InsideTransit

It’s a hard world out there for Mickey Mouse and crew. First there was a horrible crash of the Disney monorail that killed the operator of the monorail. A week later there was a bus crash that injured 12 passengers. Today we’ve learned that 300 Disney monorail passengers were stuck for about three hours in the middle of the night last night. Apparently the cause of the delay was due to a power outage.

Bo Jones of the Reedy Creek Fire Department says firefighters used ladders to assist some visitors aboard one train “more out of customer service than as an emergency situation.” Other passengers disembarked later when the trains were towed to nearby stations.

I am thinking on my next trip to Disney World, I might just walk.

At about 2AM Eastern this morning, a monorail at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida crashed into another monorail that was parked at the station allowing passengers to exit. CNN has more on the accident which left the monorail operator dead.

“Today we mourn the loss of our fellow cast member,” said a statement by Mike Griffin, Disney’s vice president for public affairs. “Our hearts go out to his family and to those who have lost a friend and co-worker.” No one else was injured in the crash.

As of the time of this post, the Disney monorail is closed. The monorail runs three lines of service, nearly 15 miles of track and moves 50 million Disney guests a year.

Update: Inquisitr has video from moments after the crash – the video is posted below.

I am in Seattle this week and have really enjoyed the good bus service they have here. Next week I will publish a guide on riding the Seattle buses. Yesterday I decided to take a ride on the Seattle Monorail. This might have been one of the most exciting monorail rides I have ever been on! It’s just over 2 minutes, shakes and bumps around where you think “this is the end of my life” several times and the 2 minute ride costs $4.

To save you from spending the money on this very exciting trip, I filmed a ride from the Seattle Center to downtown as if you were riding. The display showed a top speed of just under 60mph. It was very noisy so please excuse the background sound.