The Tomorrowland Speedway closed today to make room for the necessary construction of the TRON roller coaster at the Magic Kingdom.
The roadways will be wide open for a few months.
Barricades are being erected to keep cast and guests away from the construction site.
The Tomorrowland Speedway will be closed now through May 18th, 2019 to accommodate the work. The Walt Disney World Railroad is also closed at the moment for the same reason, but it will be closed for a much longer period with no end date in sight. The TRON roller coaster will open in 2021 (barring any unforeseen delays) at the Magic Kingdom as part of the park’s 50th anniversary celebration.
This would be a great time to switch to electric vehicles
@Tim – Hear, hear! Either that or replace that 50 year-old ride with a table-service restaurant that’ll be a cut above Be Our Guest – AND give it an observation deck for watching the fireworks!
I second that! I always thought that attraction was so environmentally wasteful with all the fuel consumed, plus the fumes were so strong and traveled a large enough distance that I usually would take a different route to avoid walking in that area.
dittos to all above
I have absolutely NO idea why they still have this ride open. As a kid, 25-30 years ago, I loved it, and it KIND of made sense with the park. Now, it just doesn’t fit in anywhere with either Tomorrowland or Fantasyland. Sad
Tim, Robert, and Rachel are proof that there are snowflakes in Florida.
Lets ignore how many kids got to drive their first car at that track, lets get rid of the noisy internal combustion engines, the smell of exhaust, and the huge smiles on the kids faces as they try to steer a car that the steering wheel is arguably connected by rubber bands! Did you ever watch a little driver trying to push the pedal while looking over the hood as they rammed the car in front of them?! what a blast.
I can see the thrill of super quiet electric engines, the huge rows of electric battery chargers, the spilled acid from broken battery cases, and the absolute silence of cars neatly and cleanly going nowhere, sounds super thrilling.
Change will always come to Walt Disney World, as it was designed to, but lets keep in mind that it was designed to be a family entertainment and an escape from the outside world.
and PLEASE, someone get Robert a sandwich
The batteries are not lead acid, so there won’t be any issues there. There is enough noise coming from them to be able to hear one moving. You wouldn’t need rows of chargers, since you could have strips that run on the track and connect to the cars while they are sitting in line, waiting to be driven.
As for the drivability of the current cars, they really don’t work well. They barely run well enough to make it around the track and are almost impossible to actually steer.
We were just there a few weeks ago and it was a dangerous situation, believe me.
It definitely needs to be either upgraded or torn down completely.
I agree. I doubt that one attraction is ruining the environment and it has brought a lot of joy to a lot of children. Electric…meh.
lol what are you talking about bro
that ride is so disgusting, electric would be so much better.
Keep in mind Hong Kong Disneyland had an electric Autopia and it was removed, it was soooo boring compared to driving the old school combustion engine.
How long ago was that, compared to the technology we have now?
That so called speedway should be torn down and either rebuilt with cars that actually work, or changed into something else.
Agree, on removal/repurpose. Speedway has supplanted Stitch as the worst attraction in the park.
I wonder how the narration on the People Mover will be impacted by this drastic measure… What will I do without the wink-nudge about the speeding tickets?
Also, I second the electric vehicles idea!
Why are there tree being removed from the berm at the front of the park by the railroad track that you see by the walkway from the Contemporary?
Work on the adjacent waterway related to this project,