Dear Ms. Nicola Liquori,
Congratulations on your new role as SunRail CEO. We wish
you every success!
Some riders were dismayed that you don’t have a passenger-rail
background. We appreciate their concern, but we’re not overly worried because
strong leadership can be as important as detailed technical knowledge and experience. Gen.
Dwight Eisenhower led Allied forces to victory in World War II even though he
never personally commanded soldiers on a battlefield.
The areas
of focus that you detailed at the September Technical
Advisory Committee meeting make sense. However, we were disappointed that customer
satisfaction was not listed among your priorities.
SunRail ridership continues to sag because customer
satisfaction is not -- and has not been -- a top priority.
Specifically, we call your attention to the train schedule.
SunRail is almost completely useless unless you’re going to a traditional
Monday through Friday 9 to 5 job.
What about the caregivers at Orlando Health (ORMC) and Florida
Hospital? They don’t work a traditional schedule limited to weekdays.
How about the thousands of people who work at Orlando
International Airport and in the hospitality and tourism industry? That’s a
pool of thousands of prospective riders who want to use SunRail, but they can’t
because of the train’s awful schedule.
We’ve been waiting two years for a real leader. We hope
that’s you.
Please pay attention to what current riders -- and
would-be riders -- are saying (especially the hospital caregivers). Don’t be
misled by SunRail’s high-priced consultants. If they knew what they were
talking about SunRail’s problems would have been solved long ago.
No service on weekends and holidays; no late-night service,
2 ½-hour service gaps during off-peak hours just don’t cut it. Those deficiencies are huge
customer dis-satisfiers. You don’t need a Madison Avenue marketing guru to
figure that out.
The schedule needs to be fixed now, not in five years.
Waiting any longer will guarantee SunRail’s failure.
Fix SunRail’s schedule, extend service to DeLand, and your
success will be guaranteed.
Sincerely
SunRail riders
Well said. " a traditional Monday through Friday 9 to 5 job." does not exist. If SunRail continues to run to serve "a traditional Monday through Friday 9 to 5 job", neither will it.
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree!
ReplyDeleteI am a rider of sunrail. I take the train every week on my day off to Debary from Orlando. I have to wakeup at 6am to make it in time for the feeder buses to deland. I slowly work my way from deland to daytona beach. It takes 3 to 4 hours 1 hour by train and 3 hours by votran this includes a 45 minute layover in deland and another 45 minutes to travel to deland. Once in Deland votran takes 40 minutes by bus me to Daytona Beach. If the sunrail went to Deland my trip would be cut in half and you could transport people between Daytona and Orlando in 2 hours total travel time by train and votran. This is why ridership is low no one wants to spend 4 hours travelling to Daytona but make it go to Deland then have an express bus waiting to take people to Daytona or link up with bus 60 which already goes from Deland to Daytona at the Deland sunrail you will have the ridership you need and Deland station will be one of the busiest stations because everyone going to Daytona has to come through Deland. Deland is Daytona's backyard and you can link up Orlando and Daytona via Deland. In addition the buses taking people from Daytona to Deland will also provide public transit to the Deland Amtrak station. Right now there is no public transit from Daytona to Amtrak. This would benifit everyone and I xm someone who lived in Orlando and can see that. Its not about Delands ridership its about all the riders you will get going back and forth between Orlando and Daytona via Deland. If people are able to travel in a 2 hour or less travel time instead of 4 hours from Debary to Daytona you will have all the riders you need.
ReplyDeleteThe sunrail is all but useless unless you are a 9-5er which doesn't include a great amount of people who would find use out of it. Furthermore, if you wanted to use it to commute to Orlando on the weekend to enjoy some downtown nightlife, well, you can't use it for that either, because it is closed.
ReplyDeleteI took the sunrail today. makes great time to the Lynx central station. Then the last leg of the trip on the bus took me an hour and 15 minutes. My entire commute by car is 40 minutes from Debary. Taking the sunrail to the Lynx station and then the bus to school literally took more than 3 times what it takes in a car. I hate I-4 traffic and thought this would be a nicer way to go, even if it took a little longer. However, I was thinking maybe 1 hour, 90 minutes, tops. From the time I left my house at 5 am, got on the train at 5:30, and arrived at school via bus 21 at 7:30, 2 hours and 30 minutes later. No, no, no. I am willing to take mass transit but when 1.5 hours of normal round trip becomes 5 hours, that is more than I can bear or more than anyone is reasonably willing to sacrifice in their day in order to take mass transit. Until this problem is fixed, no one is taking the sunrail. It is a great idea with absolutely the worst implementation.