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The Walt Disney World Resort Monorail System is the most heavily traveled passenger monorail system in the world. Carrying up to 200,000 passengers daily over 14.7 lane miles (23.7 km) of guideway, the line-haul monorail system links the Walt Disney World Resort's largest activity centers. There are Transportation and Ticket Center, Magic Kingdom Park, and Epcot monorail stations, as well as stations at three resorts (Disney's Contemporary Resort, Disney's Polynesian Resort, and Disney's Grand Floridian Beach Resort). The Monorail System incorporates the results of 30 years of research, development, and operation of monorail passenger service.
The monorail concept was originally developed in the early 1900s. One of the first monorail systems was the so-called "suspended" system built in the city of Wupperthal, Germany, in 1901. Other monorail systems were tested in Germany in the 1950s, capturing the attention of Walt Disney, who was then planning the Disneyland Park. The Disneyland Monorail Systemd in 1959. Since that time, it has been upgraded with several new generations of trains. The current Mark V monorail trains began operating at Disneyland Park in 1986.
In 1971, the Walt Disney World Resortd in Florida with a fleet of Mark IV monorail trains. The system was expanded in 1982 with an extension to the new Epcot theme park. In 1984, following an international competition, Bombardier, the largest mass-transit manufacturer in North America, was licensed by the Walt Disney Company to produce a new fleet of monorail vehicles, known as the Mark VI Monorail. This new fleet of Bombardier-built Mark VI Monorail vehicles began operating at the Walt Disney World Resort in 1989 with a 30 percent increase in system capacity. This higher capacity design allowed for a mix of seated and standing passengers.
The Monorail System is a safe system and has one of the best safety records of any type of transportation system. Built to Walt Disney Company specifications, Bombardier's Mark VI Monorail is the first urban transit vehicle to use an all-composite car body that meets or exceeds U.S. standards for flammability, smoke, and toxicity. Other significant improvements over the older Mark IV vehicles include bi-parting transit doors, a new improved suspension design, increased air conditioning capacity, increased interior height for standees, and a sophisticated multiplexed monitoring system that provides improved diagnostics and reliability.
Today, the Walt Disney World Resort Monorail System includes 12 Mark VI monorail trains that carry more than 50 million passengers annually and can operate at speeds of up to 45 mph. Each six-car monorail train has a length of 203 ft., 6 in. and an overall height of 10ft., 5 1/2 in. The monorail train travels on a 26-inch-wide concrete beamway supported by tapered concrete columns. The vertical support columns are located every 110 ft. along the beamway. The maximum beamway height extends 65 ft. above grade. Because of the narrow beamway and quiet operation, the beamway can be run through buildings and over roads or other public areas. The concrete beamway is virtually maintenance free.
For further information, contact:
Bombardier Transportation
P.O. Box 220, Station A
Kingston, Ontario
Canada K7M 6R2
Fax:
or
5850 T.G Lee Blvd., Suite 520
Orlando, Florida, U.S.A. 32822
Fax:
www.bombardier.com
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