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Light Rail in Orlando


demon

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Light rail is not on the horizon. But I suspect we'll have commuter rail by the end of the decade. Just my take.

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I hope you're right. I think it would be great to get to downtown without having to use my car. With a theatre, performing arts centre(hopefully), arena, stadium, resturants & shops I think downtown would benefit from lightrail.

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The city's best chance at light rail was back in the late 1990's. Unfortunately, Orlando and Orange County leaders aren't really interested in mass transit. Hopefully, commuter rail will work, but I can easily see citizens in Maitland and Winter Park attempting to rise up against any plan that will bring "rift raft" into their posh communities.

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I know Kissimmee wants it and has been pushing for the commuter line. They are also planning an intermodal center right in downtown Kissimmee to link both a future commuter line and the Lynx bus system. Anyone interested in the plans can follow this link to pdf. maps and plans of the project:

http://www.kissimmee.org/departments/cd/dkitc.htm

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Please excuse my ignorance, but when you mention 'commuter rail', do you mean rail systems consisting of self-powered locomotives, like Amtrak trains, connecting suburbs to the city? When I hear 'commuter rail', I think of the Metra system which serves the greater Chicagoland region, separate, and more vast than the CTA. Am I on the right track? (No pun intended :thumbsup: )

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^Probably... South Florida's Tri-Rail commuter trains are locomotive-powered, and the existing CSX tracks in Orange/Osceola/Seminole/Volusia don't have caternary wires, so this is likely to be the configuration for a Central Florida rail line...

Next question... does any one know who would operate this line? Would LYNX (CFRTA) run it, or would they create another authority to run it?

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Commuter rail connects suburbs and outer towns to the city center. Here is a map of the commuter train system (MbTA) in Boston. The Northern suburbs are serviced by trains that run out of North Station, and the Southern and Western out of South Station and Back Bay Station. It travels as far as Providence to the South, Worcester to the West, and New Hampshire to the North.

cr_map.gif

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Just a question, if you take the commuter rail from Orlando to Deland....how are you going to go around in Deland? Cabs fees are very expensive.

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Its more like people from Deland (commuters to Orlando) park at the station and take in the train to work downtown. Then they take the train out at the end of the day. That is how is works in Boston at least. Some of the stations, such as Southborough, are literally in a field with a parking lot, but thousands of people from the burbs park there and take the train in because its about an hour faster than sitting in traffic.

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That's a lot of stops for a commuter rail in Boston.

Problem is that Orlando doesnt have a huge concentration of specific center of employment. People work all around the county in hotels and mall.

I would think it will stop in maitland, altamonte spring, sanford, winter park, downtown orlando, and downtown kissimee. Hopefully, they will be smart to make 3 more stops in convention center, disney and universal or maybe millenia mall. If they do that, it will just be like a heavy version of "light rail". I am sure this will help attract the tourist go to our fair downtown.

Anybody know the stations going to be?

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I am deeply sadden by the fact that with all the talk of making roads safer no one has thought to offer people a chance to talk their cars off the road through light rail. I know we have Lynx but that just won't cut it for a true big city. Toronto has light rail, bus service & a subway!

Imagine how smoothly the Home builders convention would be going if there was a light rail system in place along I-Drive. Imagine how many of those vistors would come explore downtown, or perhaps stay downtown if there was a light rail system to get them to the convention center in 20 mins?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Commuter Rail is reality. Light Rail at this point is fantasy. After all, isn't this the state that just voted down High Speed Rail?

The best thing to do is build a Commuter Rail System, prior to the improvements to I-4, and then people will see the benefit while I-4 is under construction. Attached are pics of the alignment. This is no station in Maitland, 'cause the City of Maitland didn't want one. Longwood is now vying for a station.

The first image is the first line, the second is the whole line past Kissimmee. Keep in mind, this is "true" commuter rail, which operates from 5:30 AM every 1/2 hour, then every 2 hours during midday, then every 1/2 hour during the PM peak, and last train at 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM. This is not a bus on rails in the middle of the freeway, which is what is so far proposed for Light-Rail options in Orlando.

CRT_1.jpg

CRT_2.jpg

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I agree, new light rail in any Florida city is a pipe dream, especially, if we think high speed rail is too expensive. With that said, I agree, commuter rail is the way to go. A system from Debary to Kissimmee would be pretty nice transportation alternative. One question though, why in the world doesn't Maitland want a station?

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I think light rail in Orlando would be just like what's happening in San Jose, low ridership. Light rail works best in older, more developed (and denser) communities and only there is it profitable. I don't think Orlando's downtown is dense enough to support light rail and it would be a big waste of money constructing and maintaining a system that could be destitute of riders. -_-

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