May 1, 2014, seems like such a long time ago. After a disappointing second day of SunRail, I emailed my local leader in Volusia County, Pat Northey, about how poorly the SunRail service was planned and executed. She urged me not to give up on it, and I stuck it out. Over the next month, I frequently emailed her about my frustration with the service. Finally, she emailed me back and told me that she had the perfect job for me. She neglected to mention the pay for the job, which I later found out to be zero.
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| Ceremony launching SunRail |
Approximately one year later, I became the inaugural chairman of SunRail’s Customer Advisory Committee, a role which I stayed for an extra term because the other members were also busy professionals who were smart enough to realize that our committee seems to be a giant exercise in futility.
David Porter from http://www.sunrailriders.com requested at our last meeting that I put together my thoughts about where we are four years later, and I gladly accepted. The big problem is, what is there to write about that hasn’t been covered by David over and over again.
I thought of writing about all the inefficiencies and shortcomings of SunRail over the last four years. But I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to tell you about the disappointing leadership (to put it kindly) of SunRail’s management 1.0, who are almost all gone now. I also won’t write about the lack of support from State, Federal and local leaders, including our governor that choke the otherwise outstanding potential of Nicola Liquori and SunRail Management 2.0.
I’m not going to write about the prior culture of big vendor giveaways and poor contract negotiations that put us in the position of being a system that serves the vendors better than its riders, or the unfavorable deals that could have been avoided, had we hired someone from a similar system as a consultant.
I won’t be writing about a system that uses a ticket collection system that costs more than it brings in revenue, or a really, really lousy schedule that serves us during such a narrow window that it can never grow ridership and only serves the “suits,” a word that I was mocked for using during a Central Florida Commuter Rail Commission.
Finally, I won’t write about how unfair it is that most of the members of the community who would love to ride this system to an event in Orlando, or dinner in Winter Park will never have the opportunity to ride because we didn’t have the foresight to run our rail system on the weekends.
No… I’m not going to dwell on the system’s many weaknesses. We can fix all of the issues with SunRail before time runs out and our local leaders pull the plug. Hopefully, our leaders will come to their senses and realize that the interlocal governance agreement needs to go, and with it, the shell game of who to look to fix the broken system.
It has been my pleasure to serve the riders of SunRail. I would encourage anyone who is reading this to volunteer to be a part of this committee – and more than that - be a very annoying and vocal member who demands change. Things will never change unless we demand it, and when we speak the truth enough times, eventually it is heard.
With that, I am imparting a list of things that need to occur if we expect this system to be its best and continue after the state funding period:
1. Put the needs of riders over the greed of vendors by negotiating and re-negotiating agreements that are favorable to the public, not your vendors. If you need help, take a look at the Albuquerque Rail Runner agreements. Hire consultants from larger rail systems, if necessary.
2. Fix your lousy schedule and run trains a minimum of no less than every hour from 5 a.m. to 12 am.
3. Make your Commuter Rail commissioners elected officials that we can hold accountable for their actions or inaction.
4. Run a limited schedule on weekends for the benefit of community members who do not have the luxury of working near the corridor.
5. Credit your pass holding riders for days that you do not operate or days you have significant delays and run special non scheduled relief trains when you have delays.
6. Get rid of the clunky ticketing system that costs more to operate than it brings in revenue.
7. Communicate quickly, honestly, and openly with customers and conduct town hall meetings to assess community needs.
8. Establish an interlocal police agency to handle corridor incidences that prioritize transportation over minor traffic incidents.
9. Fix the Church Street / South Street station bifurcation before someone is killed at the crossing.
10. Revise your governance agreement to streamline the implementation of changes to the system.
Happy Anniversary SunRail! May you long survive the mistakes of those who planned you.
By Jeffery Morris
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