When the Monorail was built it cost a million dollars a mile. It was an amazing technology and seemed like something out of a sci-fi movie. Years later little it’s only gotten better. Not only does the monorail look like something from the future, it now also instills a great deal of emotion in people.
You know you’re in Disney World when you step on a monorail. When I was a kid I rode it so much that I memorized the Spanish warning that plays before the doors closed. I didn’t know any other Spanish and I’m not sure how that would have helped me if I was stuck in a Spanish country but I thought it was important to remember.
Over the years the look of the Monorail hasn’t changed a lot but the technology has continually advanced. Instead of the old buttons and levers they now have a high tech operating system. They’ve also gotten greener over the years. They’ve always been green. People forget that they are electric. There are not many public transit systems in the US that move that many people with no fossil fuels.
The Monorails come in a number of colors. Some people go nuts over that. They have to own all the models and collect all the pins for the different colors. Visibly I believe that’s the only difference between the different Monorails.
The other amazing thing is the speed. If seems like you are going fast but you’re really not. I don’t think you ever go faster than 45 miles an hour. However, they are faster than taking the bus. The buses have to stop at lights and yield to traffic. The Monorail stops for nothing, unless of course one of the tires pops and then bursts into flames. That’s happened before. If you’re afraid of heights you wouldn’t like that. You have to climb out the roof and onto the tracks. If Matt Hochberg reads this he’ll never ride the Monorail again.
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