Monorail Incident Update: Disney Feature Removed With Immediate Effect
A recent incident affecting the Walt Disney World monorail has sparked immediate action.
For many diehard Disney parkgoers, the monorail isn’t just a convenient way to get from A to B but an attraction in its own right – and one with plenty of historical importance within The Walt Disney Company.
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The first Disney monorail debuted at Disneyland Resort in 1959. Unveiled by Walt Disney himself (with an opening ceremony attended by then-Vice President Richard Nixon and his family), it marked the first daily operating monorail system in the world.
Its original route took guests on a simple loop around Tomorrowland, but two years later, its track was expanded by 2.5 miles to transport guests to and from the Disneyland Hotel. Today, guests can board the Disneyland monorail system in one of two spots: the Tomorrowland station above Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage and the Downtown Disney District station.
This monorail quickly became an iconic feature of the Disney park, symbolizing Disney’s optimistic vision of the future. When Walt Disney World Resort debuted just over a decade later, it did so with its own monorail system in tow (with Tokyo Disney Resort also adding a line in 2001).
Considering the resort’s size compared to Disneyland, Disney World’s system was more about necessity than anything else, transporting guests between the parking lots at the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC) to the entrance of Magic Kingdom Park.
Today, this system spans a whopping 14.7 miles with twelve Mark VI monorail trains on three lines: one between the TTC and Magic Kingdom (the Magic Kingdom Express Line), one that runs clockwise from the TTC through the resorts dotted around Seven Seas Lagoon, plus Magic Kingdom (Magic Kingdom Resort Line), and one which runs on a continuous loop between the TTC and EPCOT (aptly named the EPCOT Line).
Efficient though it may be, this system hasn’t had the smoothest history. Over the years, the Disney World Monorail System has experienced a handful of incidents. The most serious occurred on July 5, 2009, when two monorail trains collided near the TTC, resulting in the death of a monorail operator. This was the first (and only) fatal accident in the system’s history.
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Other incidents have included technical malfunctions leading to emergency evacuations, such as a 2014 event where 120 passengers were stuck for over an hour due to a power outage caused by a lightning strike before being evacuated. Similar breakdowns have happened since, with paramedics responding after guests got stuck on the monorail without air conditioning in 94-degree heat.
Last week, another incident occurred on Disney World’s monorail system thanks to severe weather in the area. As the theme park resort was struck by a thunderstorm (as is the case on a near-daily basis in Orlando), high winds sent the American Flag that typically stands at the resort’s Transportation and Ticket Center under the tire of Monorail Yellow, forcing the vehicle to stop.
A video shared on TikTok by @outatdisney shows the flag’s rope caught under the tire, seemingly pulled loose from its usual pole by the wind.
hope everyone onboard is okay and they get it back to running soon. #disneyparks #disneymonorail #waltdisneyworld #disneytransportation #ttc
@outatdisney hope everyone onboard is okay and they get it back to running soon. #disneyparks #disneymonorail #waltdisneyworld #disneytransportation #ttc
As per Blog Mickey, the flag has since been removed and is yet to be returned. When or if it’ll reappear in the TTC remains to be seen. However, we wouldn’t be surprised if Disney made some changes to avoid a similar situation – which could easily have been more dangerous than it thankfully was – happening in the future.
Are you Team Monorail or Team Ferry when visiting Walt Disney World Resort?
