Disney World Columns > Lou Mongello

Walt Disney World Monorail

"Por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas... Ladies and Gentlemen, please collect your belongings and watch your head and step. Please assist small children by the hand."

Of all the "attractions" in Walt Disney World®, I have to say that one of my true favorites is the monorail.

OK, so maybe it's not really, an "attraction", but to me it is. I love the excitement of getting on it in the morning, anticipating what the day at the Magic Kingdom may bring. May people may take it for granted as just a means of transportation, but I thing of it as the beginning of the day's adventure. Heck, I even remember as a kid riding in the front cab of the monorail with my friend Brian H. (hi Brian, wherever you are), for what seemed like hours, not wanting the day to end.

As I got older, and became fascinated with the little details that made WDW such a great place, I also wanted to find out more about the monorails, their history, and how they've changed over the years.

The Walt Disney World Resort Monorail System is the most heavily traveled passenger monorail system in the world, and carries an average of about 150,000 passengers every day, with a maximum capacity of 200,000 passengers daily. Each year, the monorails transport more than 50 million people, and since Walt Disney World opened in 1971, has carried over 1 billion passengers

Believe it or not, but each and every mile of the Walt Disney World Resort monorail track cost an average of one million dollars per mile. The monorail trains run on rubber tires on a "track" which is actually a 26-inch-wide concrete beam. The beams were actually built in Oregon and shipped by truck to Florida. They contain a Styrofoam core which is wrapped by steel and concrete. Each of the more than 400 individual beams were specifically designed depending on where they would be located on the track in order to follow the contour of the land. The beams are supported by tapered concrete columns, located 110-feet apart. The support columns feed electricity to a bar located beneath the beams, which in turn powers the trains. The highest beam is about 65 feet above the ground, and is located as the entrance/exit to the Contemporary Resort. In fact, it is the due to the narrow size, quiet operation and maintenance-free design that allows the monorail to run through the hotel's interior.

Walt Disney Word opened in 1971 with a fleet of "Mark IV" monorail trains, built by the Alweg Company from Cologne, Germany. The original monorail loop ran between the Contemporary Resort, to the Polynesian Resort, the Magic Kingdom gate & the Ticket & Transportation Center. Initially, there were five Mark IV monorails in operation, with an additional five added sometime later. These trains were shorter than the current version, at only 171 feet, with five cars. The next five trains that were added were a bit longer, at 201 feet. In 1977, the fleet reached a total of 12 cars, with the coral and lime trains being added. If you visited the park before the introduction of the new trains, you may remember Cast Members walking by the trains as they were about to depart, as they had to slam each door shut manually!

In 1982, the original two, dual-rail loops, (the first being a clockwise loop between the Resort hotels and the second being a counterclockwise loop between the Magic Kingdom and the Transportation and Ticket Center) were expanded to add a four-mile long third leg from the Transportation and Ticket Center to Epcot.

Two years later, after an exhaustive international competition, the largest mass-transit manufacturer in North America, Bombardier, was commissioned by the Walt Disney Company to build a new fleet of monorail vehicles. This new fleet, known as the "Mark VI" monorail, began operating in 1989, and offered a number of benefits. In addition to a 30 percent increase in guest capacity, the trains were taller, and now allowed for a mix of seated and standing passengers. Also, improved sliding-door systems made it more convenient to get on and off the trains. The new, more reliable, trains also have better suspension for a smoother ride, increased air conditioning capacity, and a new body that was the first of its kind to meet or exceed U.S. standards for flammability, smoke, and toxicity.

Despite many people's belief, Walt Disney and his Imagineers did not "invent" the monorail. In fact, monorails were in use in the late 1800s! As early as 1878, a stem-powered monorail system operated in California, and an electric car monorail system was used in Long Island, New York in 1992. However, the longest-running monorail in the world comes from Germany. Built in the city of Wupperthal, the "suspended" system began its run in 1901. Walt Disney saw an updated version of the system while traveling to Germany in the 1950s, prompting him to have a system built for Disneyland, which was put into place in 1959.

Each of the 12 monorails is identified with a different colored stripe, which is used to identify the monorails for the pilots and traffic controllers. The monorails currently in operation are the Blue, Red, Black, Gold, Silver, Pink, Coral, Orange, Green, Lime, Purple, and Yellow trains.

If you're a fan of Walt Disney World® (and I think you are), the Holy Grail of Disneyana collectibles would have to be an original monorail train used at the park. (Let's ignore the fact of where exactly you keep the train once you get it home). Anyway, believe it or not, a monorail car was once put up for auction and sold on eBay. On May 27, 2002, "Monorail Red" was put on the auction block by Disney Auctions, which often sells theme park, movie and animation memorabilia on eBay. As part of the year-long Walt Disney World "100 Years of Magic" celebration commemorating the 100th anniversary of Walt Disney's birth, the single pilot car or "nose," which had logged a total of 943,976 miles (the equivalent of 38 trips around the circumference of the Earth) was up for grabs. "Monorail Red" was decommissioned on January 23, 1993 after more than 20 years of service. When the auction concluded on June 6, 2002, the winning bidder was Chip Young of Georgia. So, how much did it cost to have a real monorail sitting in your backyard? $20,000 plus shipping expenses. Wow.

Sadly, most of the other monorail trains were sold as scrap metal to a Tampa metal yard.

Here's a little FUN FACT for you: Did you know that if you add up all the trips the monorails have made since 1971 over the 14.7 mile (23.7 km) track (although the original route was not this long, having been extended in 1981), the total miles logged would be equal to more 25 round trips to the moon.

Discuss this column in our Magical Disney Forums

Lou Mongello ,the author of The Disney World Trivia Books: Secrets, History & Fun Facts Behind The Magic Vol I and Vol II, has been fascinated by Walt Disney World throughout his more than 40 visits, and in the process learned everything he could about the history, secrets and inner workings of the resort. Lou was also the co-host of the award-winning MouseTunes Disney Podcast.