Disneyland Monorail Red debuts tonight

After months of delay, Monorail Red will begin transporting theme park visitors this evening, July 3, 2008, and continue a “soft opening” on and off through the Fourth of July weekend, Disneyland officials said.

Poor air circulation in the air-conditioning-less Mark VII cabins had held up the new monorail’s oft-announced, oft-delayed debut since December.

Mouse Planet Staff Writer Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix reported earlier this week that Monorail Red would begin service July 3 — though many in the chat rooms doubted the news. (Yes, I was among the skeptics.)

Expect to see Monorail Blue making passenger-less “test-and-adjust” runs during daylight hours.

The new monorail’s sleek, iconic exterior features color-shifting paint with gray pinstriping that evokes the stainless-steel side panels of the 1959 original designed by Disney Imagineer Bob Gurr.

Find the latest amusement and theme park news at the
Los Angeles Times Funland blog: www.latimes.com/funland

— Brady MacDonald, Los Angeles Times staff writer

[Image: Scot Drake/Walt Disney Imagineering]

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3, 2008 at 4:57 pm by Brady MacDonald and is filed under Disneyland, Family & Kids, Orange County, Theme Parks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.