Has a monorail ever derailed?

On this day in 1968, a 65-year-old woman named Emilee Schmidt from Missouri died and 47 others were injured after a monorail crashed and derailed during the second busiest day of the fair at what was then HemisFair Park. More than 89,000 people were at the fair that day, according to the Houston Chronicle.



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Monorail is, by design, a grade-separated system. They do not interfere with existing transport modes. Unlike conventional rail systems, straddle monorails wrap around their track and are thus not physically capable of derailing, unless the track itself suffers a catastrophic failure.

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Perhaps the most notable is the 2009 Monorail crash that killed young driver, 21-year-old Austin Wuennenberg.

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One of the biggest disadvantages of monorails are difficulties switching them between tracks—there's no technology to provide for a high speed switch, and compared to rail infrastructure, the switches are expensive and trouble prone.

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There has only been one fatal incident in the history of the Walt Disney World Monorail System. On July 5, 2009, an operator was killed after Monorail Pink and Monorail Purple collided on the Epcot line near the Transportation and Ticket Center.

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The original Monorail was a round trip ride with no stops. In 1961, the track was expanded to connect to a station at the Disneyland Hotel, making it an actual transportation system. The original Hotel station was torn down in 1999 and a new station, now called the Downtown Disney Station, was built in the same place.

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It isn't cost-effective. On top of the operation of a Monorail, it takes an entirely unique staffing situation. The Disney Skyliner is operated by Attractions Cast Members, the same as any other ride or show around the Walt Disney World Resort.

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There are two Disney World parks connected by the monorail, and that is EPCOT and Magic Kingdom. Guests can catch a ride to EPCOT by monorail at the Transportation and Ticketing Center at Magic Kingdom. There is also a return station to the Magic Kingdom at EPCOT, too!

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That wrap-around makes monorail track crossovers hard and expensive to build, and slow to operate. Watch this video to see how it works. You can see that while monorail crossovers aren't completely impossible, they're vastly less practical than for normal trains.

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Tokyo Monorail, which connects Haneda Airport to Hamamatsucho Station, is known as one of the world's most commercially successful lines and carries around 100 million passengers each year.

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Monorails over-all are quite safe. Steel does not bend easily, especially in the thickness and methods used to create a monorail. To suggest that a monorail track could bend is like suggesting that a steel bridge could bend. Sure there may be a small amount of flex, but not enough to cause a safety issue.

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Safe and reliable. As the track is an enclosed steel beam box that contains the traction wheels and guide wheels of the bogie, there is no possibility of derailment and the monorail operation is unaffected by rain, snow, icing or similar conditions. The suspended monorail can run around the clock in any weather.

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Yes. There are 42 urban monorail systems operating in the world today. Each day they safely shuttle millions of passengers between hundreds of stations with 99.5% reliability -- the highest reliability of any transit mode.

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The reason LEGO has stopped making monorail is threefold, One, the motors and track molds ran out and would be very expensive to replace. Two, no monorail set ever made any money, in fact despite trying several different types at high price points they all cost more to produce then they were sold for.

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Monorails are environmentally friendly Since most monorails are electrically powered, they are non-polluting.

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Yes. The Disney Monorail is Free to ride, and anyone can ride the monorail.

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1 billion+ riders have been on the monorail since it first opened. 3 monorails are used at 1 time during normal operations. 13 minutes is the total ride duration of the monorail. 3 car trains, the Mark I, were used in June 14, 1959.

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Supporters of Wuennenberg had hoped that Disney World would create a new monorail that would honor the fallen pilot. Apart from retiring the colors pink and purple, which will forever be associated with the tragic death of monorail purple's young pilot, Disney has not announced plans to pay tribute to Wuennenberg.

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