Could Disney be ordering a new fleet of monorails for Walt Disney World? That’s the rumor, according to WDWNT. And if it’s true, it’s long overdue.
According to their sources, the Main Street Theater project has been cancelled to free up the funds for the new monorail fleet, which will cost several million dollars per train.
The new trains are said to be based on the INNOVIA Monorail 300, designed by Bombardier of Canada. Bombardier had also designed the current Mark VI fleet, which has been in service since the late 1980s.
Recent Monorail Safety Issues Have Prompted the Upgrade
It’s being said that recent highly-publicized safety issues regarding the aging monorail system have forced Disney to look into replacing the trains.
In January 2018, an Instagram user posted a shocking video of Monorail Red making a trip to Epcot with the doors open.
And the summer before that, a part had fallen off of Monorail Blue, leaving guests trapped in the vehicle for an hour.
(And we can verify this, as my family and I were on that train!)
Not long after, Monorail Teal suffered numerous breakdowns.
It seems that it’s past time for an upgrade, and with the 50th Anniversary of Walt Disney World only a few years away, a badly aging transportation system isn’t the way to usher guests into the next half century.
We’ll report more on this as we hear it, as there has yet to be any official word from Disney.
[Source: WDW News Today]
This is definitely a long-overdue update, if it is indeed happening. The Mark VI fleet has far outlived its service years. It will take some getting used to if the new fleet is shaped like the Innovia monorail in the video, but…it sure beats what we have now. If this is truly going to happen, it can only be seen as a good thing.