SunRail 2.0 will arrive in the summer of 2018 and we’re looking forward to it.
This new chapter of SunRail opens with the 17-mile extension of the commuter rail service into Osceola County.
Extending the service south will add four new SunRail train stations:
- Meadow Woods in south Orange County, serving the sprawling Meadow Woods and Hunters Creek residential communities
- Tupperware in Osceola County, serving the corporate headquarters of Tupperware and Osceola Parkway – a major crossroad in Osceola that stretches down into the Disney resort area.
- Historic downtown Kissimmee. This station is certain to become a major destination for SunRail day trippers. Downtown Kissimmee is filled with restaurants and shops – half a block from the train station and adjacent to a Lynx bus Super Stop, an Amtrak station, a Greyhound bus station and the Kissimmee Civic Center. The train station is a 5-minute walk from Lake Toho’s waterfront park. For more, click here for a video sneak peek at some of the things downtown Kissimmee has to offer.
- Poinciana, SunRail’s last station which is closest to Disney resort; a 5-minute bus ride to the popular Green Meadows Petting Farm and relatively close to the Polk County line. SunRail will also store a couple of trains in Poinciana and perform light maintenance on trains at this station.
This expanded service provides a great transportation option for many people who endure the aggravating traffic congestion on Interstate 4, Orange Avenue, the Orange Blossom Trail, John Young Parkway and US 192.
From our perspective, the best thing about extending SunRail into Osceola is that the commuter train will attract more riders.
Regular readers of this blog know that we’ve been disappointed in SunRail’s current ridership that is roughly 3,200 daily boardings. For the actual number of riders, you divide the boardings in half because the people who board the train to ride to work in the morning are pretty much the same people who board the train in the evening to ride home.
Some SunRail/FDOT officials predict SunRail 2.0 could add as many as 2,000 new riders to SunRail. We think that’s a credible estimate because many Orlando International Airport workers live in Osceola County. Even though there’s currently no direct rail link to OIA, the airport is a less than 10-minute bus ride from SunRail’s existing Sand Lake Road station. You can get a free transfer from SunRail to the Lynx bus at Sand Lake Road. There’s also talk of public or private express bus service between the Meadow Woods station and the airport. (An airport rail link will cost at least $200 million.)
The Poinciana station can draw more riders from nearby Polk County. There are already Polk County riders who drive up to the Sand Lake Road station to take SunRail to jobs in downtown Orlando, Winter Park and Seminole County.
Improving ridership is crucial to the long-term survival of SunRail, and key to expanding the service to weekends and late night.
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