Experiences with monorail breakdowns

[jcldtrek]

Just thought I'd start this thread to see if anyone ever had a experience where they were on the monorail and it brokedown or had a problem with it in some way. Just was wondering how things went , I figure they have issues just like anything else and just wanted to see if anyone had a experience worth sharing.

 

[jayjayd10]

I was just at Disney this past weekend and though i wasn't on the actual monorail that broke down I was on the one right after it. It was going from Epcot to the Ticket and Transportation Center. We had to wait 20 minutes for our Monorail to arrive and then wait another 1/2 hour for them to tell us that our monorail car wasn't going anywhere because one was broken down. After another 1/2 hour (maybe more) I finally got on a bus to the Center. When we finally pulled up about another 1/2 hour the monorail car was still stuck. I just want to know how they got all those people off that car, because when it left it was jam packed with people. If anyone know how they get people off a broken monorail...please respond.

 

[luv]

Lord, yes.

I was supposed to meet a friend at LTT, but was running late. I needed to pee, but thought I'd get to the restaurant first. Normally very punctual and that seemed more important than a bladder release. I was stuck on the monorail for half an hour, plus the few minutes of actual riding. By the time I got off, I thought my bladder would explode. I lost a tiny bit on the way to the bathroom...so I had to buy new shorts. The whole thing was so inconvenient and embarrassing.

That would be the LAST time I got on the monorail without a pit stop first.

For a while there, I totally gave up on it. It was stopped all the freaking time. It was after that tragic accident and I always figured they got uber-careful so that wouldn't happen again, which I understand. And I figured that if stalling the thing all the time was what they had to do, I couldn't really argue with it. Safety has to come first! And they certainly know more about how to run a monorail than I did.

But I wondered if it couldn't be done better. It worked for many years without stalling all the time.

In any event, I switched to the ferry, lol.

But I think it's been getting better lately. I hear fewer complaints and see fewer stopped monorails. I rode it last week. The doors didn't close for about five minutes, lol...but after that we went straight through to the MK.

I still peed first, though.

 

[Kramerica]

I've been fortunate enough never to have a big breakdown on one. But I swear, every single time I ride that thing we have to "wait for further traffic clearance" between the Contemporary and Magic Kingdom. But that's not so bad. Usually just a minute or two. I have seen a monorail broken down though. It was just stopped right near the toll gates to the TTC. Nobody in it from the looks of it.

By the way, when one breaks down beyond the point of getting back to the station, how do they get the people off of it and safely to the ground? Seeing as they're usually a couple stories up, this can't be easy. Anyone know?

 

[luis71091]

We were staying at the contemporary, and we wanted to go visit the Polynesian that night. We hopped on the monorail and half way to the poly, our monorail stopped, and we were stuck inside,for an hour!!!!

 

[dave&di]

During our visit last month we only rode the monorail twice and once between the GF and the MK it stopped due to technical issues, it restarted 5 minutes later.

 

[Rasvar]

Amazingly, as many times as I have been on the monorails, I can only think of one time where I had a delay of more than 20 minutes. That was a lightning strike to the EPCOT beam that required a breaker to be reset. That was a 45 minute delay. I always seem to get caught by the afternoon MAPO checks, though.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I've tried to avoid the monorails as much as possible since January 2010. One morning when the big guys in the family were playing golf and my mother-in-law was sleeping in my youngest & I took a cab from AKL to the Poly for breakfast then hopped the monorail to get over to the Pirates League for his appointment. When we left the Poly we were set to be pretty early for the appointment which is usually my goal. The monorail from the Poly to the MK (think of how short that distance is!) took dang near an hour. I was so flippin' mad! We had to practically run to make it to the Pirates League and we were a little late. Since then the thought of being stuck in the smelly tin can for any length of time is pretty unsettling. Until the fleet is replaced (stop laughing...a girl can dream) I'm thinking avoiding those nasty, dilapitated trains would be in my best interest.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I was just at Disney this past weekend and though i wasn't on the actual monorail that broke down I was on the one right after it. It was going from Epcot to the Ticket and Transportation Center. We had to wait 20 minutes for our Monorail to arrive and then wait another 1/2 hour for them to tell us that our monorail car wasn't going anywhere because one was broken down. After another 1/2 hour (maybe more) I finally got on a bus to the Center. When we finally pulled up about another 1/2 hour the monorail car was still stuck. I just want to know how they got all those people off that car, because when it left it was jam packed with people. If anyone know how they get people off a broken monorail...please respond.

RCFD has a truck with a ladder design and a platform I think that extends up to the monorail beams. Also, if a monorail breaks down they have monorail tractors that run on the beams that they can pull them to the nearest station with. I read of at least once there was a fire from the tires under a car. The car got smoky. An off-duty fireman and police officer (or so I was told) forced the doors open and got all the passengers on top of the train. I think I read that they walked down to the train to the end then slid down the nose onto the beam. I think that resulted in the roof hatches and I think a rope ladder or something that the pilot can deploy for people to get down to the beam. I'm sketchy on those details but I'm pretty sure that's what I read somewhere quite some time back.

 

[awoogala]

I don't know what it was, whether they were doing maintenance, had too few trains working, or what. We stayed at the contemporary for the first time in September 2011, and the service was awful. It was faster to take a bus! We were often sitting, stopped on the rail for 20 minutes. We often waited 10 or more minutes for a train to come to the contemporary, and 20 or more for a train at epcot. (not at closing, either). Parks were not crowded, buses were fine, I am assuming it was a maintenance issue, but I was left with a bad feeling about the monorails in general.

 

[GeorgiaPinesRJB]

I've only been stuck on the monorail once, for maybe 30 mins, near the GF. They never said the reason why though. Probably technical issues. My aunt and I went for the afternoon and decided to ride the monorail to Epcot and back before going to the MK.