Monorails operating modified hours over the next week

Feb 19, 2015 in "Walt Disney World Monorail System"

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Posted: Thursday February 19, 2015 3:36pm EST by WDWMAGIC Staff

The Walt Disney World Monorail System is operating on modified hours during the next week to accommodate the Princess Half Marathon and ongoing maintenance.

Here are the changes:

February 20 2015

Express - 8:30am to 11:30am, 6pm to 1am.
Resort - 3am to 1am.
Epcot - 3am to 11pm.

February 21 2015

Express - 8:30am to 12am.
Resort - 3am to 12:30am.
Epcot - 3am to 11pm.

February 22 2015

Express - 5am to 10pm.
Resort - 3am to 10:30pm.
Epcot - 3am to 10pm.

February 23 - 26 2015

Express - Normal operation expect 11am to 7pm - Monorails on the Resort beam will stop at Magic Kingdom, Disney's Polynesian Village Resort and Disney's Grand Floridian Resort only. Monorails on the Express beam will stop at the Magic Kingdom, Transportation and Ticket Center and Disney's Contemporary Resort.
Resort - Normal operation expect 11am to 7pm. Monorails on the Resort beam will stop at Magic Kingdom, Disney's Polynesian Village Resort and Disney's Grand Floridian Resort only. Monorails on the Express beam will stop at the Magic Kingdom, Transportation and Ticket Center and Disney's Contemporary Resort.
Epcot - Normal operation.

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ford91exploderFeb 25, 2016

Oh you mean the dirt colored monorails...

DisoneFeb 25, 2016

Well, Off-White anyway.

Rob562Feb 25, 2016

I don't think you're considering all possibilities. While your outlook might be true if you're standing on the platform with a totally empty ramp, what happens at park closing when the ramp is full of people backed up all the way to the bottom? With an emergency on the platform that's anything short of a massively loud catastrophe that causes people to immediately run away from it, you aren't going to get people at the bottom of the ramp, who can't see what's happening up above, to turn around and move down and away in any kind of a rapid pace. These new stairs will be empty 100% of the time until they're needed. People on the platform can start exiting down the stairs while people standing on the ramp can figure out what to do with themselves. And what if something were to happen *on* the ramp. You suddenly have people below the incident running away down the ramp, but people who are on the ramp *above* the incident having no where to go but up the ramp to the platform. And once they're on the platform, there's no where to go. -Rob

JoeCamelFeb 23, 2016

Actually I think it is really a cash grab. Want expedited security screening? Want exclusive entry into the park? Want to bypass the unwashed masses at the gates? Just step right up to this stairway and pay $xxx to be escorted into the bowels of the Magic Kingdom through our new backstage entrance. "Mind the tracks and no pictures please"..............

GoofyernmostFeb 23, 2016

Maybe, but, I would take my chances on the ramp before I would even consider the stairs. Stairs are not safer then ramps in my humble opinion. Those ramps are fairly wide and if you get pushed or slip you aren't going to fall down a flight of stairs, the worst you will do is roll a few feet. So it's still a mystery to me.

monothingieFeb 23, 2016

Most likely answer is that the current means of egress for the area in question (ramps at the MK and EPCOT) could not safely handle the throughput of people to safely evacuate a given area within a specified time. Each of those platform areas are rated for X number of people. It is safe to assume that someone discovered that only say 1/2X can flow though that point during a Y minute period. So if they didn't want to get sued for $$$ by the Z number of people who were trampled by the X minus Z people who escaped over a period of time Y, they needed to build a new means of egress.

WDWtravelerFeb 23, 2016

Photo update as of Tuesday, Feb. 23. Finally, the precast concrete steps at the Magic Kingdom monorail station have railings installed, for the new emergency exit. The railings are painted black. Still a work in progress. Additional emergency exit steps are now under construction at the far end of the outer waiting areas (directly behind where this photo was taken), to exit onto the grass areas on either side of the monorail station.

GoofyernmostFeb 20, 2016

Why would there be a staircase along side a ramp. Isn't a ramp easier to exit through then a stairway? What am I missing here.

COProgressFanFeb 20, 2016

Wow, clearly for emergency use only - they look steep!

WDWtravelerFeb 19, 2016

Photo update as of Friday, Feb 19. Emergency stairway exits are being added to the Epcot monorail station at the Epcot front gate, near the security checkpoint. Gray construction walls hide the addition of these narrow stairways.

EvilQueen-TNov 17, 2015

I sadly agree with you. It was sooooo much fun riding from Epcot to TTC in July without a/c.

DisneyFans4LifeNov 17, 2015

You're probably right...but it was still a neat experience to get to do. I remember doing it a couple times as a kid and I thought I was the coolest kid around for getting to ride up front. And I always remember thinking, "are we going to fit" as we entered the Contemporary.