Mud Island monorail mothballed, city leader says

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Mud Island monorail made famous in “The Firm” is not coming back, at least in its current form, a city council member says.

Back in 2022, the city allocated millions for Mud Island Park maintenance, budgeted toward a list of deferred projects, including the monorail.

Parks Director Nick Walker said $5 million was given by city council, plus a $4 million Accelerate Memphis grant.

But Council Member Jeff Warren, chair of the Parks & Environment Committee, said Tuesday that the money was reallocated after studies showed the monorail project was too expensive.

He compared the trams to classic cars — they look pretty, but are hard to keep running and find parts for.

“The monorail is 1960s technology,” Warren said. “We’ve looked at this and gone into detail about what would it take to do that. It is way more expensive to do it and then to keep it going than we possibly could, based on the technology.

“Now if we wanted to take that thing down and try to find a new technology that might work there, that might be something, but using that old technology would not work,” he said.

The monorail was the main entry for Mud Island when it opened in 1982, but has been closed for six years.

Memphis River Parks Partnership, which manages Mud Island Park, announced the monorail would close in July 2018, though it remained open for special events for a time.

In September 2018, an electrical problem caused the monorail to stall midway , stranding passengers high above Wolf River Harbor and forcing them to climb out a top hatch.

Mud Island Park can still be reached by a pedestrian bridge above the monorail, or by vehicle access on Mud Island.

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