Join us for a ride on the Wedway People Mover at Magic Kingdom
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The attraction has a single station, which resides in the center of Rocket Tower Plaza and beneath the Astro Orbiter. Passing the queue, passengers step onto the Speedramp (inclined moving walkway) to the second level. They then step onto the moving platform which matches the speed of the PeopleMover trains, and board before they depart the station.
Leaving the Rocket Tower Plaza Station, the trains make a sharp left turn, followed by a sweeping turn over the plaza. The track then makes a right-hand turn, running along the outside of the northern show building and above the former queue for Stitch’s Great Escape![c] and passing by the Tomorrowland main entrance at Central Plaza. The track enters a tunnel through the northern show building and passes a large diorama containing a portion of the Progress City/”Epcot” model, which originally resided in the upper level of the Carousel of Progress at the New York World’s Fair of 1964-1965 and at Disneyland starting in 1967-1973, before encountering a diorama of several robots and crossing the Star Traders shop.
Leaving the northern show building, the T.T.A. passes the Tomorrowland Speedway and TRON Lightcycle/Run. Afterwards, the T.T.A. crosses the Walt Disney World Railroad tracks and pass through a switch, which leads to the ride’s storage and maintenance bays as they make a right turn to enter Space Mountain. Inside Space Mountain, the trains then make a left turn and pass in between the lift hills of the roller coaster tracks. The vehicles then pass two lighted signs reading “Starport: Seven Five” (an oblique reference to the opening year of the attraction), before open space to the left allows a view down into the post-show. After the view of the post-show, the track makes a right turn, wrapping around the Omega track’s loading station, and travels along the back side of the dome, which is in complete pitch black darkness. It is possible to look up and see the projections from the ride and the tracks. The trains exit, merging with the storage track, and run along the outside of the dome to return to the railroad bridge. The Space Mountain segment of the TTA has gained heavy notoriety among park guests for offering the only accessible view of Space Mountain when the dome’s interior work lights are on. Because the two attractions have separate operating systems, the TTA does not have to stop during Space Mountain breakdowns, so guests riding the TTA when the work lights are on get a rare illuminated look at the roller coaster tracks.
After crossing the railroad tracks again, the trains backtrack to a point above the Tomorrowland Speedway before turning south. After passing over Space Mountain’s entrance plaza, the former Skyway terminal and the restrooms, the track travels along the exterior of Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress, before crossing over the former Galaxy Palace Theater entrance and entering the south show building. Entering the building, guests pass a diorama of a futuristic salon and then get a view down into Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, similar to the one given of Star Traders. Exiting the tunnel, the ride travels along the side of the south show building, and passing by Main Street U.S.A., the Tomorrowland sign entrance and the Cinderella Castle again, and above the queue line for Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor, and the queue line for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. The ride then returns to Rocket Tower Plaza, where guests disembark and unload.
The Wedway PeopleMover opened on July 1, 1975, based on the PeopleMover attraction at Disneyland in California (WED for Walter Elias Disney). Because the system did not utilize the rotating Goodyear tires used as propulsion in the initial version of the transportation mode, instead relying on Linear induction motors, Goodyear had no involvement in the East Coast version.
The Edison Electric Institute was the original institutional patron of the attraction. Instead of an open track with covered cars, as designed for Disneyland, the trains were designed were built as open-air cars with that traveled under a permanent roof over the guideway.
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