Strange Monorail Behavior Tonight

[Tom]

My friend and his family were on Monorail ["perhaps Silver"] tonight at about 4:30pm, traveling on the Resort line from Contemporary to TTC.

About halfway between Contemporary and TTC (at the hold point), their train stopped for a good 5-6 minutes. Meanwhile, Green loaded at TTC and then drove forward to Silver's position and held.

Then, both trains traveled in parallel to the TTC (Green going "backwards"). Silver stopped to unload, while Green switched directions and headed back to the MK via the correct direction (through Contemporary).

While holding, Silver pilot came on and mumbled something about having to do a "parallel move" and actually said something along the lines of "...making sure one monorail doesn't back into another..."

First, can anyone enlighten me on this operation? I can only assume it stems from the accident, but what would this specific move accomplish?

And secondly, it seems very un-magical for the pilot to use "so trains don't collide" in his spiel. My friend (who is very technical and very into WDW monorails) said the pilot was basically rambling about technical stuff he probably shouldn't have been relaying to guests, but must have figured people needed to hear something.

On an unrelated note, later tonight, they were coming into TTC on the Epcot line and pilot overshot the platform....by about 30'. Oops. Took about 2 minutes to get all the clearances and overrides in place to back up - expectedly.

And on a possibly related note, yesterday they had a bus bar issue on the Express line. He said he overheard the words "power....something.....not resetting." Gold's tail was hanging out the north side of the Contemporary, Teal was stuck at the hold point outside MK, and green (or lime) was at the TTC.

Any insight on any of this?

 

[gadget]

I was on monorail Orange...

I was on Monorail Orange today when this happened. We had just left Magic Kingdom and got stopped at the Polynesian while we waited for clearance. Our pilot Gregg kept coming on the intercom every few minutes to give us an update, but he was obviously flustered and had no idea what to say although he mentioned that monorail Green had headed for Contemporary but for some reason couldn't make it up the hill and had to reverse. Also at one point he said that they were going to turn off monorail green and turn it back on, "like you do to your computer at home" to see if that fixes it. That didn't give me much confidence at all.

We held at the Polynesian for almost fifteen minutes before we were finally cleared. After making it to the TTC, I noticed they were directing all guests towards the ferries and no monorails seemed to be on the line except Orange.

I have no real idea what happened today, it was just a weird experience.

 

[Tom]

I was on Monorail Orange today when this happened. We had just left Magic Kingdom and got stopped at the Polynesian while we waited for clearance. Our pilot Gregg kept coming on the intercom every few minutes to give us an update, but he was obviously flustered and had no idea what to say although he mentioned that monorail Green had headed for Contemporary but for some reason couldn't make it up the hill and had to reverse. Also at one point he said that they were going to turn off monorail green and turn it back on, "like you do to your computer at home" to see if that fixes it. That didn't give me much confidence at all.

We held at the Polynesian for almost fifteen minutes before we were finally cleared. After making it to the TTC, I noticed they were directing all guests towards the ferries and no monorails seemed to be on the line except Orange.

I have no real idea what happened today, it was just a weird experience.

So you were on Orange when the electrical failed, or when they did this maneuver at 4:00-4:30 yesterday?

Thanks for the feedback. Maybe green was indeed struggling to get up the hill because of low power, and since they're not allowed to drive backwards anymore, Silver had to be his "forward eyes" while he went back into the TTC - thus creating the "parallel move". But then Green took right off and headed to MK via Contemp, so maybe he did reboot in that time period.

 

[gadget]

Orange never lost power...

I was on Orange from 4:15 - 4:30pm. Orange never lost power and our pilot never seemed to really be clear as to what was happening ahead of him. Control just told him to hold at Polynesian while Green reversed back to the TTC. By the time we got to the TTC, I couldn't see Green or any other monorails other than Orange.

 

[zipoff]

We were leaving Magic Kindom around this time (maybe a little later - 5-5:30). All express service was shut down, but resort was running. There was quite a crowd waiting for the ferry boat as it had just finished pouring.

We walked to the contemporary, and while walking there monorail green was on the express line just past the switch. As we walked under the switch, the switch was moved and green proceeded onto the resort line. We actually boarded green at the contemporary and had about a 10 minute wait until it moved.

As we approached TTC, the driver came on and announced that we had to do a maintenance check while approaching the TTC. We stopped short of the TTC, then proceeded almost entirely into the TTC, but stopped short. About 5 minutes later we finally were able to get off. A cast member in our car stated that they were doing maintenance this week and were running fewer monorails than normal, but that crowd levels were higher than anticipated.

As a side note, when we arrived at the TTC around 10, resort and express lines were non-operational. We ended up heading to Epcot versus waiting for the ferry boat (did that once, will never do it with 2 small kids again).

 

[Tip Top Club]

It seems like the main problem here is garbled messages from Cast Members. There are many things that they shouldn't tell you for a myriad of reasons. It seems like in some cases they were mentioning things that they shouldn't, while probably not mentioning things they should. I think chances are all that happened was some unscheduled maintenance, and in order to complete it some trains had to be moved. I'm sure many of the procedures are much more complicated now then they were a few years ago so I would cut them some slack, and chalk it up to normal maintenance.

 

[RSoxNo1]

This is the second active thread about Monorail Green having issues. Think maybe it's time to take it in for maintenance?

 

[Tom]

This is the second active thread about Monorail Green having issues. Think maybe it's time to take it in for maintenance?

Perhaps a new Operating System is in order for all of the trains.

But actually, it's sounding like they might be having electrical issues on the Express line's bus bar system. Perhaps an undervoltage of some sort. It was completely down a couple of days ago, and it sounds like they took it down for a bit yesterday too.

 

[EvanAnderson]

After reading these, and seeing the same thing with the pilots getting on the mic and explaining what is happening, maybe that's required now? I know they have all sorts of regulations in place now, and maybe that's one of them? To let the people on board know what is happening. It seems like all they would need to say is "we're holding for further traffic clearance" even if it was a train that couldn't make it up the Contemporary hill. The less guests know, the better. But I could be wrong, but it seems like all these stories involve the pilots saying too much information.

 

[jen42002]

We had alot of the same things going on during our trip in September 2010. Turned out to be a "training mission" for new drivers.

 

[forevermickey]

We had alot of the same things going on during our trip in September 2010. Turned out to be a "training mission" for new drivers.

We were there Sept. 2010 as well and experienced this training mission. We were running late for a breakfast resi... :zipit:

 

[parkgoer]

sorry about the delay.

silver was acting as a back cab observer for green. There was a malfunction on green, and it did not have enough power to make it up the hill, so they reversed it down to try again which was successful. No train can be put into reverse these days unless a back cab observer is present. Even if you overshoot your stop by 1 inch. green went back to shop 1 lap later for service.

Expect daily delays on the monorails, especially with the hot summer months to come, and non existent Air conditioning in the cabs. Trains have been "breaking" on a daily basis for about 2 weeks now. The trains are old, and WDW won't take the time or money to take care of them as they should. Actually with only 11 trains, and 1-3 trains in shop at any given time doesn't leave much time for maintenance. There's not much of a choice(new trains??) Red is in shop and will be there for a week or two, and with the late park hours, the trains are never in shop longer than a 4 hours.

BTW Express will "shut down" between the hours of 5-6:30 everyday. That's nothing new. A extra train is added to the express line to handle the crowds during exit. it takes about 15-20 minutes to complete.

 

[ScoutN]

sorry about the delay.

silver was acting as a back cab observer for green. There was a malfunction on green, and it did not have enough power to make it up the hill, so they reversed it down to try again, which was succesfull. green went back to shop 1 lap later for service.

Expect daily delays on the monorails, especially with the hot summer months to come, and non existent Air conditioning in the cabs. Trains have been "breaking" on a daily basis for about 2 weeks now. The trains are old, and WDW won't take the time or money to take care of them as they should.

From what it seems though the replacements at DLR are having a time and a half operating in warmer airs and/or barely running at this point.

 

[zulemara]

The VP of transportation harps on us to give service delay updates. The sad thing is the mic doesn't work on some of the boats. Not sure about monorails. Either way, that's why they keep talking, but some of them have no idea what to actually say.

I'm not sure the reason for the events that happened, but I laugh when threads are made about monorail problems. They happen all the time, just some are longer than others.

 

[Monorail_Red]

sorry about the delay.

silver was acting as a back cab observer for green. There was a malfunction on green, and it did not have enough power to make it up the hill, so they reversed it down to try again which was successful. No train can be put into reverse these days unless a back cab observer is present. Even if you overshoot your stop by 1 inch. green went back to shop 1 lap later for service.

Expect daily delays on the monorails, especially with the hot summer months to come, and non existent Air conditioning in the cabs. Trains have been "breaking" on a daily basis for about 2 weeks now. The trains are old, and WDW won't take the time or money to take care of them as they should. Actually with only 11 trains, and 1-3 trains in shop at any given time doesn't leave much time for maintenance. There's not much of a choice(new trains??) Red is in shop and will be there for a week or two, and with the late park hours, the trains are never in shop longer than a 4 hours.

BTW Express will "shut down" between the hours of 5-6:30 everyday. That's nothing new. A extra train is added to the express line to handle the crowds during exit. it takes about 15-20 minutes to complete.

Actually Silver was probably a parallel observer, a back cab observer is an actual person in the back cab. This is why it takes so long for a train to back up in the contemporary, they have to wait for an express train to pass through and hold outside the contemporary as a parallel observer.

Don't even get me started on the A/C issue!! :brick:

Monorail_Red

 

[jrh1985]

Just got back from WDW on Sat, went to MK on the 14th, and 19th and went to Epcot via Monorail on the 15th. The only problem I saw was too many Monorails on the MK Express line! I don’t remember hearing so many Traffic Clearance Messages on my earlier trips. Mostly on the express line, Once, maybe twice on the resort line. The afternoon of the 19th, from 4:15 to 5:15 was very busy from what I saw from inside the Contempary. Just about every monorail stopped just outside of the hotel on the MK side waiting for Traffic Clearance. We even had to wait to get into the TTC after the 9PM MSEP both nights.(part of that could be me. My Family always took the resort line to the TTC after night time parades because the line for Express was always jammed. However, this trip, the line for Express was just about clear both nights so, we took it. Are people staying in the park longer these days waiting for Magic, Memories, You and Wishes?)

As for AC, I don’t understand. Every Monorail I rode this trip had AC I think. You could tell the difference between MK air and Monorail air.

As for Express shutting down every evening, This is the first time I’ve heard of this and I’ve been on WDWMAGIC for years. From what I saw on the 19th, Prime time is very busy for the Express line. Even on the 14th as the storm was slowing ending, The Monorails on the Express line were packed with people!(I was at the Contempary again) Granted, MK was open till 1AM that night for everybody. But from what I have seen, Guests usually leave MK in the Rain, not go into it.

 

[Monorail_Red]

The express trains do tend to pile up since there's 3-4 running and only 2 stops. It is so efficient, the only thing slowing the operation down is how slow people get on & off! :ROFLOL:

A/C...yes they all have it. About a year ago they turned them all up from 70-72 to 78-80. Some of the cabs had temperatures in the tipple digits. Wasn't good for the pilots or for the computers.

Not so much that the express line shuts down every evening, just that they add trains later in the day just before it gets busy, and there is a brief delay during that process.

Monorail_Red

 

[Figments Friend]

-

Sorry to hear about the recent problems. Lets hope our fleet gets some love in the coming week.

Go Shop boys!

Now about that 'unnessesary' info being mumbled over the mic when you are waiting to clear.......

I love it when the Pilots do this. I want to hear them talk! I have had some interesting and equallly hilarious times riding because of these speils. Once i was riding Orange and we took part in a safety check. Most of the Guests were clueless, but i was bouncing with glee inside as i knew actually what was happening. The Pilot had this amazing speil while it was all going down...but i am sure most people were not paying attention. He was great...and it was informative and entertaining while we went through the paces. Another time there was a great deal of humour involved in the comments. All good clean fun...

So keep talkin' gents....i for one love being your captive audience.

 

[Space Mountain]

Actually Silver was probably a parallel observer, a back cab observer is an actual person in the back cab. This is why it takes so long for a train to back up in the contemporary, they have to wait for an express train to pass through and hold outside the contemporary as a parallel observer.

Don't even get me started on the A/C issue!! :brick:

Monorail_Red

The A/C is getting to be such a problem that drivers don't want to drive specific cabs anymore. Luckily, Orange has been the beta train for the new AC units, and while still have malfunction pop-ups, it at least blows cold air.

 

[Monorail_Red]

When I was there Cab 1 of Black was the coldest. It got down to like 60 while I was holding at 17 for an extended while