Posts Tagged ‘transportation’

Disney to create new position for workers who direct monorail movements

(Walt Disney World photo) Walt Disney World plans to create a new position — and a higher pay scale — for the employees who direct the movements of its monorail trains. The new “central monorail controller” position will be responsible for overseeing traffic along the resort’s 15-mile-long...

August 2nd, 2010 | Featured, Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Disney World plans small monorail expansion

(Walt Disney World photo) Walt Disney World is preparing to expand its iconic monorail system — at least a little bit. Disney said Tuesday it will build a 62-foot maintenance spur off of the system’s Epcot line to serve as a permanent staging area for one of the work tractors used by the resort to...

July 27th, 2010 | Featured, Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Disney World limits use of onboard bus computers

Walt Disney World has issued written orders and made software changes designed to ensure that navigational computers on the resort’s buses can’t be used while the vehicles are moving. The changes followed criticism from some of Disney’s roughly 1,200 bus drivers who complained that the computers...

July 20th, 2010 | Featured, Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Top federal regulator lashes out at Disney, SeaWorld, other entertainment venues

Monorail station at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World where a crash early in the morning on July 5, 2009, killed the driver of one of the trains.(George Skene, Orlando Sentinel) A top federal regulator accused the entertainment industry Thursday of a lax commitment to worker safety, singling out...

May 27th, 2010 | Featured, Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Disney’s rides aren’t common carriers, but what about its monorail?

NOTE: This story ran in today’s paper with ‘Disney wins important legal ruling setting safety standards for rides.’ Florida courts long have held that amusement park rides such as Walt Disney World’s Twilight Zone Tower of Terror are not common carriers. But what about a theme-park’s...

May 17th, 2010 | Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Disney wins important legal ruling setting safety standards for rides

Even before a jury ruled in its favor last month in a lawsuit that claimed one of its marquee thrill rides was unsafe, Walt Disney World had already scored an important legal victory. In the weeks leading up to that trial — in which now-80-year-old Marvin Cohen said an artery injury and stroke he suffered...

May 17th, 2010 | Featured, Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Is Disney fully on board with plans for high-speed rail?

By Dan Tracy, Orlando Sentinel Every day, Walt Disney World draws an estimated 46,500 people to the Magic Kingdom, or nearly eight times the number of passengers expected daily on the planned high-speed train for Central Florida. “That’s a hell of a lot of potential [riders],” mused...

May 3rd, 2010 | Featured, Hotels and Resorts, News | Read More

Disney-bus computers distracting, critics say

By Jason Garcia Orlando Sentinel Three years ago, Walt Disney World set out to revolutionize its bus system. In a project dubbed “Magic in Motion,” Disney installed GPS-equipped computers in each of its nearly 300 buses, ensuring the vehicles could be tracked as they crisscross the vast resort....

April 16th, 2010 | Featured, Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Southwest on board with Disney’s Magical Express shuttle service

Driver Javier Palacio helps guests leaving Disney's All-Star Resort with their bags. (Joe Burbank, Orlando Sentinel)

March 30th, 2010 | Featured, Hotels and Resorts, Jason Garcia, News, Park Tips | Read More

Disney bus driver ticketed in crash that injured 8

A Disney bus crashed into another tour bus on March 23. (Jacob Langston, Orlando Sentinel) The driver of a Walt Disney Word bus involved in a crash that injured eight people is being ticketed for careless driving, Florida Highway Patrol troopers said today. Jean Valentin, 42, of Orlando rear-ended an...

March 30th, 2010 | News | Read More