WDW Bus System Question

[TrevorA]

I'm curious, for many reasons, on how the busing system works at Walt Disney World. Does anyone have any info on how they dispatch and communicate with the drivers - things like that?


---TrevorA

 

[invictor23]

I would imagine quite similar to a standard public bus service. They most probably have a timetable to adhere to, or perhaps an instruction to leave when they reach a certain level of passengers or are at capacity.

I believe they communicate via radio?

 

[Duckberg]

WDW Bus Service

Think there was a thread here @ WDW Magic last year about longer waits for buses in the parks & how posters were suggesting a rental car as possible quicker option for getting around :veryconfu Duckberg :animwink:

 

[mike10]

When I was at WDW last year in October I never waited more than 10 or so mins for a bus. Along with ALWAYS having a place to sit unless I left at park closing.


I'm curious with the posters here when they go to WDW. Some talk about how it's crazy busy at WDW with waits in lines, restaurants, buses, etc. and when I went while yes it was busy in terms of the average theme park it wasn't anything extreme.

 

[luckyeye13]

Like the rest of WDW, the buses are equipped with Nextel units that are used to communicate with the dispatch center that the bus belongs to on that particular day. Also, there was a plan to make it possible for the Magic in Motion boxes (the black box with buttons and a screen to the right of the driver) to be able to receive messages for the driver logged in (for schedule changes or other personal information) or for all of the drivers at a certain hub or in the entire system (for detours or other information that affects the system). I am not sure whether this has yet been implemented or not. An important thing to note is that the system would only allow for messages to be received, not sent (so no typing while driving is required)!

Those same boxes also alert dispatch when a bus is full and there are Guests left at the load zone. At the front and back doors, there is a pair of sensors that counts Guests as they board or alight a bus. These sensors count up the number of Guests on the bus and alert the driver when it has reached 72 (the designated capacity of all three types of Disney buses). At that point, the driver can either accept the count or adjust it by subtracting from the total. On the flip side, if the driver believes that the bus is full, even if the system doesn't, there is a button that allows the driver to signal to dispatch that the bus is full, which will automatically bump the count to 72. (This would be used in cases where parents are carrying on children, who would thus not be counted by the sensors.) Whether the bus full alert is activated automatically or manually, another screen will come up asking the driver to enter the number of Guests remaining at the load zone.

Finally, the big component of the Magic in Motion system is that the drivers will be assigned their next journey automatically by the system. Again, I do not know if this has gone into effect yet, though I do know that Disney has found this to be the most challenging aspect of implementing Magic in Motion. The system that MiM is replacing required drivers to call in their bus number once they passed a certain point that all buses from that hub would pass on their way back. (For buses to Downtown Disney, for example, this would be Saratoga Springs.)

For example, bus 4791 (no clue if that's a real bus or not) is assigned to the Downtown Disney hub for the day. Its current destination assignment is on the Contemporary & Polynesian route. It leaves Marketplace, travels to Pleasure Island, and then stops at Typhoon Lagoon before continuing to the Contemporary. At the Contemporary, it now becomes a Downtown Disney & Typhoon Lagoon bus and the destination sign changes to reflect this. Now, the bus goes to the Polynesian and begins its trip back to Downtown Disney. You've probably noticed that the Disney buses seem to take really indirect routes sometimes and that is because of the need to pass a common point. From the Polynesian, it would be much faster to travel down World Drive to Epcot Center Drive, then take the exit for Downtown Disney and turn left to follow Buena Vista Drive. Instead, the bus will often leave the Polynesian, turn onto Seven Seas Drive, then right onto World Drive, and left onto Vista Boulevard. At Bonnet Creek Parkway, the bus will turn right, then left at Disney Vacation Club Way. As the bus passes Saratoga Springs, the driver radios in for the next assignment by saying "Dispatch, 4791." Dispatch will respond with "4791. Pop Century, 2845, load zone 8." This means that the bus will now be going to Pop Century, the destination sign code is 2845 (made up as an example), and the load zone at both Downtown Disney stops and at Typhoon Lagoon is number 8. Often, the driver will stay at the stop sign at the end of the road for somewhat longer than needed so that the code can be entered. Then, the bus will turn right onto Buena Vista Drive and right again into the Marketplace bus station.

With the new system, the drivers no longer enter codes directly into the destination sign controller above them, but into the black box, which will automatically change the sign. Also, the Disney's Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom driver bases have been eliminated and merged with Epcot and Downtown Disney, respectively, so the number of dispatch locations was cut to three. As a result, bus 4791 might now go from Downtown Disney to Pop Century, then travel to Animal Kingdom, go to Caribbean Beach, and finally return to Downtown Disney. (I have no clue if this is a real journey, but it illustrates the point.) While passing Saratoga Springs, the driver now gets a journey code, instead of a trip code, which will take them through the entire journey. The signs will change automatically with each portion, so the code only needs to be entered once. Eventually (if it has not already happened), this process will all be automated, with the journey assigned automatically and the code sent to the box in the bus.

Sorry if this is a bit long. I know that you probably weren't looking for an encyclopedia entry length answer, but this is a topic that interests me, so I felt like sharing what I know.

 

[TimNRA757]

Like the rest of WDW, the buses are equipped with Nextel units that are used to communicate with the dispatch center that the bus belongs to on that particular day. Also, there was a plan to make it possible for the Magic in Motion boxes (the black box with buttons and a screen to the right of the driver) to be able to receive messages for the driver logged in (for schedule changes or other personal information) or for all of the drivers at a certain hub or in the entire system (for detours or other information that affects the system). I am not sure whether this has yet been implemented or not. An important thing to note is that the system would only allow for messages to be received, not sent (so no typing while driving is required)!

Those same boxes also alert dispatch when a bus is full and there are Guests left at the load zone. At the front and back doors, there is a pair of sensors that counts Guests as they board or alight a bus. These sensors count up the number of Guests on the bus and alert the driver when it has reached 72 (the designated capacity of all three types of Disney buses). At that point, the driver can either accept the count or adjust it by subtracting from the total. On the flip side, if the driver believes that the bus is full, even if the system doesn't, there is a button that allows the driver to signal to dispatch that the bus is full, which will automatically bump the count to 72. (This would be used in cases where parents are carrying on children, who would thus not be counted by the sensors.) Whether the bus full alert is activated automatically or manually, another screen will come up asking the driver to enter the number of Guests remaining at the load zone.

Finally, the big component of the Magic in Motion system is that the drivers will be assigned their next journey automatically by the system. Again, I do not know if this has gone into effect yet, though I do know that Disney has found this to be the most challenging aspect of implementing Magic in Motion. The system that MiM is replacing required drivers to call in their bus number once they passed a certain point that all buses from that hub would pass on their way back. (For buses to Downtown Disney, for example, this would be Saratoga Springs.)

For example, bus 4791 (no clue if that's a real bus or not) is assigned to the Downtown Disney hub for the day. Its current destination assignment is on the Contemporary & Polynesian route. It leaves Marketplace, travels to Pleasure Island, and then stops at Typhoon Lagoon before continuing to the Contemporary. At the Contemporary, it now becomes a Downtown Disney & Typhoon Lagoon bus and the destination sign changes to reflect this. Now, the bus goes to the Polynesian and begins its trip back to Downtown Disney. You've probably noticed that the Disney buses seem to take really indirect routes sometimes and that is because of the need to pass a common point. From the Polynesian, it would be much faster to travel down World Drive to Epcot Center Drive, then take the exit for Downtown Disney and turn left to follow Buena Vista Drive. Instead, the bus will often leave the Polynesian, turn onto Seven Seas Drive, then right onto World Drive, and left onto Vista Boulevard. At Bonnet Creek Parkway, the bus will turn right, then left at Disney Vacation Club Way. As the bus passes Saratoga Springs, the driver radios in for the next assignment by saying "Dispatch, 4791." Dispatch will respond with "4791. Pop Century, 2845, load zone 8." This means that the bus will now be going to Pop Century, the destination sign code is 2845 (made up as an example), and the load zone at both Downtown Disney stops and at Typhoon Lagoon is number 8. Often, the driver will stay at the stop sign at the end of the road for somewhat longer than needed so that the code can be entered. Then, the bus will turn right onto Buena Vista Drive and right again into the Marketplace bus station.

With the new system, the drivers no longer enter codes directly into the destination sign controller above them, but into the black box, which will automatically change the sign. Also, the Disney's Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom driver bases have been eliminated and merged with Epcot and Downtown Disney, respectively, so the number of dispatch locations was cut to three. As a result, bus 4791 might now go from Downtown Disney to Pop Century, then travel to Animal Kingdom, go to Caribbean Beach, and finally return to Downtown Disney. (I have no clue if this is a real journey, but it illustrates the point.) While passing Saratoga Springs, the driver now gets a journey code, instead of a trip code, which will take them through the entire journey. The signs will change automatically with each portion, so the code only needs to be entered once. Eventually (if it has not already happened), this process will all be automated, with the journey assigned automatically and the code sent to the box in the bus.

Sorry if this is a bit long. I know that you probably weren't looking for an encyclopedia entry length answer, but this is a topic that interests me, so I felt like sharing what I know.

I'm not positive of this, but it would appear that at peak times, when parks are closing and opening, that to cut down on radio chatter they go to remote dispatching where a coordinator will sit in a van at each park with a laptop and assigns routes that way talking to the driver through the window.

And as of this weekend they're still manually entering codes into the system.

 

[luckyeye13]

I'm not positive of this, but it would appear that at peak times, when parks are closing and opening, that to cut down on radio chatter they go to remote dispatching where a coordinator will sit in a van at each park with a laptop and assigns routes that way talking to the driver through the window.

And as of this weekend they're still manually entering codes into the system.

Yes, you are absolutely right! I haven't seen it done at opening (doesn't mean, though, that it doesn't happen then, too), but I have seen the park close dispatch method that you describe. In addition to reducing radio chatter, it might also be helpful because there may be extra buses brought over from hubs that have already closed for the evening. For example, when I worked a DAK bus crowd control shift, once the park had cleared, those drivers who didn't want to go home early (and not get paid for that time) were directed to drive their buses to other hubs and go into rotation there. Thus, depending on how easy it is to change the channel on those Nextels, they may not have been on the new hub's channel, so they would not be able to call in for assignments. (Some radios, like the ones in the Monorail trains are purposely mounted in such a way as to make it very difficult to change channels or other settings.) Finally, the fact that the load zone queues are much more fluid during park close than during the middle of the day also make this a more flexible method. From the point that a bus would call in their number, there are still a few minutes of travel left to the hub. In the middle of the day, the queue for its assigned load zone may not grow much, if at all, during that time. However, at park close, each queue can grow quite quickly as Guests are leaving. Thus, not making the call until the bus actually arrives at the hub allows for more timely dispatches to be made based on more accurate demand.

And, by the way, thanks for the update! I know that Disney has fallen quite behind on fully implementing this. (It was originally scheduled for late 2008, I think.) It'll be interesting to see if/when Magic in Motion is fully implemented.

 

[ewensell3]

Sorry if this is a bit long. I know that you probably weren't looking for an encyclopedia entry length answer, but this is a topic that interests me, so I felt like sharing what I know.

Actually, that was wonderful. Like the OP, I was curious about the buses too. There's all kinds of info on the web about Monorail, but very little about the buses (or I'm not searching for the right things).

Not many wax lyrically about their former days as a bus driver.

 

[luckyeye13]

Not many wax lyrically about their former days as a bus driver.

Actually, I've never even driven a bus, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. :lol: I had a deep fascination with the WDW buses and my first College Program was not too long after the Magic on Demand dispatch method began. The drivers and managers I encountered were always more than happy to tell me about the system and, with the knowledge that I'd gained, I wrote a letter to my university's transportation department with ideas on improving their system with elements of WDW's system. That letter ended in a job offer to be a spy on the system, which continued my fascination with buses and was a job that I held through the rest of my college years. As a bonus, many of the things that I suggested made their way into the university's bus system. Even my suggestion on, when the time came, replacing our older RTS buses (the high floor ones) with NovaBUS LFS (the low-floor ones with a curved front and a rear window) was considered when looking at new buses. The semester after I finished, the first LFS buses made their debut on campus and, now, most of the campus fleet is that type.

While working at Disney, I picked up quite a few crowd control shifts at the bus hubs and bus arrival recording shifts at the resorts and continued to learn by talking to the managers and drivers, who, as always, were eager to answer my questions. It also helped that one of my managers from my Monorail days had been a bus manager before. When the current Magic in Motion system was being implemented, I would regularly read the updates that were put up on the Cast Member portal, so I became quite knowledgeable about the system up through May 2008, when I moved back to New Jersey.

 

[TimNRA757]

Yes, you are absolutely right! I haven't seen it done at opening (doesn't mean, though, that it doesn't happen then, too), but I have seen the park close dispatch method that you describe. In addition to reducing radio chatter, it might also be helpful because there may be extra buses brought over from hubs that have already closed for the evening. For example, when I worked a DAK bus crowd control shift, once the park had cleared, those drivers who didn't want to go home early (and not get paid for that time) were directed to drive their buses to other hubs and go into rotation there. Thus, depending on how easy it is to change the channel on those Nextels, they may not have been on the new hub's channel, so they would not be able to call in for assignments. (Some radios, like the ones in the Monorail trains are purposely mounted in such a way as to make it very difficult to change channels or other settings.) Finally, the fact that the load zone queues are much more fluid during park close than during the middle of the day also make this a more flexible method. From the point that a bus would call in their number, there are still a few minutes of travel left to the hub. In the middle of the day, the queue for its assigned load zone may not grow much, if at all, during that time. However, at park close, each queue can grow quite quickly as Guests are leaving. Thus, not making the call until the bus actually arrives at the hub allows for more timely dispatches to be made based on more accurate demand.

And, by the way, thanks for the update! I know that Disney has fallen quite behind on fully implementing this. (It was originally scheduled for late 2008, I think.) It'll be interesting to see if/when Magic in Motion is fully implemented.

I've heard there are a lot of bugs still with what they want to do with MIM but they are getting close and they haven't given up, though this is heard from bus drivers haha. I've been pretty interested in getting a job as one (After I turn 23) so I've talked to some extensively about it.
Overall I'm very impressed with the system and it's really Disney's time to shine when the parks close with that keeping the crowds moving bit. You'll see some guys make the rounds giving status reports to, I assume the guy in the van telling them who needs a bus the most and it just keeps it one after another. I've seen very very long lines move rather quickly.
I really don't think bus drivers get the credit they deserve out there when you see how efficiently and safely they move people, of course there's going to be things that happen once in a while, but for how many people moved in a single day its just amazing. Sure monorails are cool but it takes much more to haul a bus around where you can hear the screaming kids and have people trying to disturb you while driving despite what the sign says and the law.

And on a side note, the RTS is a great bus even if it's old, it has the most seats but I can see why your school would want to get rid of them and I'm assuming Disney is looking to replace theirs. My favorite 'new' bus is the Gillig, probably because it's American .

 

[NORMNB8S]

This has been an interesting thread so far. I always thank the bus drivers when I get off the bus because they work hard to keep people moving and I do think they're under-appreciated. I never really stopped to think about just how much went in to keeping all of those buses moving efficiently to get the guests back to their resorts in a timely manner. To any of you who have posted who are bus drivers, or have been bus drivers at Disney, thanks for doing what you do!