SunRail

[jgardnerucf]

The "don't drive anywhere past 8:15pm county". Lol

[shardoon]

Don't know if this makes a difference, but OUC announced the are retiring all coal operations at Stanton. I wonder if they will unload the coal spur to the highest bidder?

[jgardnerucf]

"All aboard! Next rail stop, ye ole Bee Line Prison!"

[codypet]

16 hours ago, shardoon said:

Don't know if this makes a difference, but OUC announced the are retiring all coal operations at Stanton. I wonder if they will unload the coal spur to the highest bidder?

The people who need to work something out are talking.

[Urban Mail Carrier]

4 hours ago, codypet said:

The people who need to work something out are talking.

I wonder where they are in the talks. What are the hiccups or the delay?

[codypet]

My assumption being that Stanton is still being used and Brightline is currently leasing it too and how that all looks.   The tracks themselves if I recall correctly are only rated for 10 mph and I doubt they have PTC and are almost certainly a spur designation, so upgrading and $$ are all probably being talked about.

[spenser1058]

14 minutes ago, codypet said:

My assumption being that Stanton is still being used and Brightline is currently leasing it too and how that all looks.   The tracks themselves if I recall correctly are only rated for 10 mph and I doubt they have PTC and are almost certainly a spur designation, so upgrading and $$ are all probably being talked about.

As much as I’m a fan of OUC, it’s true that almost all their decisions are slow (and generally behind the industry and even other municipally-owned utilities).

[dcluley98]

Obviously, the ROW, and not the tracks themselves are what are important. 

This is quite interesting as it could be used to eventually go all the way up to Alafaya/Waterford area and with a stop there, be less than 5 miles from UCF and Valencia. (a 15 minute scooter ride) 

[HankStrong]

A connection from UCF to the airport would be amazing.

[Urban Mail Carrier]

2 hours ago, HankStrong said:

A connection from UCF to the airport would be amazing.

Besides a line to the attraction areas,  an expansion that connects UCF with Downtown and the airport  make more sense. All other expansions are necessary but not priority.

[HankStrong]

I know the airports don't play well together, but a system that connected downtown, both airports, and the leading university in the area would make a world of difference.  

[Urban Mail Carrier]

11 hours ago, HankStrong said:

I know the airports don't play well together, but a system that connected downtown, both airports, and the leading university in the area would make a world of difference.  

I know that this is wishful thinking but that could happen if a line was built on the 417. With the southernmost stop at St Cloud, Narcoossee, Lake  Nona, MCO, Avalon Park, UCF, Oviedo, Winter Springs  and the most northern stop Orlando Sanford International airport. A combination of existing CFX track, brightline track and new line would be needed. 

[HankStrong]

15 hours ago, Urban Mail Carrier said:

I know that this is wishful thinking but that could happen if a line was built on the 417. With the southernmost stop at St Cloud, Narcoossee, Lake  Nona, MCO, Avalon Park, UCF, Oviedo, Winter Springs  and the most northern stop Orlando Sanford International airport. A combination of existing CFX track, brightline track and new line would be needed. 

It looks like a lot of abandoned lines still exist from the tree clearing.  Some has been turned into bike paths, but a lot is just path.

[jliv]

I know that this is wishful thinking but that could happen if a line was built on the 417. With the southernmost stop at St Cloud, Narcoossee, Lake  Nona, MCO, Avalon Park, UCF, Oviedo, Winter Springs  and the most northern stop Orlando Sanford International airport. A combination of existing CFX track, brightline track and new line would be needed. 

I read an article recently (don’t have the link) about how the problem with many transit systems is they are all oriented to the city center, when most people are commuting from suburb to suburb, and how some transit planners are redesigning routes to provide that connectivity. I like how London and Berlin both have circular lines along their periphery, and they have major transit hubs along those lines to connect to the major arterial lines through the cities. Maybe metro Orlando needs a “beltway bus” line following the 417/429 with transit hubs off of major exits to connect to local bus lines? Therefore, someone in Lake Mary could easily get to UCF or Disney without ever having to cross through town.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[uncreativeusername]

11 hours ago, jliv said:

I read an article recently (don’t have the link) about how the problem with many transit systems is they are all oriented to the city center, when most people are commuting from suburb to suburb, and how some transit planners are redesigning routes to provide that connectivity. I like how London and Berlin both have circular lines along their periphery, and they have major transit hubs along those lines to connect to the major arterial lines through the cities. Maybe metro Orlando needs a “beltway bus” line following the 417/429 with transit hubs off of major exits to connect to local bus lines? Therefore, someone in Lake Mary could easily get to UCF or Disney without ever having to cross through town.


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Yeah, it's a problem here in Chicago for sure.  It takes me an hour longer than it should to get to O'Hare or Midway via train. We desperately need a beltway line connecting the northern end of the Blue Line w/ the Orange Line.

[HankStrong]

7 hours ago, uncreativeusername said:

Yeah, it's a problem here in Chicago for sure.  It takes me an hour longer than it should to get to O'Hare or Midway via train. We desperately need a beltway line connecting the northern end of the Blue Line w/ the Orange Line.

It certainly seems like if they ran an outer loop from the top of the red/purple line to the bottom it would probably help a lot of people.  I've never been on the Chicago system, but as mentioned, most large world cities have a loop (Chicago would get the half loop due to the lake) that serves the outer folks.  It would basically be a direct connect to O'Hare and Midway.

[Urban Mail Carrier]

For sure a line on the 417 would run on the periphery.  On another note OBJ reports that the Central Florida expressway authority is favored along with LYNX to operate Sunrail. That is great news!!

Edited February 4, 2022 by Urban Mail Carrier

[AmIReal]

Effective the 1st, downtown Orlando, from SoDo through Ivanhoe is now a quite zone for the trains. Oh, how I will miss the 2:45 AM whistle. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/transportation/ss-ne-orlando-train-quiet-starts-20220203-3nvngfvbnbbmjimcfz2ccef7hm-story.html

 

[IAmFloridaBorn]

8 hours ago, Urban Mail Carrier said:

For sure a line on the 417 would run on the periphery.  On another note OBJ reports that the Central Florida expressway authority is favored along with LYNX to operate Sunrail. That is great news!!

Brightline is in the running too which to me makes more sense. 

 

Lynx has no idea how to operate and CFX is just a horrible choice. 

[Urban Mail Carrier]

1 hour ago, IAmFloridaBorn said:

Brightline is in the running too which to me makes more sense. 

 

Lynx has no idea how to operate and CFX is just a horrible choice. 

I don’t agree, but to each his own… ideally LYNX and Sunrail should merge with CFX.  Lynx seems incompetent because of the lack of funding that hampers its operations. They have asked for a larger budget for decades. CFX  last I read was a profitable agency for GREATER Orlando albeit tainted with corruption.  We shall see what is decided in the near future. 

[IAmFloridaBorn]

1 hour ago, Urban Mail Carrier said:

I don’t agree, but to each his own… ideally LYNX and Sunrail should merge with CFX.  Lynx seems incompetent because of the lack of funding that hampers its operations. They have asked for a larger budget for decades. CFX  last I read was a profitable agency for GREATER Orlando albeit tainted with corruption.  We shall see what is decided in the near future. 

Central Florida will forever be behind on transit without having cohesive leadership. SunRail needs a great parent operator and unfortunately doesn't have those options available in the region's transit agencies. 

And I don't hate Lynx or CFX but their leadership is not what SunRail needs. If Lynx rebrands itself then I could see it working having a clean slate top down. 

I figure brightline has the train thing down for commutes and that's what SunRail  needs. 

[CFL4Transit]

LYNX does not have great leadership but their planning department understands the situation and is committed to making positive improvements that benefit the greater public. Their new express buses to Disney and Universal are massive upgrades for example. Having SunRail consolidated under one agency with a separate Rail Division I think would be best for coordinating bus and rail connectivity.

Edited February 5, 2022 by CFL4Transit

[Urban Mail Carrier]

Understanding the problem is a step in the right direction. I don’t know the current leadership of LYNX so I can’t comment, however I do remember old leadership like John Lewis who now leads CATS successfully. I recall thinking when the current leadership took over that leadership is probably going to be kept weak until a more viable solution is determined. Sounds like that is the case. From my point of view an organization that can stretch  its limited resources on a shoestring budget and transport Orlando and it’s visitors deserves an opportunity. If leadership is the issue then perhaps merging all 3 agencies and bringing back Ms Liquori ,who is now in Tallahassee , to lead is an option. She led CFX and Sunrail successfully and is currently in FDOT. 

[Jerry95]

20 hours ago, AmIReal said:

Effective the 1st, downtown Orlando, from SoDo through Ivanhoe is now a quite zone for the trains. Oh, how I will miss the 2:45 AM whistle. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/transportation/ss-ne-orlando-train-quiet-starts-20220203-3nvngfvbnbbmjimcfz2ccef7hm-story.html

 

Apparently the Amtrak train going past right now did not get the memo.

[AmIReal]

On 2/4/2022 at 8:04 AM, Urban Mail Carrier said:

OBJ reports that the Central Florida expressway authority is favored along with LYNX to operate Sunrail

This Sentinel article states it differently. They say CF Expressway and Brightline are not seriously being considered but were only used as straw candidates to draw some comparison. The article says, "While the expressway authority and Brightline were not serious contenders for the job of running SunRail, Lynx outscored them overall in WSJ’s evaluation." In the article, Demings did mention a scenario where Expressway would participate, but not the organization as we currently know it. In has scenario, the penny sales tax has passed and Sunrail, Lynx and Expressway are all merged. 

It looks like Sunrail will likely continue to exist separately and what is being looked at is the structure and duties.  In other words, how much of the actual work would Sunrail do and how much would they contract out and to whom.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/transportation/os-ne-sunrail-future-parent-debate-20220205-ky55jhswlzgmbjhgmmz5sx5r7y-story.html