Walt Disney World Monorail System

We here at Big Florida Country are very sad to hear about Roy E Disney passing away Dec 16th 2009. We wish the best with his family and hope Disney itself keeps site of what he wanted it to be again.

We here at BFC are very sorry to hear about the tragic accident at Walt Disney World on July 5th, 2009 that caused the death of Austin Wuennenberg, a monorail pilot. (according to the ntsb findings, he tried what he could to prevent the accident by reversing his monorail)

A brand new Monorail will be delivered in 2010, no word on its color designation.

Mark VII will be solely for Disneyland, CA 2008 (new pics of red, blue, and orange below)

"Please stand clear of the doors" ; "Por Favor, Mantenganse Alejado de las Puertas"

Mark IV trains began transit service at the world's #1 tourist destination in 1971. When Epcot was added to the WDW resort in 1982, a new loop was added with additional trains. By 1989, most of the Mark IV's had traveled around 67,500 miles each year. Having accomplished nearly ten million miles of travel with a reliability rate of 99.9% in eighteen-hour-a-day operations, it was time for a new set of trains. Bombardier, licensed by the Walt Disney Company, improved the design and debuted 12 new Mark VI trains beginning in 1989. Built closer to transit standards, the MVI design has now in the proving stages for actual public transit operations at Las Vegas

The different models of the monorails over the years of the two parks in the USA

The Mark I built by Alweg

Disneyland, CA 1959 - 1961 One blue and red monorail

The Mark II by Alweg

Disneyland, CA 1961 - 1969 the two original monorails lengthened by one car plus one yellow added to the system

The Mark III by Alweg

Disneyland, CA 1969 - 1987 four brand new monorails with five cars each

The Mark IV by Martin Marietta

Walt Disney World, FL 1971 - 1988/89 (two of these monorails were reworked for the Vegas track until the new model was built. Now they sit rotting away)

The Mark V rebuilt by Messerschmitt Bolkow Blohm

Disneyland, CA 1989 - 2008/09

The Mark VI by Bombardier

Walt Disney World 1989 - now

The Mark VII by Burke Design & TPI Composites

Disneyland, CA 2008/09 - now

The Mark VII Disneyland, CA

At special request you can ask to ride with the pilot in the front. 4 people can actually ride with the pilot. Remember sometimes they cannot do this if the pilot is too distracted by it or they already have someone. Just ask to ride the next monorail.....its worth it!!! and don't forget to get your monorail copilot license. (this has been stopped since the accident of 07-05-2009 and hopefully will continue again sometime in the future.

The new Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary Resort

Monorail control system 06-2009 MAPO (mary poppins) System

Leaving the Grand Floridian Resort

Looking towards the ticket and transportation station with the water bridge below

Almost to the Magic Kingdom

Shot of switch track near Monorail "roundhouse" 11-2005

Monorail Tow Vehicle 11-2005

The Magic Kingdom Station 04-22-2005

06-29-2007

The race is on!!! 06-29-2007 from John T!!

Susan and Jamie, first time in the cockpit 12-06-2008

A rainy day in the cockpit of the monorail 08-27-2006

The new touch screen control panel, thanks Steven!!!

Exiting the Contemporary 04-22-2005

Monorail making its approach to the Contemporary 04-22-2005

Almost to the Contemporary 04-22-2005

Epcot 09-11-2004

Laura's Favorite Color.

Monorail being used as a cargo train for Hurricane Frances 09-03-2004 (Monorails did not come back online for three days)

Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Purple - retired - parts used to rebuild Teal
Black
Gold
Silver
Coral
Lime
Pink - retired - parts used to build Teal

The Mark IV's monorails were retired for numerous reasons. Guest capacity, aging fleet, a/c issues, and the big reason was safety.

Back in 1985 Monorail Silver had a very serious accident. A tire blew out and caught on fire. This in turn ended up causing at least one whole car to be engulfed in flames.

Even though this monorail was full, the fast thinking of some of the guests helped everyone up to the roof and away from the flames. No one was hurt.

The Mark VI monorails have many safety features included which would prevent this from ever happening again.

I have pictures and articles of this accident. I do not want to include them on my site as they may scare kids into thinking it could happen again.

An interesting bit of trivia here. When Las Vegas began there test of there monorail the the Mark VI transit spec'd trains were not completed yet.

A bit of a rust problem right next to the monorail. The old people mover track....or rocket rods as they were called before closing it forever.

The Tokyo Monorail was built (2001) by a Japanese company ( to there transportation standards (holds 571 passengers and are driverless)

There's something else about the Tokyo Disney Resort Line that certainly deserves mention - Its trains are driverless. The individual Liners (as they are called) are controlled from a central location by an automated (but monitored, of course) system. A single Cast Member rides in the tail of each Liner to ensure that guests have fully boarded the vehicle before its doors are closed. info from

The Japanese trains are designated as such: 1-Blue / 2-Yellow / 3-Purple / 4-Green / 5-Peach.

A single Cast Member rides in the tail of each Liner to ensure that guests have fully boarded the vehicle before its doors are closed.

(remember Disneyland Tokyo is not owned by Disney, its a franchise owned by the Oriental Land Company, so things are done a bit different there)

I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of the pics I have taken or collected. More to come as always.

I want to thank all the cast members (past and present) that have helped me or let me know how they liked the picture site.