Walt Disney World Monorail system facing extended closure today

Dec 07, 2021 in "Walt Disney World Monorail System"

Posted: Tuesday December 7, 2021 3:19pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

UPDATE: 5:30pm - The Express and Resort beam has reopened.

The Walt Disney World monorail has been down for most of today due to technical difficulties on the Express and Resort beam.


The beam switch between Disney's Contemporary Resort and Magic Kingdom is stuck in a mid-way position. The switch is used to transfer the monorails onto the spur that runs to the monorail barn backstage. (Thanks to TrainPlane3 via Twitter for the images)

Maintenance crews are on site attempting to resolve the issue, and guests are being directed to use alternative transportation, including bus and watercraft.

Both the resort beam and express beam are out of service, however the EPCOT monorail is running as of 3:40pm.

There is no word yet on when normal service will resume.

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Rob562Jan 20, 2022

I believe the Epcot-loop-to-service-beam switch covers that as well. -Rob

celluloidJan 20, 2022

Do not worry, I am sure as the trains age further and things are neglected, the efficiency and comfort will get better.

cranbizJan 19, 2022

Did they not add a switch on the Epcot loop for the maintenance tractor storage beam?

Figment2005Dec 21, 2021

If the Epcot line is still up and running, but the resort line is down they will run bus service for the resort loop replacement and guests would still need to transfer at TTC. If both were down then they would either go that route and have a central bus pick up at TTC for the Epcot half, or have direct service from the Grand, Contemp, and Poly direct to Epcot. Assuming their are enough busses to handle both extra lines. The logistics behind getting guests to and from different areas is a lot more complicated than some seem to think.

Cesar R MDec 14, 2021

wait.. why a deluxe hotel wouldn't have buses? (o_O))

PhilharMagicianDec 14, 2021

There were NO busses at GF for Epcot. We were told at GF that we had to take a transfer bus to TTC and then on to Epcot. There were a lot of pissed off people at the GF. I have stayed at Contemporary many times and there has always been an Epcot bus added when the Monorail goes down.

JoeCamelDec 14, 2021

What a magical experience

trainplane3Dec 14, 2021

Epcot buses were running from the MK monorail resorts. In that situation I would've done what @Touchdown did or walk to the Contemporary and caught a Epcot bus from there. It really did mess up the day for many guests.

TouchdownDec 14, 2021

Yeah that was my arrival day at the contemporary, got told it was down so I walked to MK and went to the bus depot and caught the first bus that arrived to a crescent lake resort (boardwalk) and then took the boat (it arrived as I left the lobby) to Epcot.

PhilharMagicianDec 14, 2021

We just got back and the monorail being down was a mess. Every CM we spoke to had different information and unfortunately none of them were correct. At 3:00 walked up to monorail station at MK and was told that the monorails were down and that I could take the ferry to TTC and get a bus to Epcot or go to one of the resorts and also take a Epcot bus. I have tried to use the park busses at the TTC and they never seemed to be reliable and have always had very long wait times so we decided to walk to new path to the GF and catch an Epcot bus there. Apparently they are not running Epcot direct busses anymore when the monorail goes down. Not sure if this is an effect of COVID, but no busses for me or anyone else waiting at the bus stop with us. We arrived at the bus stop and talked to a cast member that was walking by and she said that many busses were running to the TTC and it would be less than 5 minutes for the next. About 25 minutes later the bus arrives (name on display MK MONORAIL). then this bus goes to every resort and the MK before stopping at the TTC. In the end it took us 3 hours to get from MK to Epcot and were 90 minutes late for a dinner reservation and since we were so late it took nearly 40 minutes for a table.

GoofyernmostDec 13, 2021

Not looking when you cross the street killed many people, what is your point? Having a tire blow out on a car has killed many people, what is your point? So who was killed by that and when and how does anyone or anything prevent unanticipated issues and particularly human error. Human error points to a fault. Mechanical breakdowns do not always point to anything other then unexpected parts failure.

lazyboy97oDec 13, 2021

Not knowing the actual position of a switch killed someone.

GoofyernmostDec 13, 2021

Hardly a major failure. It is a mechanical failure that didn't create any risk to anyone. It wasn't even a monorail, it was a track and one that is a manual switch not automatic.

WallyWorldDec 11, 2021

Thank you so much! Off to google earth to try and see.