‘New’ monorail train goes into service at Disney World
Featured, Jason Garcia, News — By Jason Garcia on November 5, 2009 at 9:47 am
Photo: YouTube user DisneyHD
Monorail Teal, the “new” train built by Walt Disney World using the undamaged remains of two trains that collided this summer, is officially in service.
“Teal is now up and running,” Disney spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez said this morning.
Disney announced last month that it had built Teal with components from monorails Pink and Purple, the two trains involved in a deadly accident over the summer. (Each of Disney’s monorail trains is distinguished by a stripe of color painted along its sides.) The crash killed 21-year-old monorail driver Austin Wuennenberg of Kissimmee and has prompted multiple federal safety investigations.
Disney has retired the colors pink and purple.
With Teal now in service, Disney’s monorail fleet now stands at 11 trains, which is still one short of the 12 it had in service before the July accident. Disney is expected to add a 12th train next year.
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Tags: Disney World, Epcot, Magic Kingdom, monorail, News, transportation
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30 Comments
It would SURE be nice if Disney would set up more Monarail tracks, say to Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios! The buses are overcrowded and uncomfortable, not to mention the deisel smell makes me sick to my stomach on a regular basis!
Does it help to know that it is bio-diesel that you smell? The buses are pretty environmentally friendly. But I agree, more monorail tracks would be nice.
its worth mentioning that the environmental costs of bio-diesel are still being debated. its possible bio-diesel is not beneficial because it relies on a large amount of fossil fuels to be made, and some studies have shown that bio diesel actually hurts the environment with its emissions.
One comsideration you left out, though, is that the bio-diesel can be made from the “recycled” deep fryer oils. Disney goes through hundreds of gallons of fryer oil daily, and when discraded by the food service locations, it is then strained and cleaned (meaning that any particles not part of the fryer oil are removed) and then mixed into a tank of diesel, to create a blended bio-diesel. This helps to reduce the extremely high cost of diesel fuel, and thus the overall costs that are passed along to the guests through higher prices.
(WDW uses an estimated average of 45,000-50,000 gallons of diesel daily in their buses, so even a reduction of 20% by using recycled fryer oils can save over $20,000 daily or just over $7,556,000 annually. This money saved helps keep the prices of the tickets and everything else from going even higher than they already are. To put that into a little bit of perspective, this means they save roughly the cost of purchasing 25-30 brand new buses every year, just by using a 20% bio-diesel blend. Also you may have noticed, if you have visited WDW in the last 4-5 years, they are upgrading all of their buses to a more modern and fuel-efficient fleet. That DOES help the environment – removing buses that are environmentally UNFRIENDLY from daily use does make a difference, so even if the bio-diesel does prove to be slightly less eco-friendly in the future, the newer buses more than make up for the difference in any case.)
For anyone wondering about my statements here, no, I am NOT a current WDW cast member (although I did work for them for about 5 years, and some of that time was driving those buses, so I am familiar with the equipment and processes), but I AM currently in the Bus Industry, and am very current in my statistics and facts regarding fuel and fuel-related costs, as well as purchase prices for the new buses WDW has operating.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and digest the facts as presented. I know some may disagree, but I do believe that bio-diesel is a good thing, and I applaud WDW for pioneering its use in its fleet of buses. I rarely agree with things Disney does from a “corporate” standpoint, but this is one area that I cannot fault them for, but rather must applaud them.
WOW Tammie! Did you ever think that setting up more Monorail tracks might cost millions of dollars that would be better served by keeping people employed? Get a grip. You’re at Disney along with thousands of your closest friends! You seriously need a reality check.
I totally agree! Paying a decent wage would be a better idea than new Monorail tracks!
Disney will never add more monorail tracks because it will cut into their bottom line. Besides a monorail can be just as crowded as a bus.
Tell me about it!! Try being told that you have to stand next to them for your entire shift. Blagh!
I agree completely that the monorails need to be expanded in the worst way. Even if it was to Animal Kingdom from the Transportation and Ticket Centerin a loop similar to what EPCOT has, it would make a WORLD of difference.
GET REAL! Disney determined long ago that buses are CHEAPER and more flexible to operate than monorails. Don’t expect to see any new “tracks” built soon. It’s all about the $$$.
Disney will not build any new monorail lines because it is very pricey. It cost approx $ 1 million per each concrete section.
I would love it as well but too much to build.
I have a vague recollection of trams running between Epcot and the Studios. Or am I dreaming?
Trams ran between the International Gateway of Epcot to the Dolphin Hotel before Boardwalk Resort was constructed. Is that your memory maybe? I rode it back in the day. Ugly trams I might add.
I think that is it.
WDW now operates a “Friendship Boat” between the Studios, Boardwalk, Swan/Dolphin and Yacht/Beach Clubs and EPCOT.
The tram ran from Int. Gateway to the swan and dolphin hotel and yacht club from 1990 to 1994ish. then the boat from the swan continued the journey. now the boat goes the entire way.
I rode the new monarail yesterday. When I saw it approaching the station I pulled out my camera and snapped a quick picture. I couldn’t believe it. We were sitting in the very back section of the monarail too.
I wouldn’t wanna sit in the back or the front…come on Disney. Using left-over pieces of a fatal monorail crash that killed one of your own. You could have at least scrapped both Pink and Purple completely. I’m sure Austin wishes he could take a piece of that person and mix it with that person and make him whole again…
Walt would have demanded monorail or some other kind of rail throughout his World. His Dreams (didn’t all) Come True.
Just curious, was there ever any thought given to putting some kind of memorial marker on the new monorail train to the cast member who died?
It is disheartening to think that this promising young man is not memorialized in some way. I’m sure Disney would just as soon forget the whole sad event and sweep it under the rug, like all of the other “incidents” that have happened to cast members over the years.
Disney may forget, but other monorail pilots and cast members won’t. The WDW monorail pilots even coined up a slogan after the incident, “One Rail, One Family,” and even received support from Monorail Pilots at Disneyland.
Get a Grip ALL . . . Obama and Family should throw some ‘Stimulus’ bucks Disney’s way — to build that pricey new Monorail footage.
Why just think of all the ‘New’ employees that will add to the rolls . . . construction, drivers, conductors, maintenance and repair techs, and oh – let us not forget the additional management types.
. . . and oh yes, more importantly; not only would this quickly add new ‘plus’ numbers to the ‘I created jobs’ claims, but it will be money well spent – the rich poiticians can continue their ‘free’ rides on us, the lowly taxpayers dimes for years to come!!!!
Disney was smart and bought the forms to make the concrete rails and pillars, it honestly wouldn’t be so expensive to add more trackage, however Bombardier in Canada is the only one who can make the trains… Wonder how much those go for now that the design of the disney fleet is 30 years old….. by the way the new monorails are automated….
the trains were always automated, from the beginning they could have run without a pilot, however, disney will never run the trains without pilots because people get unnerved by seeing no operator at the helm. if you look back to the worlds fair where disney deputed several show and ride experiences you’ll find that the monorail that disney implemented was pilotless but had an attendant to calm riders that freaked out.
At Disneyland Japan the monorails servicing the parking lots and connecting to the city of Tokyo system are fully automated.
I heard that it costs about 5 million per train. And yes they were very very smart in buying the forms. Imagine how much more expensive it would be if they ever decide to run more track….. Even with them owning the forms it’s still a cool million to produce each segment of track. Alot of people here are saying they don’t think Disney ever will broaden the monorail’s horizons. But I’ve seen leaked plans on fanatic sites that show new lines. At least the imaginears still consider it a possibility
A new monorail track wouldn’t cost so much if Disney wasn’t paying 5 Union workers $40 dollars an hour to watch the other 1 Union worker making $60 an hour do the work.
I can’t believe this article talks about a train put in service after a tragic accident that resulted in the loss of life and all everyone talks about is adding more monorails, overcrowded and the smell?!?!? Did you realize what you just read?!?!? The retired pink and purple because SOMEONE DIED A HORRIBLE DEATH! The teal train is made up of parts of those trains!!!!! My goodness this amazes me! In any event, it makes sense they used the parts but it is still very sad. Rest in peace Austin…