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 tow broken-down trains and inspect and repair track.

The extension will be built next to an existing track switch that is used to transfer trains between the Epcot line and a separate spur leading to one of the system’s two Magic Kingdom loops. Disney currently keeps all of its work tractors in a maintenance bay behind the Magic Kingdom.

The expansion plans were first reported by The Monorail Society, an organization that promotes the use of monorails.

Disney said it wants to have a tractor permanently stationed near the Epcot line in order to allow workers to begin inspections of that track earlier in the evening. Right now, crews typically must wait until the Magic Kingdom closes before they can dispatch a tractor to the Epcot line.

The Magic Kingdom is usually open several hours later than Epcot each night.

“We can begin our routine inspections of the Epcot beam as soon as the Epcot line cycles down for the night, before the Magic Kingdom park closes and with no impact to guests,” Disney World spokesman Bryan Malenius said.

Another advantage: The new spur should allow for faster responses when a tractor is needed to tow a broken-down monorail train to a station.

Last December, several of Disney’s trains were brought to a standstill after a computer hard-drive failure shut off power across the 15-mile-long monorail system. About 300 passengers were left stranded by the power outage, which occurred at about 1 a.m.; the last of them weren’t evacuated until close to 4 a.m.

Malenius said the addition will make it easier to get tractors to monorail trains that are stuck anywhere along the Epcot line or on the outer Magic Kingdom loop near the Transportation and Ticket Center.

Construction crews will begin excavation work soon. Disney expects to complete the project by the end of the year.

More...

__________________
Reporting News From Around the World of Disney!

                        

Oh man....I was hoping that the story would be a new line to expand towards DHS or AK.

I know that there is a HUGE cost associated with creating a monorail line to go to Disney's Hollywood Studios or Disney's Animal Kingdom, but it would also reduce the need for all of the buses. Which would then cut down on potential accidents and maintenance of the bus line.

If you were Disney would you setup a new TTC (Transportation and Ticket Center) closer to the South side of the WDW land and connect the Monorail lines? Or, would you use the current TTC as the 'hub' of all and expand it?

__________________

My Disney Countdown

Counting down to: Next Trip to WDW!
84 days 23 hours 5 minutes

                        

I would love to see an expansion of the monorail for all of your mentioned reasons. I would use the existing TTC as the main hub myself. No reason to complicate things.
Posted via Mobile Device

                        

isn't it $2 million per 50 foot?

__________________
Paul

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.

                        

I was hoping an expansion to DHS as well
i know AK is a bit far out and would probably scare the animals but DHS aint that far from epcot..

__________________
Bridgette

                        

This expansion could be just the first step in the further expansion of the monorail line? Because of the cost they are just starting very slow and getting the support services set up before they actually start working on the expansion itself.

__________________

Pat

My Disney Countdown

Counting down to: Disney Vacation
80 days 16 hours 5 minutes

                        

thanks for the info!

__________________
Jeany Sanchez

My Disney Countdown

Counting down to: JEANY'S BIRTHDAY
126 days 16 hours 5 minutes