions. Were I to take public transit, I'd be looking at either a drive of up to 20 minutes or a bus ride of up to 40 minutes to get to the station, plus the 30 minute train ride, plus the transfer time from ARTIC to the DLR. I'd also have to leave the resort by 9:30 P.M. in order to ensure I catch the last train home, which means a loss of precious time on my once a year (or less) visit to the resort.

Public transport to DLR is one of the biggest headaches and drawbacks to visiting the property.

The only viable options are to rent a car or to take an Uber/Lyft/Taxi - all are extremely expensive options. I refuse to spend $180+ round trip from LAX to DLR when my plane ticket from clear cross the entire country cost about the same.

When taking into account costs of plane fare, hotel, park tickets, then the non public transport issue - it’s just not worth it. I’d rather spend the money on going to Tokyo Disney.

I am a huge public transit guy and even I will admit a gondola system would be a huge eyesore and most of the gondola's would be empty.

I've been saying for decades that Anaheim has always been thinking too small. DLR is/has the potential to be one of the biggest tourist destinations in the western hemisphere...the city, county, DLR, Angels, and Ducks all need to get on the same page and think bigger. It would make sense for them to buy/eminent domain some of the land around DLR, build an actual real transit hub that serves the park and convention center, find some better way to use the Toy Story Lot/Angels Stadium sites (which is a huge plot of land for a subpar facility...to put it nicely). DLR is the money printer and it badly needs better transit and more land for expansion, the Angels and Ducks both have embarrassingly bad facilities. Get in a room, make a plan, spend the money...do it all the right way.

I'll believe it when I see it. Unless California becomes Abundance-pilled overnight, this project will not happen before it goes billions of dollars overbudget and decades behind schedule. We need at least two years of public comments, another two or three years to get contractor bids, and then another two to three years of start/stop work due to the project running out of money because of all the completely necessary and helpful environmental reviews. Won't someone think of the poor Peninsular Leaf-toed Geckos that could potentially be displaced by this project!

In all seriousness, I honestly think this is a step in the right direction, and would love to see it completed. Robert brings a good point about getting from LAX, and the_man makes another good point about making DLR more of a destination resort.

Rather than focus on getting tourists from LAX over to DLR, there could be an opportunity to connect John Wayne Airport (SNA) to ARTIC directly. I get that LAX is over 7X the size of SNA, and the vast majority of visitors would fly into LAX due to airline routes, but if even a small percentage of visitors had the ability to get to DLR from SNA, that may mean fewer travelers in the LAX glut and fewer cars on the road.

It's not everything, but it's not nothing!

Depending on time of day, that is not a safe walk, so this makes sense. And yes Robert, as someone who use to commute from OC to LA, that Norwalk switch is a major wrench in making an easy commute in either direction. Not only does it add significant time, but it can really go fowl when you miss the bus. On top of that, Norwalk isn't safe. I had to call the cops once when some young thugs where assalting random strangers at the train station. The thugs had moved on before I left the station, and before the cops had arrived.

This gondola has been the bane of my existence for the past 4 months.

In May, the company behind this gondola project, Swyft Cities, proposed a gondola system for Irvine, CA (only 30 minutes south of Anaheim). Since then, I’ve had the chance to talk to numerous individuals associated with the proposal, including the Co-Founder of Swyft Cities, the mayor of Irvine, and several members of the Irvine City Council.

What nobody is telling you is that Swyft Cities is completely unprepared to take on this type of project. They are a startup founded in 2021 with only 13 employees and 0 completed projects under their belt. Going deeper, the "gondola" functions more like an autonomous vehicle than a traditional gondola, as each individual gondola car will be motorized. The main problem with this approach is that it has never been built or tested, even in Swyft's own warehouses. The code for these self-driving gondolas hasn't been written, they haven't been an operational self-driving gondola car yet, etc.

So, in other words, a startup that has never built anything before is claiming to be able to build a new type of gondola, even though they haven't even tested the concept in any real capacity themselves. Just today, their project in Irvine was effectively canned. I suspect that this project will soon meet the same fate.

Here's a link to an OC Register article with some additional info on the project: https://www.ocregister.com/2025/06/04/irvines-secret-contract-grounds-gondola-fantasy/