How about some pleasantly surprising Magic Kingdom news? The Walt Disney World Railroad will NOT close during construction of Piston Peak National Park, the Cars miniland! This shares dates & details of the modified route, plus quick commentary about why this is so surprising in the first place.
In terms of basic background, the whole reason why this is news in the first place is because Walt Disney World announced two all-new Cars attractions in a reimagined area of Frontierland at Magic Kingdom. This is not Radiator Springs or a clone of Cars Land from Disney California Adventure, but it’s sizable enough to be considered Piston Peak National Park (still slightly smaller than Gateway Arch National Park). Along with this, they officially announced Villains Land expansion at Magic Kingdom.
Subsequent to that announcement, Walt Disney World revealed that the Cars area will actually replace the Rivers of America, meaning that Tom Sawyer Island and the Liberty Square Riverboat will permanently close in July 2025. Construction walls will go up in the weeks that follow, and it’s expected that the Rivers of America will be drained and demolition will begin sometime this year. Previously, we expected that the Walt Disney World Railroad would close around this same time. Thankfully, it will not.
We’ve gotta be honest–this is a massive and unexpected surprise that the Walt Disney World Railroad will remain operational during the Rivers of America replacement project.
This was far from a sure thing given that Walt Disney World Railroad closed for the construction of TRON Lightcycle Run in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom. It went down on December 3, 2018 and did not reopen until December 22, 2022 after being closed for 1,481 days (but who was counting?!).
Based on that, it was our expectation that the Walt Disney World Railroad would close for even longer this go-round. TRON Lightcycle Run was just one cloned roller coaster inside a box. This is two new lands and significant site prep. Even with the pandemic removed from the equation, Piston Peak National Park and Villains Land will still take longer than TRON.
Back with the last closure, we heard so many fans complain that it was poor planning by Disney to take the trains offline so long. That is incorrect. It was entirely by design–a feature, not a bug. Taking the Walt Disney World Railroad down under the pretext of construction offered the company considerable operational cost-savings.
It also resulted in minimal pushback from guests and fans since it was visibly obvious that building the new roller coaster interferes with the railroad. What’s less obvious is that it did not need to interfere for so long. That is, unless you watched construction progress and saw that work didn’t begin on the park-side of the tracks immediately, and could’ve been planned around the WDW Railroad operations.
Accordingly, we expected more of the same shenanigans with the Cars and Villains land projects. There are few things Walt Disney World loves more than operational cost-savings, so we expected management to practically salivate at the prospect of having an excuse to take the railroad offline for ~5 years.
Honestly, I’m surprised it didn’t happen as early as late April when backstage land clearing and site prep started. And it’s not like Walt Disney World has changed its penny-pinching ways. Look no further than MuppetVision 3D, which is closing soon not because it’s necessary for Monstropolis–the gravity building hasn’t even broken ground yet–but because Disney’s Hollywood Studios just opened two new stage shows, so they don’t “need” MuppetVision. (Ignore the fact that all three venues operated until mid-March 2020.)
In this case, the excuse would actually be more of a valid one, as the Walt Disney World Railroad actually does interfere with the project site. If it closed early on, you’d get no color commentary from me about this being yet another example of Walt Disney World cheaping out. That’s why it’s such a surprise they’re keeping it open!
As for how to reconcile the Walt Disney World Railroad staying open even though it interferes with the project site, it’s because only Frontierland Station will (temporarily) close during construction. The train will operate in a modified ‘shuttle’ mode to bypass this station.
Shuttle mode for the Walt Disney World Railroad is exactly what it sounds like. Instead of making the Grand Circle Tour in a continuous loop, the train will go forward from the Main Street USA Train Station to the Fantasyland Train Station, and then reverse course along the same route.
This means it’ll still be an option for transportation from Storybook Circus to the front of the park and vice-versa, albeit a less efficient option. More than anything, the Walt Disney World Railroad will continue to be a great option for a leisurely attraction, and the kind that will be even more valuable with Tom Sawyer Island and the Liberty Square Riverboat closing, as those fill similar roles.
Shuttle mode operations of the Walt Disney World Railroad will begin on July 7, 2025. That’s also when the Frontierland Station will close on a temporary basis. This means that the last date to experience the Grand Circle Tour of the WDW Railroad (or stop at Frontierland Station) is July 6, 2025.
This is the same date that the Rivers of America, Tom Sawyer Island, and the Liberty Square Riverboat all close. Except those are all permanent closures, and this is a temporary modification to facilitate demolition and construction.
Although no timeline has been provided, we wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Frontierland Station is closed for 4-5 years, and the WDW Railroad operates in shuttle mode for that entire time. This is a big project and construction crews will be constantly crossing the train tracks to access the laydown yards that offer project support.
Walt Disney World has also shared that engineering teams will modify seating on the trains so that some seats face forward in both directions, so you aren’t simply facing backwards if you board in Storybook Circus and ride to Main Street.
If you’re wondering about the aforementioned gravel laydown yards, there will be three in total around the northwestern perimeter of Magic Kingdom. Two will be located beyond the berm, meaning outside of Magic Kingdom guest areas, with the third laydown yard that should be visible from within Magic Kingdom along the northwestern banks of the Rivers of America. These gravel laydown yards will be used for construction equipment, heavy machinery, materials staging, earth-moving, etc.
As you might be able to tell from the above visual, the railroad tracks will be between the gravel laydown yards and the construction site on Tom Sawyer Island and the Rivers of America. This is why Frontierland Station is closing so soon–it’s necessary to facilitate work and vehicular traffic back and forth across the tracks from the staging area to the site.
These types of staging areas are common for large-scale construction projects at Walt Disney World. It might seem shocking that the gravel laydown yards are like triple the size of the actual expansion area, but that’s not uncommon–especially since this isn’t a single uninterrupted staging location.
There have been similar laydown yards for all sorts of major expansion projects, from New Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom to Pandora – World of Avatar at Animal Kingdom. The one for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land was similarly massive, dwarfing the size of the expansion itself.
Once finished, these staging areas should result in land that was previously marginally suitable for construction to become suitable for building. Meaning that the staging areas themselves could be construction sites in the future. Thankfully, it shouldn’t impact future operations of the Walt Disney World Railroad when the inevitable in-park Magic Kingdom hotel gets built on one of the future-former laydown yards. But that’s probably another 6+ years into the future.
Frontierland Station also closing on July 7, 2025–in addition to the Rivers of America, Tom Sawyer Island and the Liberty Square Riverboat–is actually news that has me bullish on the pace of this project. If it were just the RoA attractions, the closures could be for cost-savings and not necessarily because they need to happen at this point in time. Again, see MuppetVision.
However, taking Frontierland Station offline on July 7 doesn’t really do that since the Walt Disney World Railroad will still operate in shuttle mode. Sure, they will be some reduced costs by virtue of closing that station, but not nearly to the same extent as if the WDW Railroad were closed completely. Again. Disney’s course of action here suggests the whole approach is less about saving money and more about what’s necessary. That’s a positive development.
As for why the decision was made to run the railroad in shuttle mode as opposed to shuttering it…your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps there was reticence among members of management after not reopening it that long ago? Maybe it’s viewed as necessary to pick up the slack from losing the Liberty Square Riverboat and Tom Sawyer Island? Another wildcard is guest satisfaction or utilization, either or both of which might be up since the railroad reopened. (Anecdotally, it sure seems like more people are riding it than before.) It could be a combination of the above, or other variables I’m not considering. Regardless of the reason, I’ll take it!
Ultimately, it’s good to see these ‘Beyond(ish) Big Thunder’ projects kicking into high gear. While we can certainly debate whether Cars should be replacing the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island in the first place, it’s good to see them moving in an expeditious manner regardless. As mentioned elsewhere, the last thing we need is a repeat of the Giant EPCOT Dirt Pit fiasco.
At least for me, it would be worse to announce all of this, then have Disney sit on their hands for a few years, only to have the best part of the project–Villains Land–fall through due to the delays. The second phase of Disney projects is infamous for never happening, and that’s usually because work doesn’t start until the first phase is open. I’m glad that is not happening here. The absolute worst case scenario here would be a recession resulting in losing the Rivers of America and also the expansion being budget cut into oblivion (the first thing to go is always the ‘superfluous’ stuff–like water features). We do not need World Celebration, but with Cars, in Magic Kingdom.
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Your Thoughts
What do you think of the Walt Disney World Railroad remaining open during construction of the Cars and Villains lands at Magic Kingdom? Will you use the train in shuttle mode between Main Street and Fantasyland? Does this make up for the closing of Tom Sawyer Island, Liberty Square Riverboat and Rivers of America? Are you optimistic that this will usher in an era of expansion at Walt Disney World? Excited or underwhelmed by the plan? Or, are you in wait and see mode with this? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback—even when you disagree with us—is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!