SunRail will try late southbound train again this Friday

SunRail’s last-minute decision to run a late-night southbound train after Tuesday’s Orlando Magic game netted four passengers.

That’s right, four.

We consider that a success because that’s four more passengers than we thought would benefit from the train.

Of those four passengers, one got off at Meadow Woods and the other three got off at the end of the line in Poinciana.

Before you start mocking SunRail management, here’s the good news: SunRail is going to run a late-night southbound train again this Friday – after the Magic – Los Angeles Clippers game.

We spoke to the SunRail team who explained the Tuesday operation was more of a logistics test than anything else.

On this coming Friday (Nov. 2), we’ll get to see if the SunRail southbound after-game run has crowd appeal.

The train will stage at SunRail’s southbound platform at South Street. (This train will not be serving stations north of Church Street.)

Thanks to schedule changes necessary to support the SunRail’s Southern Extension that launched this summer there is a northbound train that regularly stops at Church Street at 10:30 p.m. On game nights up to 200 people board that northbound train at Church Street and Lynx Central station.

Before the Southern Extension, if you rode the train to the game from Sanford or Winter Park you had to find another way home because the last northbound train left downtown before the game ended.

Even after the Southern Extension, people who boarded at Orlando Regional Medical Center, Sand Lake Road, Meadow Woods, Tupperware, Kissimmee, and Poinciana couldn’t SunRail home after the game. The last scheduled southbound train departs Church Street at 9:04 p.m.

Granted the decision to try offering southbound service after the game is an experiment, but it’s worth trying because Southern Extension riders have added 1,800 to 2,000 to SunRail’s daily ridership that is now roughly 5,200.

Our fingers are crossed that southbound fans will use the train after Friday’s game. We also hope the Magic wins for a change…

HOLD THE PHONE this just got better SunRail will be running a southbound train after Orlando Magic games on Nov. 2, 5, 7, 9, 14 and 20!!!!!!!

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