All aboard SunRail for a great event on Thursday

Let’s catch SunRail to the best showplace in Central Florida.

This Thursday we’ll have a unique opportunity to ride SunRail to a historic event – the ribbon cutting for the new $514 million Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, in downtown Orlando.

People have worked 30 years to turn the dream of a first-class center for music and dance to reality. Think of this as our Lincoln Center.

Our new performing arts center contains two performance theaters, a community theater, outdoor plaza and performance place, rehearsal room, educational programming space and a community facility. Wow!

The ribbon cutting will be held, starting at 10 a.m., at the center on Orange Avenue at South Street. It’s across the street from Orlando City Hall, just a 5-minute stroll east on South Street from the Church Street SunRail station.

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony the center will be open to the public for tours.

The timing of this event provides a rare opportunity to use SunRail to attend a historic event in downtown Orlando. This can be a great team-builder outing for folks who work in Heathrow, Maitland Center, Winter Park, Florida Hospital or ORMC.

A southbound SunRail train arrives at Church Street at 8:21 a.m., and a northbound SunRail train will arrive at Church Street at 8:25 a.m. Usually it’s impossible to use SunRail to attend popular events in downtown Orlando because the train doesn’t run on weekends, or late at night.

We strongly recommend using SunRail to attend Thursday’s event because downtown Orlando traffic and parking are sure to be a mess.

The Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts is an asset for all Central Floridians, not just Orlando residents. That’s why it’s critical to expand SunRail service hours to the weekends and late-night hours to make it easy and affordable for Central Floridians of all ages -- teens to seniors – to enjoy performances at this new center.

In addition to the ribbon cutting ceremony there will be a number of other events over the next few days to celebrate and enjoy our new performing arts center.

They include:

·        Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. the center will be open for a community open house.

·        Saturday, 8 p.m. there will be a free Sheryl Crow concert

·        Sunday, Nov. 9, community open house and tours starting at noon.

(Remember SunRail doesn’t run on the weekends so you won’t be able to catch the train to attend any of these events. Good luck finding inexpensive parking downtown.)

Click here for a full list of upcoming events at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.