Walt Disney World Adds Glowing Logo Feature to Aging Mark VI Monorail Fleet
While we love some of these changes, we have to wonder when a new fleet is coming.
Walt Disney World continues to make some modern changes to their aging monorail fleet, this time making the classic logo on the bottom of each train glow in the night sky.
What’s Happening:
- You may remember that as part of Walt Disney World’s 50th anniversary celebrations a few years ago, new lighting was installed under the landmark Walt Disney World Monorail trains, giving each a special colored glow as the glide along the beams of the Walt Disney World monorail loops (Magic Kingdom Express, Magic Kingdom Resort, and EPCOT).
- Now, a few years later, the teams at Walt Disney World are enhancing the monorails even more, adding a glow-in-the-dark feature to the logos on the bottom of each train.
- This feature seems to illuminate the words at the bottom of the train that read: “Walt Disney World Monorail System."
- The new feature is set to debut across the fleet at Walt Disney World this week, so after sunset, be sure to keep your eyes peeled as the monorails glide along the highway in the sky on your next visit.
- If you’d like to see this new feature for yourself, be sure to reach out to our friends at Mouse Fan Travel.
New Features or New Fleet?
- While Disney has been showcasing these new features on the monorail fleet over the last few years, many fans keep wondering when Walt Disney World will be getting a new fleet of monorails - with a large number of fans and guests noticing the decreased reliability under thinly veiled new aesthetics that make the aging system appear new.
- The fleet of monorails themselves have not been replaced at Walt Disney World since 1991, when the former Mark IV monorails were replaced by the current Mark VI.
- Disney Legend Bob Gurr - designer of the original Monorail trains at Disneyland - was at a panel back in 2018 (since removed from video hosting sites, but still evident like this post here), where he discussed the 1964 World’s Fair to EPCOT, answering a question about the possibility of new monorails at Walt Disney World, when he called the fleet (In 2018!) the “duct tape monorail," noting that they are past their originally intended end-of-life date.
- At the time, it was also circulating heavily that a new system was on approach, with rumors circulating and speculating that former EPCOT sponsor Siemens was offering Disney a new fleet of Bombardier monorails (even referenced by Gurr in the panel), with the rumors saying the ultimate rejection of this offer was because Siemens wanted their name on the system. This also coincides with the 2017 conclusion of the Siemens sponsorship of Spaceship Earth and Illuminations: Reflections of Earth at EPCOT.
- Now, in 2025, we still have the same monorails at Walt Disney World, but now with undercarriage lights and some glowing labels.
- For reference, Disneyland last got their new fleet back in 2008, themselves nearing the estimated 20-year shelf life suggested by Gurr.
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