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

[googilycub]

Now for my serious question.... Is there a way to retro fit a gas powered or even solar powered engine into the train so that in the event the electricity is cut to the line, the monorails can have enough juice to at least get to the next station?

Is it possible? Sure. However I would think it would be such a Rube Goldberg set up that you might as well start new at that point.

 

[Victor Kelly]

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.

Possibly. But the lawsuit would delve into how long it took for Disney to initiate the first call for emergency response. Ready Creek is operated by Disney, therefore they could also be held responsible (which I doubt would happen). But corporate is on the hook here, including how maintenance was done, what maintenance was done, interval between maintenance, and more that I probably am missing.

Bottom line, Disney is on the hook one way or another.

 

[drew81]

You would think a "premium" experience as TDO likes to call WDW, would at least a have a "premium" transportation system.

I guess if duct tape is good enough to "fix" the Sorcerer lift it's good enough for the monorails.

 

[mousehockey37]

Possibly. But the lawsuit would delve into how long it took for Disney to initiate the first call for emergency response. Ready Creek is operated by Disney, therefore they could also be held responsible (which I doubt would happen). But corporate is on the hook here, including how maintenance was done, what maintenance was done, interval between maintenance, and more that I probably am missing.

Bottom line, Disney is on the hook one way or another.

You can do all the maintenance in the world, but if lightning struck the monorail or the beam and caused it to fail, this has nothing to do with the past maintenance of the train.

 

[danv3]

Hey TDO...feel like investing in new monorails yet???

More likely that they'd just eliminate the monorails altogether.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I understand that...but what if there is a fire....your options are what, burn or jump while waiting on a scissor lift?

Start climbing onto the roof like was done when Monorail Silver caught fire.

Well, when there's little downtime and high demand to get guests from points A to B, you do what you can with what you've got and hope for the best (at least it seems that is what Disney is doing anyway). There was just an announcement this morning that the MK hours were extended until midnight tonight. Well, that extra time the park is open means the monorails will run longer and have less time for maintenance.

No one can control the weather. I was out last week later at night as a weather system was coming through. No mentions of possible tornadoes or anything, but one touched down about an hour after I passed through a certain area (on the road I was on, nonetheless). So for freak lightning strikes and such, it is Central Florida and this stuff happens.

Now for my serious question.... Is there a way to retro fit a gas powered or even solar powered engine into the train so that in the event the electricity is cut to the line, the monorails can have enough juice to at least get to the next station?

Late hours are not a new development for Walt Disney World.

A battery back-up could probably suffice now given how far that technology has come. The problem is more that the individual monorail is not where the safety systems are located.

 

[Brewmaster]

More likely that they'd just eliminate the monorails altogether.

Would fit perfectly with their Disney Springs Train Tracks to Nowhere™ theme

 

[Polydweller]

An update. They were working on the monorail electricals and signal systems on the Epcot line this morning. They sent a couple of empty trains around in late morning apparently testing the signalling and safety systems. Something clearly happened yesterday afternoon to those systems on that rail.

Various CMs have very different stories and as such it's hard to get a clear idea what the situation was but it wasn't an accident, it wasn't an operator issue. It did have to do with braking and the question becomes if something damaged the electrical and signals would that potentially cause the monorail to automatically brake suddenly. And, without power how hard is it to unlock brakes?

Regardless, this is looking more like an act of nature not maintenance. The monorails have been running normally since early afternoon.

 

[unkadug]

The goal is safety not speed.

The goal should be both. These are humans on vacation...a very temperamental breed.

 

[**Stacy**]

If I were evacuated from the monorail, it would have been the most interesting/entertaining thing to happen to me at WDW since I rode TOT with the lights on from beginning to end(not as scary as riding Space Mountain with the lights on btw). I want to be evacuated from rides just to see something new. Yes, I've got a bad case Disney burnout.

 

[007mickey]

Buddy of mine was on the bus that apparently got stuck under the monorail. Not sure how they got "stuck" there for hours. Seems like there should have been a way to move all traffic from the rescue scene? He told me there was a child that had to use the bathroom and couldn't hold it, yikes! Sounds like a bad situation all the way around. This was his first trip to WDW and he wasn't really looking forward to it, I don't think this situation will help the cause.

 

[unkadug]

Buddy of mine was on the bus that apparently got stuck under the monorail. Not sure how they got "stuck" there for hours. Seems like there should have been a way to move all traffic from the rescue scene? He told me there was a child that had to use the bathroom and couldn't hold it, yikes! Sounds like a bad situation all the way around. This was his first trip to WDW and he wasn't really looking forward to it, I don't think this situation will help the cause.

Was the bus stuck because of the Monorail or just happened to have a mechanical failure at the same time as the Reedy Creek rescue failure?

 

[Prog]

I once asked, off the record, what to do if I saw my train on fire. The person (a long-time Central Coordinator) said "I would get that train as close to a station or the ground as I could, even if it meant MAPO overriding [disabling anti-collision system] and coming in right behind another train."

Is this even possible since the collision?

 

[007mickey]

Was the bus stuck because of the Monorail or just happened to have a mechanical failure at the same time as the Reedy Creek rescue failure?

I don't believe there was any mechanical failure, that's what makes it strange they couldn't get them out of the way. I'm sure I'll find out more when he gets home this week.

 

[alissafalco]

Start climbing onto the roof like was done when Monorail Silver caught fire.


Late hours are not a new development for Walt Disney World.

A battery back-up could probably suffice now given how far that technology has come. The problem is more that the individual monorail is not where the safety systems are located.

This thread is starting to freak me out a bit about riding on the monorails.

 

[peachykeen]

Is this even possible since the collision?

Overriding MAPO? Absolutely.

 

[Tom]

They had started to "tow" (actually push) the train back towards TTC but for some reason the brakes jammed. Before they could sort out why they jammed, a guest in one of the cars called reporting a medical emergency. At that point Reedy Creek decided to evacuate those particular cars and the tow operation was suspended. After the affected cars were evacuated, the remaining guests were onboard the train as it was pushed back to TTC.

Apparently they tried.

A train evac is the last resort.

I see, thanks. I wonder....was the "emergency" a "Number Two Emergency"? That would be a likely scenario for me if I were stuck on one for 3 hours.

If anyone is curious, in the cockpit there is a rope that, in theory, would hook to the top of the cabs and then attach down by the monorail headlight. In a serious emergency, the pilot would (again, in theory) rig this up so that guests could slide down the windshield and onto the beamway.

I once asked, off the record, what to do if I saw my train on fire. The person (a long-time Central Coordinator) said "I would get that train as close to a station or the ground as I could, even if it meant MAPO overriding [disabling anti-collision system] and coming in right behind another train."

I can't even comprehend this "system". It gives me cold chills just thinking about it. I'd have to just about be on fire before I could bring myself to climb onto the roof and slide down the nose, onto the beam. That's just about the most unsafe scenario I can even think of, really.

But yes, if there were a true emergency, and the train were operable, the most logical solution would be to get it to the nearest platform as quickly as possible. Use the radio to clear all traffic (just like a plane that's making an emergency landing at an airport - they get 100% clearance), and bee-line it in.

This thread is starting to freak me out a bit about riding on the monorails.

Ditto. On our next trip, we'll have a 1-year-old. Not interested in being stuck on one for 2-3 hours (which I believe is an unacceptably long time for this "rescue").

 

[danlb_2000]

Overriding MAPO? Absolutely.

I assume they still need to do MAPO override to go through switches?

 

[PhotoDave219]

I see, thanks. I wonder....was the "emergency" a "Number Two Emergency"? That would be a likely scenario for me if I were stuck on one for 3 hours.



I can't even comprehend this "system". It gives me cold chills just thinking about it. I'd have to just about be on fire before I could bring myself to climb onto the roof and slide down the nose, onto the beam. That's just about the most unsafe scenario I can even think of, really.

But yes, if there were a true emergency, and the train were operable, the most logical solution would be to get it to the nearest platform as quickly as possible. Use the radio to clear all traffic (just like a plane that's making an emergency landing at an airport - they get 100% clearance), and bee-line it in.



Ditto. On our next trip, we'll have a 1-year-old. Not interested in being stuck on one for 2-3 hours (which I believe is an unacceptably long time for this "rescue").

As a former local and someone who used to go to the parks waaaaaaaay too often.......

By the end of my tenure in Orlando, I began to avoid the monorail at all costs. It is not the reliable system that it was ten years ago. It is simply not something you can depend upon and a cursory glance at these forums reinforces that premise - and those are the ones we find out about. I used to have people text me when the monorail went down but it got to the point of "If its a day that ends in Y, the monorail is messed up."

Its not a case of things being reported on social media, rather its a case of an overburdened system being asked to do too much with limited hours and budgets to do repairs.

 

[TP2000]

By the end of my tenure in Orlando, I began to avoid the monorail at all costs. It is not the reliable system that it was ten years ago.

My goodness, what a challenging weekend for WDW and its paying customers.

I hope the hard working CM's who responded were well taken care of by their bosses in TDO!