Making SunRail meetings more convenient for the public

We gave SunRail/FDOT a piece of our mind at Friday’s SunRail Customer Advisory Committee meeting.

Though state law requires the meetings to be open to the public, very few members of the “public” actually attend because the meetings are called to order at 9 o’clock on Friday morning when most people are at work. The accompanying photo shows the “public” at Friday’s meeting in the LYNX offices at downtown Orlando’s LYNX Central Station.

We told the FDOT/SunRail bosses that it’s disingenuous to hold the “public” meeting at such an inconvenient time if they’re serious about wanting to hear concerns from the public.

(Don’t get us wrong, CAC members should be commended for vigorously sharing rider concerns with the SunRail bosses. Not that the bosses do anything about those concerns.)

Guess we shouldn’t be surprised that the folks running “America’s most inconvenient railroad” would hold a public meeting at an inconvenient time. 

The SunRail bosses quickly passed the buck to the CAC members – lay people who are regular SunRail riders – and told them they could set the meeting for any time.

CAC members didn’t blink. They quickly agreed that going forward CAC will hold two of their four quarterly meetings in the morning and two after work when more members of the public – both riders and would-be riders – can attend.

Score 1 point for the “public.”

Keep watching this space for more information on upcoming SunRail meetings.