"Please stand clear of the doors; Por favor mantanganse alejado de las puertas."
After the Castle and Epcot's Space Ship Earth, Walt Disney Worlds most famous symbols. The WDW Monorail is the form of public transportation that whisks 360 passengers around the property. There are twelve Mark VI monorails currently in use around WDW denoted by differing color bans on the outside. (Red, Coral, Orange, Pink, Gold, Yellow, Lime, Green, Blue, Purple, Silver, Black) There are currently three separate monorail lines that guest can travel on, which can be connected thru a switching system at the ticket and transportation center and on the rail between the Magic Kingdom and Contemporary. This allows for the transferring of monorails to different lines for balancing load and maintenance. The monorail barn (aka The Round House) is located behind the Magic Kingdom along with the transit maintenance area. The first line or Main Line is a direct connection between the Ticket & Transportation Center and the Magic Kingdom. The second line is a resort line which runs parallel to the main line, but also stops off at the Contemporary, Polynesian, and Grand Floridian hotels. This line travels in the opposite direction and is intended for resort guest only, though I don't think they have checked in years. The third line connects the Ticket & Transportation Center with Epcot. You can easily access this line by exiting the main line and walking strait across to the entrance for this line, or up the walk way if you are not switching monorails.
There have been lots of talks over the years about possible future monorail lines, but there is nothing planed in the foreseen future. This is primarily due to the extremely high cost of the concrete beams that make up the monorail line. In practicality running buses directly to resorts and parks is just more cost effective. It is a lot easier to add a buss route if a new resort opens up, but a monorail line is projected anywhere from one million to six-teen million dollars a mile, depending on your source.
The monorails are powered by eight 113 horse power engines for over 600 VDC, drawn from small rails (bus bars) running along the side of the beams. These bus bars are similar to the electrified or "third" rail of a subway train and they are incredibly dangerous. The monorail it self is 203 feet long and has a capacity of 360 guests. The monorail floor is slightly raised above the platform; a portable ramp must be used to load guests in wheelchairs into the center portion of the monorail.
When you have them put the ramp down let them know were you going to be stopping and it is hard if you change your mind, they got to know since they call a head to that next stop you are getting off at.
For those who been to Disneyland here in ca they don't really need to know since you just stop in Downtown Disney. Hopefully they will let the next station know about a wheelchair bond person coming.
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last updated: 4/23/2008