This is from a post I made back in November... I've slightly modified it to reflect current changes.
I keep throwing out terms like "MOD" and "Flex Dispatch"... and I know a lot of y'all might not be too familiar with them and how Disney Transport works, so I thought I'd explain them in greater detail.
Unlike many transit authorities that some of you might be familiar with, with little exception, Disney Transport does not use Fixed Routes. Because of our unique guest traffic flow, much of Disney Transport is done dynamically. As such... things can vary throughout the day.
Disney Transport is divided into 6 Hubs, or what we call Zones:
Zone 1: Transportation/Ticket Center
Zone 2: Magic Kingdom
Zone 3: Epcot
Zone 4: Disney-MGM Studios
Zone 5: Downtown Disney
Zone 6: Disney's Animal Kingdom
Opening drivers will be assigned a resort area, and a zone to pick up for. Busses will be staggered so that the opening drivers will pick up approx every 15 minutes. For example, I might be assigned to go through the All-Stars, and pick up for Zone 2... this would mean that I'd pick up anyone going for breakfast (or Early Entry) at the Magic Kingdom, Contemporary, Polynesian, Grand Floridian, Wilderness Lodge, or Fort Wilderness.
Starting at 8:00am, we start our Magic On Demand. This is where things sometimes get a bit confusing, so I'll try and explain it the best I can. (It's important to note that Zone 1 and Zone 5 do not participate in MOD... more on Zone 5 later.)
Each Zone has a staging area where the busses all report to. At the Staging Area is a Dispatcher (Field X). Staging areas are as follows:
Zone 2: Stages out of the Magic Kingdom bus load zone, South Loop. Zone 2 covers Contemporary, Polynesian, Grand Floridian, Wilderness Lodge, and Fort Wilderness
Zone 3: Stages out of a parking lot between Riverside and French Quarter. Covers all of Port Orleans. Also has a dispatcher at Epcot itself.
Zone 4: Stages out of the Studios Charter Bus parking lot. Covers Swan, Dolphin, Yacht, Beach, Boardwalk, and Caribbean Beach.
Zone 6: Stages out of a parking lot between Sports and Music. Covers All-Star Sports, Music and Movies. Also has a dispatcher at DAK itself.
It's important to note that Coronado Springs, Old Key West, and Animal Kingdom Lodge do not participate in MOD. The reason for this is that they typically do not have the demand that MOD was created for. These resorts are Flexed all day long. More on Flex later on. Coronado Springs was added to MOD when Caribbean Beach shut down due to the added guest traffic, however, when CBR reopened, it was moved back to Flex.
This is basically how it works. Busses are staged at their appropriate staging areas, and are dispatched to their home resorts to pick up for all four theme parks. If they get dispatched to another zone, they drop off at that zone, and then get reassigned from that end back to their home zone.
For example:
Bus 4805 belongs to Zone 3. He gets dispatched to pick up at French Quarter for the Magic Kingdom. When he gets to the Magic Kingdom, instead of deadheading (running empty) back to Zone 3 staging, he gets dispatched to pick up Wilderness Lodge/Fort Wilderness for Epcot. Once at Epcot, he then returns to Zone 3 Staging, and starts the process all over again.
Magic On Demand offers greater utilization of our busses by eliminating deadhead runs. Busses are full on both journeys. This system is highly flexible, and allows our drivers to better serve our guests.
It is important to note that although this system is influenced by guest demand, it is not driven solely by demand. Busses are dispatched at regular intervals by the Field X Dispatcher, and depending on demand, are instructed to go different routes. If there is an increased demand in a particular area, the dispatcher will increase frequency, or possibly send two busses at once.
Another note... Morning routes for the MK are typically as follows:
Contemporary & Polynesian
Wilderness Lodge & Grand Floridian
Fort Wilderness
Morning routes for Epcot Resorts
Swan, Dolphin, & (Boardwalk)
Yacht, Beach, & (Boardwalk)
(Boardwalk)
Between 10:30-11:30, the Zones transition into FIDS, or Flexible Independent Dispatching System. (We call it Flex Dispatch for short.) No longer are busses shared between the Zones.
In the past, we used to use fixed routes for our busses. Each resort area would have 2-4 busses on that specific route, and they would just go around in circles, with pre-assigned dispatching times based on a set cycle time.
For example, if I was at the MK doing the Riverside #2 bus, my times out of the MK might be 1:00, 1:36, 2:12, 2:48, and so on. I would be given 36 minutes to do my route. Now, some days, I'd come back to the MK with 10 minutes to spare, and I'd just sit there for that time, waiting for my time out. Other days, I might encounter a delay, or something random happens, and I end up running 5 minutes late.
Another example... I might get assigned the 4:12 Riverside run out of the MK. That is now my dedicated route. I do that run, and arrive back at the MK at 4:28... The next Riverside dispatch is at 4:38... and if I were on the old style routes, I'd hang out for ten minutes. However, we have a 4:30 French Quarter run. So, now I become the 4:30 French Quarter bus... and another bus that arrives at 4:35 becomes the 4:38 Riverside bus. The same dispatch times exist.. the only difference is that different busses handle them.
With Flex Dispatch, the dispatch times are still there, in a manner of speaking... However, no bus is assigned to any fixed route. As the bus approaches the hub, the driver calls in for a dispatch. The Dispatcher uses a portable tablet PC that selects the next dispatch. By doing this, we eliminate the wasted hold time, and put it to use. It also compensates for any delays that a driver might encounter. One special benefit... if a bus needs to be taken out of service, it no longer creates a gap in service. The Tablet PC's allow for special dispatches as well, so if there is a 200 person group that all wants to go back to the All-Stars, we can handle it. It should also be noted that the Tablet PC's have the capability to generate a new set of dispatch times based on how many busses are running, and how the demand is.
Typically Flex will run from 11:00am, until park closing. At that time, the various hubs will switch to Float Mode for the exit. Floating is just when the dispatcher sends busses to wherever they are needed most. If a load zone is light, they will tell the driver to hold at that load zone for 5-10 mins, or until full. For heavy load zones like the All-Stars, they might send two busses to double load.
A few notes:
Downtown Disney operates with Flex Dispatch all day long.
Fort Wilderness Internal busses, and TTC busses operate via fixed routes. These are the only busses that are on fixed routes.
Okay, I think I got everything there... if you have any questions, or desire clarification, please feel free to let me know.
