Walt Disney World Railroad Not Reopening Until 2022

The Walt Disney World Railroad in Disney’s Magic Kingdom has been closed now since December 3, 2018, and it’s still going to be a while. It now looks like the Railroad is going to be closed through all 2021 and into early 2022.

The Walt Disney World Railroad originally closed due to construction on the new TRON roller coaster which is being built in Tomorrowland. The track had to be taken up and moved in order to make room for this new E-Ticket attraction in the Magic Kingdom.

Disney has to build out the infrastructure of the TRON coaster in that area and across the train tracks, hence the reason for the closure.

Up until now, however, it was thought that the Walt Disney World Railroad would be reopening at some time in 2021. However, according to Disney’s internal refurbishment calendars, the Walt Disney World Railroad has been officially extended into January 2022.

This doesn’t mean however that the railroad is reopening in January. That just confirms that it will be closed AT LEAST until January 2022. It will likely remain closed through much of 2022 until the Tron Lightcycle Run coaster opens.

It’s quite common for Disney to keep pushing back reopening dates for attractions as they have famously done with rides such as The PeopleMover which was pushed back at least 7-8 times. We hope that isn’t the case here and that we will see it in 2022.

There is still a lot of work left to do in connection with the TRON coaster since the two attraction footprints overlap. Let’s look at a few details of how these two attractions will co-exist.

Even since the beginning of the construction, plans have continuously changed for the Railroad.

At first, the train was going to pass directly under the coaster, unprotected. Now with the latest concept art for the TRON coaster, it looks like there will instead be a tunnel built under the coaster, keeping the Tomorrowland theming of the future intact, instead of a turn of the century locomotive passing by.

No actual date has been given yet for the reopening, but that’s to be expected since we are still so far out. A lot depends on the construction progress of the TRON coaster and if there are any delays on that project. The sooner they can get that open, the sooner we’ll have the Railroad back up and running.

In the past, we have seen the Frontierland and Fantasyland stations listed on the calendar as having earlier openings than the rest of the Railroad. At times, the train in Disneyland has operated in “shuttle mode,” only going back and forth between these two stations and not making the entire loop.

We don’t see that happening with the Walt Disney World Railroad as it hasn’t happened in the last few years, though anything is possible. That could allow the train to operate without going near the TRON construction site. We’ll keep a close eye on this to see if it was just an error in the scheduling, or if Disney plans to open that part of the attraction first.

The good news is that right now you can still see the Walt Disney World Railroad as it is parked temporarily at the Main Street Station.  Guests can get an up-close look at the train and even get some good photo opportunities while it’s stopped.

Stay tuned to Ziggy Knows Disney for the latest updates on the Walt Disney World Railroad refurbishment. In the meantime, check out the full Walt Disney World Refurbishment Calendar for all other closures and reopenings around the parks!

Your Thoughts:

I want to know what you think about the Walt Disney World Railroad remaining closed into 2022…

• Do these dates affect your trip to Walt Disney World?
• What do you think about the Tron Roller Coaster coming to Tomorrowland?

Let us know in the comments section below!

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