Today In Disney History ~ June 1st
The Walt Disney World Monorail System is a public transit monorail system in operation at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. The Walt Disney World Resort currently operates twelve Mark VI monorail trains on three lines of service. The monorail system opened in 1971 with two routes (Magic Kingdom: Resort and Express) and with Mark IV monorail trains. It was expanded to three lines (Magic Kingdom: Resort and Express, plus Epcot) in 1982, and the rolling stock was updated to Mark VI trains in 1989.
As of 2016, the system is one of the most heavily used monorail systems in the world with over 150,000 daily riders. It is surpassed by the Tokyo Monorail in Tokyo, Japan, which has over 300,000 daily riders and by the monorail system run by Chongqing Rail Transit in Chongqing, China, which has over 900,000 daily riders on Line 2 and Line 3 combined
The Walt Disney World Monorail operates over a span of 14.7 miles (23.7 km), with around 50 million Disney guests traveling on the monorail each year. The system opened with the rest of the Walt Disney World Resort on October 1, 1971. It initially featured four stations: the Transportation and Ticket Center, Disney’s Polynesian Resort, the Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Contemporary Resort. The Epcot line and station were added during that park’s construction, opening on October 1, 1982. The most recent addition was the Grand Floridian station, which was opened in 1988 along with the resort hotel.
The three services on two distinct routes on the Walt Disney World Monorail are:
The Express and Resort services on the dual-beam Magic Kingdom route:
- Express: Express service between the Magic Kingdom and the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC). Express service runs on the outer loop of this route and travels counter-clockwise.
- Resort: Round-trip local service on the inner loop, running clockwise, making stops in order at the Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Contemporary Resort, the Transportation and Ticket Center, Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, and Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa.
The single beam Epcot route:
- Epcot: Service between the Transportation and Ticket Center and Epcot. Service on this route is a single beam running clockwise on the loop.
A spur track at Magic Kingdom station connects the Express and Resort lines to the maintenance shop. Another spur connects the Epcot and Express lines and is located northeast of the Transportation and Ticket Center.
The monorail beams, which are made of concrete with a special polystyrene core to lighten their weight, came by train from the state of Washington.
TMSM Today in Graphic by Sherry Rinaldi DeHart; Wiki
Michele also contributes theme park news for Fox 35 Orlando 11pm news and on the radio on WDBO.
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