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The New Tokyo Disneyland Resort Monorail Line Opens
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The First 'Real' Disney Monorail Opens

July 26th - Tokyo Disneyland Monorail Station - Everyone was there... The bigwigs from Oriental Land Company, from company president Toshio Kagami, to the designers and executives from Imagineering Japan/Walt Disney Attractions Japan, to virtually every major media outlet in Japan, including a chopper, which hovered perfectly motionless, just out of earshot.

With Monorail Green sitting in the station and after much scurrying about in preparation, festivities began at 11 am with the appearance of the Tokyo Disneyland Band, which marched through the center of the station to the event's temporary stage.

Mickey and Minnie then took the stage to whip up the crowd, their introduction provided by one of the Resort Line's Cast Members.  Next it was OLC President Toshio Kagami, who was soon joined by a group of those key players for a photo opportunity.  After only 10 minutes the show came to an end with a brief flurry of flashes of light which danced across the side of Monorail Green and the monorail's departure from from the station.

Moments later, Monorail Yellow arrived, the gathered executives filed onboard, and the inaugural trip of the Tokyo Disney Resort Line Monorail System was underway with the press in tow.

Upon completion of their 12 minute trip, the executives made their way to their waiting sedans and the event came to a close.

•  •  •

While the monorails at Disneyland and Walt Disney World are without a doubt monorails, the Tokyo Disney Resort Line has been, due to its scale, referred to by many as the first real Disney park monorail. Unlike the systems in California and Florida which are 3/5ths scale adaptations of Dr. Axel Lennart Wenner-Gren's original Alweg design, the trains of the Tokyo Disney Resort Line, which are 275 feet long and carry up to 571 passengers, are built to full scale.

The system's particularly large beams are the result of not only the trains' size, but also the desire to increase the span between support pylons.

Under normal operation, the system runs four Liners at once, with the fifth in reserve, but it is capable of operating all five at one time if desired.

The trains are designated as such: 1-Blue / 2-Yellow / 3-Purple / 4-Green / 5-Peach.

There's something else about the Tokyo Disney Resort Line that certainly deserves mention - Its trains are driverless.  The individual Liners (as they are called) are controlled from a central location by an automated (but monitored, of course) system.  A single Cast Member rides in the tail of each Liner to ensure that guests have fully boarded the vehicle before its doors are closed.

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  The First Trip - Page 8
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