SunRail rolls for Winter Park Art Festival

Weekend SunRail for the Winter Park Art Festival is the best news we’ve heard in 6 months.

First we must salute the city of Winter Park, the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce, the Winter Park Art Festival and Florida Hospital for bankrolling the train operations on Saturday, March 21 and Sunday, March 22. That’s what we call making a serious investment in the future of our community.

Winter Park Art Festival

Providing SunRail service for the art festival is such a smart move because the festival is excellent, but driving there and finding a place to park is a nightmare. It’s a shame that until now we have not been able to get SunRail to budge beyond Monday to Friday service.

By sponsoring the train for the festival weekend our Winter Park friends will show Central Florida what a joy it could be every weekend to get from Point A to Point B if we had full-time SunRail service -- something this community badly needs to reduce the horrendous traffic congestion that plagues almost every major and secondary thoroughfare in Central Florida.

SunRail officials said it will cost $5.5 million annually to provide weekend service. State officials declared they won’t allocate money for weekend service. 

Despite those roadblocks, the city of Winter Park, the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce, the Winter Park Art Festival and Florida Hospital put some serious skin in the game to show what’s possible. We’re deeply grateful for their leadership and checkbook on this important issue.

But remember, the funding is just for the festival weekend. We all need to be ask: Where do we go from there?

Unfortunately we’re not going to come up with a permanent formula for weekend SunRail service today. Meanwhile, let’s all plan to ride SunRail to the art festival next month.

See you on The Rail.