Monorail Yellow Evacuation - Bus entrance to MK closed...detouring now (somewhere)

[Jeffxz]

Seems they were able to tow it.

Pilichowski noted to the Sentinel that only the second and third monorail cars were evacuated with a cherry picker, because those passengers had medical issues.

Everyone else got a tow back to the transportation center where they finally got off the train. No injuries were reported, according to the Sentinel.

http://www.travelpulse.com/news/imp...isney-world-strands-passengers-for-hours.html

 

[EvilQueen-T]

With as much money as their putting into other areas of the parks and raising our ticket prices with the new pricing structure (our APs to get the same things we have now will cost us $100 more per person per year) it would be nice to relegate some love to the monorail system.

 

[EvilQueen-T]

Only if the tiered pricing gets approved...ASAP......

Actually not sure about the general public but we've got APs and have already been notified about the new tiered pricing structure going into affect. For our family to get the same regular AP with no black out dates will cost us about an extra $100 per person per year and I'm sure they'll still take annual price increases like they always do next year and so on. Now just waiting for room prices to jump again to keep pace.

 

[draybook]

Actually not sure about the general public but we've got APs and have already been notified about the new tiered pricing structure going into affect. For our family to get the same regular AP with no black out dates will cost us about an extra $100 per person per year and I'm sure they'll still take annual price increases like they always do next year and so on. Now just waiting for room prices to jump again to keep pace.

I meant the ticket pricing based on season. But yeah, we got that same piece of mail. And we just renewed two weeks ago. Boy would my wife have had a cow if we showed up to renew using the 10 day tickets from the package and the price had changed.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Surely Disney is getting tired of the awful publicity that comes with these monorail failures that show up in the national news.

 

[rucifee]

The management fail at TWDC is epic. Lets just raise prices while doing no maintenance, and we'll hand wave all this new stuff that might arrive in 5 years while covering up the fact that we've done little to no maintenance other than paint at WDW for the last 10 on anything else. LOOK AT OUR SHINY NEW PARK IN CHINA!

 

[ParksAndPixels]

I know there are stats about the cost of the existing fleet when constructed, I wonder how much new trains would cost? I'm sure many of you heard the stat thrown out that with the recent $3 parking increase Disney will bring in an additional $1.5 million dollars... I can deal with price increases (somewhat) if I feel like things are either properly & well maintained (as maintenance costs do climb as anything ages) or... complete updates / replacements happen as needed. Not 10 years after "the horse" was buried...

 

[Marlins1]

Restoring the monorail and Space Mountain to their original state should be the top two priorities at MK IMO. Both are a shell of what they used to be and both made huge impressions on me as a kid.

 

[rucifee]

 

[FutureCEO]

Someone said they were on the monorail for four hours. That's 3 1/2 hours too long for a rescue.

 

[Victor Kelly]

They are not getting away with fast passes for this one. These people are going to sue. 4 hours is inept management, and those managers should be terminated period.

 

[Polydweller]

Someone said they were on the monorail for four hours. That's 3 1/2 hours too long for a rescue.

They are not getting away with fast passes for this one. These people are going to sue. 4 hours is inept management, and those managers should be terminated period.

Well if you were here, like we were you'd know a lot of the time was due to weather and the incident may have been caused by this. We were sitting on our balcony at 3:30 when the stoppage occurred. A weather front passed about 20 minutes earlier. Suddenly there was a tremendous lightening strike that appeared to hit near the monorail track near GF. The clap was strong enough to be felt. About 5 minutes later another incredible clap and strike over near where monorail yellow was. And, there was no rain or even wind at this point, just light cloud and the few thunder claps. It was like out of nowhere.

Almost immediately all boat traffic stopped on the lagoon. There were no ferries, no resort launches no Sea Rays, and no safety staff boats. Nothing for at least 1 hr. It wasn't safe to be out. Quietest I've ever seen. And it wouldn't have been safe for the rescue staff to be out either. So they were likely weather delayed. You don't want to operate a cherry picker in lightening. It wasn't until about 5:00 that things started to return to normal.

The news services reported none of the weather issues but it will be interesting to see if this ever gets reported.

 

[s8film40]

They are not getting away with fast passes for this one. These people are going to sue. 4 hours is inept management, and those managers should be terminated period.

Well actually once it becomes an evacuation situation Reedy Creek is in charge of the evacuation. Any law suite and Disney will simply cite that they were following the orders of and cooperating with the government entity handling the situation.

 

[rucifee]

Well if you were here, like we were you'd know a lot of the time was due to weather and the incident may have been caused by this. We were sitting on our balcony at 3:30 when the stoppage occurred. A weather front passed about 20 minutes earlier. Suddenly there was a tremendous lightening strike that appeared to hit near the monorail track near GF. The clap was strong enough to be felt. About 5 minutes later another incredible clap and strike over near where monorail yellow was. And, there was no rain or even wind at this point, just light cloud and the few thunder claps. It was like out of nowhere.

Almost immediately all boat traffic stopped on the lagoon. There were no ferries, no resort launches no Sea Rays, and no safety staff boats. Nothing for at least 1 hr. It wasn't safe to be out. Quietest I've ever seen. And it wouldn't have been safe for the rescue staff to be out either. So they were likely weather delayed. You don't want to operate a cherry picker in lightening. It wasn't until about 5:00 that things started to return to normal.

The news services reported none of the weather issues but it will be interesting to see if this ever gets reported.

This is interesting, I was on property at the time as well within a mile or two of Magic Kingdom and I didn't hear any thunder or see any lightning. There was a lot of rain, but it didn't last more than 20 minutes.

 

[unkadug]

At disney rescue procedures are most definitely planned and written. Obviously they may need to be altered in some events but there are rules, policies, and procedures for rescues.

Towing a train is not a rescue mission. Towing a train is a standard, planned for, and rehearsed procedure with very specific rules and guidelines. Even the evacuation of a train like is happening is something that is planned and rehearsed by all parties involved.

Looks like they need more rehearsals and practice as they sure dropped the ball on this one....4 hours to get a few people out of a monorail?

 

[s8film40]

Looks like they need more rehearsals and practice as they sure dropped the ball on this one....4 hours to get a few people out of a monorail?

Monorail evacuations are not designed nor practiced to be fast but rather safe. They are very tedious and methodical in every part of the evacuation.

 

[unkadug]

Monorail evacuations are not designed nor practiced to be fast but rather safe. They are very tedious and methodical in every part of the evacuation.

I get that part, yes I do, but this a little ridiculous. You have to admit that.

 

[s8film40]

I get that part, yes I do, but this a little ridiculous. You have to admit that.

My guess is it was probably more like 3 hours (I'm sure it's being exaggerated). There was probably at least 15 -30 minutes before they ruled out all other methods to correct the situation and resorted to towing. I'm not sure what happened with the towing situation but they probably spent another 30 minutes at least trying that before calling in Reedy Creek. Reedy Creek arrives the first order of business is to lock out the power to the track. This takes some time and also means all other trains have to be positioned correctly so that they aren't stuck also. They then have to communicate with the train and determine how many passengers are on board, how to best extract them, and how to position the equipment. I've seen evacuations for example where they had to cut down trees to get equipment in place before even starting. My understanding is they only evacuated some of the train and then towed it to the station. This means they then had to secure the train before it could be moved, close & lock doors, ensure people aren't near open windows, etc.

I'm not saying it's not a bad situation but it seems in line with what is expected. Every mock evacuation I have ever participated in lasted about 3+ hours. Safety is the absolute most important thing and they don't and shouldn't make compromises to speed things up.

 

[peachykeen]

I'm not saying it's not a bad situation but it seems in line with what is expected. Every mock evacuation I have ever participated in lasted about 3+ hours. Safety is the absolute most important thing and they don't and shouldn't make compromises to speed things up.

Same here. The evacuation drills I participated in all took at LEAST 3 hours. And that was with everyone knowing, in advance, exactly where the train would be stopped (and having it positioned in relatively ideal locations), with adult, experienced Monorail CMs as the evacuees, no wheelchairs or babies (and only about 6 people per car), etc. Basically ideal circumstances.

Not saying it's excusing the time it took this evacuation, but Reedy Creek does the best they can in difficult situations like this.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Same here. The evacuation drills I participated in all took at LEAST 3 hours. And that was with everyone knowing, in advance, exactly where the train would be stopped (and having it positioned in relatively ideal locations), with adult, experienced Monorail CMs as the evacuees, no wheelchairs or babies (and only about 6 people per car), etc. Basically ideal circumstances.

Not saying it's excusing the time it took this evacuation, but Reedy Creek does the best they can in difficult situations like this.

I'm not faulting RCES.

I'm faulting transportation and their inability to keep the monorails working properly.