‘Express Gondola Service’ Being Considered to Carry Tourists to Disney Theme Parks, Convention Center

The Disney Skyliner aerial gondola system at Walt Disney World in Florida connects EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and several large hotels.

By DUANE ROBERTS
Editor & Publisher

The City of Anaheim is considering an aerial gondola system that would carry tourists to Walt Disney theme parks and the Anaheim Convention Center, according to a copy of a seven-page document The Anaheim Investigator obtained through a California Public Records Act request. The document in question, entitled “Anaheim Resort Mobility Plan–Key Recommendations,” reflects a radical departure from what was previously reported: that the city was primarily focused on building a network of streetcar lines to connect the Platinum Triangle and Anaheim Resort.

Though this document mostly consists of mundane proposals to ease traffic congestion, it contains a startling revelation. On the first page, under the subheading “Transit,” one key recommendation is to create an “Express Gondola Service–two routes from ARTIC,” the city’s main bus and train terminal. The first route would “align with Disney Way and potentially connect to the proposed pedestrian bridge at Harbor/Disney,” a stop within walking distance of Disneyland and California Adventure theme parks. The second would “provide access to the convention center.”

A map that was included, entitled “Transit Recommendations Overview” and marked “DRAFT,” is also revealing. Not only does it offer a visual representation of where two routes of the proposed aerial gondola system would go, but it mentions “Planned Streetcar Stops” without showing where that line will be. But The Investigator believes, based on circumstantial evidence, that the streetcar is being referred to euphemistically as the “Potential At-Grade Transit Connection.” It would travel east and west along Katella Avenue, from ARTIC to Harbor Boulevard.

Map shows two routes of the proposed aerial gondola system.

Last month, The Investigator reported that it obtained about 1,000 pages of internal documents showing Mayor Harry Sidhu quietly resurrected the controversial Anaheim Rapid Connection streetcar project that was shelved by the previous mayor in 2017. In the dozens of emails, memos, invoices, meeting agendas, maps, and audiovisual presentations that were reviewed, most discussions focused on using streetcars to shuttle tourists and workers between the Platinum Triangle and Anaheim Resort. There was little talk about aerial gondola systems.

But cryptic references to it have popped up here and there. For example, at the March 5, 2019 “State of the City” address, when Mayor Sidhu announced he was setting up a Transit Options Task Force, he said the city should explore new transit technologies, pointing out that in Florida “Disney is testing gondola systems to connect hotels to theme parks.” Furthermore, internal emails show city staff has communicated with Fehr & Peers, a consulting firm that worked on a “feasibility study” for the Georgetown-Rossyln Gondola project in Washington, D.C.

The Georgetown-Rossyln Gondola project in Washington, D.C.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, all discussions about transit options to connect the Platinum Triangle and Anaheim Resort either slowed down or were put on hold. Everything came to a standstill late last year when the U.S. Department of Transportation rejected a request by city staff for $2.379 million in BUILD grant program funds to pay for planning of a streetcar. Nevertheless, as more people get vaccinated and life returns to “normal,” this matter will soon come back to life. But for now, we know that streetcars aren’t the only things being planned for.