Disney decided to suspend the driver of monorail pink, the person was at the control in the maintenance shed (the one who should have thrown the switch), and the supervisor who had taken over at the monorail control station. They are all "with pay, and not disciplinary."
There was a change in operating procedures that was made a few years ago that seems to have some bearing here. Before the change, the pilot leaving the epcot line would make his last stop in the TTC, power down the "front" of the monorail, and would physically move to the "back" of the train and power it up. On getting clearance, he would then make it move toward the switch, in reverse from his position, but still in the same direction as traffic. That is, the train would move toward the switch, but the driver would be in back.
That way, when he got to the switch, he was facing it and could visually observe what was happening as he moved through it and against the flow of traffic. Once the switch was complete, he would then stay in that section of the train and drive to the next switch (between the MK and Contemporary) to take the train to the roundhouse.
The change they implemented was to have the driver stay in the "front" of the monorail after dropping off passengers, and drive to the switch. He would then back up - blind - to the switch and into the TTC. Once he was in the TTC on the new track, he would initiate the change to the other cab (the "back").
Ostensibly the change was made to keep the passenger flow moving. It takes up to 10 minutes to switch ends on the train, plus the time spent at the switch. That means people might have to wait another 10 minutes to get between EPCOT and the MK....they moved that time to the resort line, so people wouldn't have to wait as long.
The risk to safety was seemingly small. Except that it meant that everyone had to be doing their job or something might happen
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