SunRail will roll for Winter Park art festival

Before you even ask – yes SunRail will be running this Saturday for the Winter Park Sidewalk Arts Festival.

We’re certainly grateful that rail service will be offered, because under the best circumstances parking in downtown Winter Park is a huge challenge.

Finding an inexpensive, convenient parking space during the art festival is next to impossible.

The first Winter Park bound train will roll out of DeBary at 10 a.m. and the first from Sand Lake Road will be at 11:15 a.m.

During the day SunRail will be departing at hourly intervals. Train service ends 1:15 a.m. Sunday, so this is a great opportunity for a date night including a ride on SunRail.

For more details, check the SunRail website.

Much as we love Winter Park and the art festival we’re duty bound to tell you there are lots of other events and destinations on the SunRail corridor worth checking out this Saturday including:

Sanford -- Sanford Art Walk, starting at 6 p.m. Call 407-948-2711 for free shuttle van service to historic downtown Sanford.

Lake Mary -- Lake Mary Farmers Market, plus shopping and restaurants.

Longwood – Farmers and artisan market until 1 p.m.

Winter Park – In addition to the art festival, leave some time to visit the Morse Museum and the beautiful Rollins College campus.

Florida Hospital – Orlando Science Center, the Orlando Museum of Art and the Mennello Museum of American Art, Ivanhoe Village shopping and restaurants.

Lynx Central Station – Orlando Philharmonic plays Tchaikovsky at the Bob Carr Theatre.

Church Street – NCAA March Madness at Amway Centre; Orlando City plays Philadelphia Union at Orlando City Stadium, 7:30 p.m.; the Orange County History Center; the Orange County Public Library, and Lake Eola Park.

Much to our frustration, SunRail doesn’t usually run on the weekends. This Saturday service is being underwritten by a public-private partnership, but regular fares apply.

While ridership has been soft during some past special weekend SunRail operations, we’re optimistic it will be better this week because there are so many events on Saturday.

Also, we’re glad that SunRail got the word out early enough so more people can plan to use the train.

We hope SunRail is ready this time. A couple of weeks ago, when we used train service for the opening match at the new soccer stadium the ticket vending machines in Maitland kept malfunctioning.

Hope to see you on The Rail.