Power outage on MK Monorail

[peaches magee]

http://i50.tinypic.com/34tcydi.jpg



ORLANDO, Fla. -- Emergency crews rescued passengers aboard a monorail train at Walt Disney World early Sunday morning after they were stranded for nearly three hours because of a power failure to the system, authorities said.

According to the Reedy Creek Fire Department, the monorail system went down at about 1 a.m., affecting seven trains and stranding numerous passengers on the red train near the Magic Kingdom, many of whom had to be rescued by emergency personnel.

Three of the seven trains were carrying passengers, two of which were towed into a station where riders could exit. Three other trains were at a station when the incident occurred, and another train was empty, Local 6 News reported.

Passengers aboard the red train contacted Local 6 News at about 3:15 a.m., describing the condition inside the train as "stuffy, muggy and hot."

"The monorail just shut down and came to a stop," said a woman aboard the train who had a 3-month-old with her. "The lights turned off, the air conditioner turned off, and then the pilot said we're experiencing technical difficulties."

Other children were also aboard the red monorail, and Reedy Creek Fire Department emergency personnel used a ladder truck to remove several people, according to witnesses. Passengers also helped each other exit the monorail through the roof of the train, witnesses said.

The exact number of stranded passengers was not immediately known, and no injuries were reported.

The cause of the malfunction is not known.

The red train was later moved to the Ticket and Transportation Center.

In a statement released Sunday morning, Disney said, "Our commitment to safety guides all we do and this is the type of situation we train for with Reedy Creek. We extend our apologies to guests who were affected and are working directly with them."

Disney said the monorail system was restored to full operation at 7:30 a.m.

clickorlando.com

Video here: http://www.clickorlando.com/video/21953441/index.html

[Allie086]

wow glad I wasn't on that!

[BeachGurl]

Yeah that would really suck. Stuck on their for 3 hours in that heat?! It gets hot enough in there even when the AC is working.

[peaches magee]

2 hours with no A.C.?! I would be a monster to deal with let me tell you. That woman with the 3 month old, that is horrible. Wonder why it took SO long to get them out of there?

[JaredtheQuad]

Wow that would be horrible!! It seems like all the accidents happen at WDW! When I was there this last summer the monorail crashed and the buses crashed too! I can't really recall anything Disney's fault happening lately at DLR. My 29 year old brother actually the electric door thing in Toontown fell on him like 18 years ago, if your in Toontown and you look at the electric company doors that when you try and open them it makes that electricity sound. Well you used to be able to pull open both doors, but when my brother was little he pulled them open and the right door fell off the hinges and fell on him! So if you look closely at the right door you can see the indent of what used to be another doorknob.

[Justin]

"Stuffy,Muggy, and Hot" - Yeah this sounds about right for a fiberglass vehicle.

Glad everything turned out ok!

[HT_NSU]

I'm sorry, but I'd :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: if BigAl was stuck on it. :lol:

[CrustyJuggler]

That must have really sucked for anyone who had to go to the bathroom. Doesn't Disney have something that can tow them in a short period of time during situations like these?

[peaches magee]

OMG did you talk to him HT, was he? :lol:

[BlakeMP]

I'm sorry, but I'd :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: if BigAl was stuck on it. :lol:

I would join you. :lol:

I haven't heard from BigAl today, but I'm assuming he wasn't on it. There would have been a frustrated facebook post via his iPhone if he was.

[HT_NSU]

OMG did you talk to him HT, was he? :lol:

Yeah, I don't expect him to call me until after he gets home to try to rub it in that he was at WDW, :rolleyes: but like Blake said, I'm sure there would have been a tweet or a facebook post from his iphone (since he's become one of those annoying iphone people) had he been on it. :lol:

[BeachGurl]

They released the 911 calls made from the monorails.

http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2009/12/15/disney_monorail_911_calls_released.html

Haven't listened to them yet myself, but the sample transcript is weird. I don't get what they mean by "bucket list". :lol:

[Smitty]

How come I didn't hear this until now. Sheesh. That would have been fun to climb out on top and come down the ladder! :lol: A New Disney RIDE!!!!!

[BeachGurl]

I don't think I'd like sitting in that thing for 3 hours.

Does make me wonder what all those guests got out of it though... :lol:

[WDWTigger72]

I enjoyed riding the monorail during our vacation, but getting stuck on it really isn't too much fun at all. We had just left earlier that day, and we know the Magic Kingdom was staying open until 1:00AM that night. We had one break down a few days earlier and it was towed into the station to let people off. Also, I cannot remember for the life of me if the Red Monorail was an express monorail, or a resort monorail...I think it maybe a Resort Monorail but haven't had time to go through the pictures yet. The saturday before this incident the Magic Kingdom was pretty packed until closing, so I am sure it was even more a mob scene just a few weeks before christmas. While we where staying on property the resort monorail broke down, and they exited everybody from the monorail waiting at our station. The disney folks brought in extra buses to go to the Magic Kingdom, and stated the boats where in the back, but honestly by the time we made it down there it would be a mob scene and they cannot hold as many people. The bus stop was packed and by the time we made it back up on the monorail they had it running again, we where about 20 minutes late for our dinner reservation, but the restaurant was well aware of the monorail breakdown affecting some of their reservations so they where pretty lenient with folks being a little late.

[jme]

I *just* missed this train. Then when the platform CM told us all to take the ferry I was furious I'd have to wake my kids up (both sleeping in the stroller) so we could get on the ferry back to the Poly. When I heard about the power failure the next day I sure was glad I missed that train, and thankful I got to take the ferry lol

[wvugrrrl]

A friend of a friend was on that monorail - she said they waited and waited after they'd made the 911 calls, with minimal reassurances from the monorail conductor, until finally someone had the idea to call the local news station and tell them what was going on. Interestingly enough, Disney was there within 40 minutes to offload them... :idea:

Personally, we had all sorts of issues with Disney Transportation last week - I've never, in 5+recent years of going to WDW, seen so many problems with busses, monorails, and boats as I did then. I don't know if it was the Pop Warner and all the Pseudo-Mousefest activities that were throwing off Disney's carefully maintained schedule of "what needs to be where," but things were a MESS - we're talking people waiting for busses to value resorts for upwards of 45 minutes (and if the value resorts are off schedule, you KNOW the deluxes aren't running well either! :doh:). I won't even go into the problems I had with the monorail the same evening it broke down! - Let's just say I was over 45 minutes late to a ressie at Citrico's, and I'd left 90 minutes early from Saratoga Springs. :cry:

[jme]

I was there the same week as you WVU, and I can say that my limited experience with the transportation was crazy indeed. We rented a minivan thankfully, so we drove everywhere we could. Monorails were absolutely mobbed, the line to get on the monorail at the poly was backed up to the entrance for Kona Cafe one night...

What was weird for me was it seemed so crowded everywhere yet I was able to walk on Mission Space, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder, Dinosaur, Rapids, Kilimanjaro Safari, MK Speedway, Turtle Talk, Nemo, and a few other things, with no wait at all. More than once!

The only things I actually had to wait for were Toy Story, Soarin and Winnie The Pooh... :shrug:

[BigAl_PT]

Nope wasn't on it. I actually didn't hear about it until 2 days later. We WERE at the MK that night but left early to beat the crowds and get some rest.

[Sledge]

I was with a friend tonight who received a text message saying another monorail went down again tonight. Not sure if this is true or not, but if so this will be the third issue in about a month.

This is a bad year for Disney Monorails. From what I hear they have a life expectancy of 15 years, but as you know they are now older than 20 years. Doesn't sound like very long, but consider how frequently they run and how many millions of people they transport each year.

I think it may be time for new monorails. I would love them to keep a similar look though. I'm not a big fan of DLR's.

[HitchHikingGhostFangirl]

I was with a friend tonight who received a text message saying another monorail went down again tonight. Not sure if this is true or not, but if so this will be the third issue in about a month.

This is a bad year for Disney Monorails. From what I hear they have a life expectancy of 15 years, but as you know they are now older than 20 years. Doesn't sound like very long, but consider how frequently they run and how many millions of people they transport each year.

I think it may be time for new monorails. I would love them to keep a similar look though. I'm not a big fan of DLR's.

I've been saying that for years now. Not that that really makes any difference since it's not like what I say has power to change anything, but :lol: basically I agree very much with that statement.

[jeffztt]

IMO, not only is time to get new monorails, it is time to expand them. The distance from Epcot to MGM is so short I can't believe they haven't invested in something to connect the Epcot monorail to the MGM front entrance. If they changed the loop around SSE to have the track go between JIE and Soarin, they are so close to MGM and having connected the North-South parks. That makes more sense to me than having the monorail go through the Swan/Dolphin complex.

Then they just need something to connect from DTD to AK, and the resorts / parks in between. Just think of all of the buses that could be replaced.

[HitchHikingGhostFangirl]

IMO, not only is time to get new monorails, it is time to expand them. The distance from Epcot to MGM is so short I can't believe they haven't invested in something to connect the Epcot monorail to the MGM front entrance. If they changed the loop around SSE to have the track go between JIE and Soarin, they are so close to MGM and having connected the North-South parks. That makes more sense to me than having the monorail go through the Swan/Dolphin complex.

Then they just need something to connect from DTD to AK, and the resorts / parks in between. Just think of all of the buses that could be replaced.

I think even if they did expand the monorail (which I would love) they'd always have the buses. Just like they have both the monorail & boats that go to MK. Some people I'm sure wont ride the monorail.

And plus they need something that can run during bad weather. If they only had the monorail, every time there's lightning everyone would be screwed.

[BigAl_PT]

I would LOVE an expansion of the monorail system. However, that's an incredibly large capital investment that no company, including Disney, can afford or justify right now. You may say that they're making a huge monetary investment and large capital improvements to Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom, and that's true. However, they can justify that because it's increasing the park's capacity and drawing even more visitors. Attractions draw visitors. True people love the monorails but it would be a difficult argument and an even harder "sell" to convince the higher-ups in the Disney company that the cost could truly be justified right now.

[jeffztt]

The financial decision is fairly easy to determine...and I'm guessing up until now they haven't been able to justify the expense or possibly the disruption in service to the existing line. I would think the maintenance and labor differences of the buses would be much higher than the monorails and would help justify the initial outlay. I figured the lack of transportation between Epcot and MGM was rushing to open the park, but who knows. I hadn't heard the lightening portion before, do they stop the monorails when lightening is present? In all of my trips, I've never had that happen.