WALT DISNEY WORLD – A video sent to News 6 shows a Walt Disney World Resort monorail, with passengers on board, moving with a door open.
The passenger who recorded the video on Saturday told News 6 she and her fellow passengers were traveling on Monorail Red to Epcot when the incident occurred. The doors would not latch at the Transportation and Ticket Center, and maintenance workers spent about 10 minutes working on the door and were able to get the door to close, the guest said.
The train then left the station, and as it traveled around a curve, the door popped back open, she said.
“Everyone was very wide-eyed and holding very tightly to rails and seats,” the guest said in an email.
In the video, passengers are heard joking about the “no smoking” announcement as they traveled with the door halfway open.
“Don’t smoke, it's dangerous!” one person jokes.
“I could use one!” another says.
“Thank Christ,” one woman exclaims when the monorail stops.
The passengers stayed seated and arrived at their next stop safely. The woman said an attendant at the Epcot station immediately saw the door open and notified the train operator.
Several guests spoke to Disney cast members as they got off the train.
“They scolded us for not using the emergency phone,” the rider said. “We weren’t aware it was there.”
An announcement was made that the train would be returning to the yard and not to board it. The passenger said she saw the Monorail Red back in service on the Magic Kingdom loop the following day.
The monorail moves from 15 to 40 mph and covers a 14-miles span around the resort, according to the 2007 book "The Complete Guide to Walt Disney World."
“I am grateful that the riders were all calm and that the car was not crowded, and that there were no children standing on the train,” the guest told News 6. “This could have ended very differently.”
The woman also said that from now on, she’ll be taking the bus at the Walt Disney World Resort.
A Disney spokeswoman said the monorail in question was removed immediately and that fixes to the train and new safety measures will make sure that a similar incident doesn't happen again.
The monorail system carries more than 150,000 riders a day, according to Disney blog WDWMagic,com, more than many monorail systems around the world.
The safety protocols on the train system were changed after a 2009 collision between two monorail trams killed a Disney employee.