With the threat of Hurricane Maria in our future, many
people want to know why it took SunRail so long to recover after Central
Florida was hit by Hurricane Irma.
Here is how an FDOT spokesman explained the steps taken to
get SunRail rolling again after the mega storm:
“There were many RR crossing without
power and we did not want to open SunRail service until we believed we could
operate safely on the corridor. Also, there were more than 100 trees that had
fallen onto the tracks that had to be removed.
“The trains people saw on
Sunday were test trains. This was done to give SunRail a reading of how
well we could navigate the corridor on Monday. It also allowed trains to
make a first pass over the railroad tracks to break them in again, so to speak,
after train service had been away, due the storm.
“Equipment needed to be checked,
gates at RR crossings installed and put back into service, everything SunRail
had to do to prepare for the storm had to be revisited to prepare for service.”
