SunRail ridership stats - WOW!

SunRail managers deserve to take a bow.

In a little more than a year, the SunRail daily ridership has nearly doubled.

We remember when not too long ago when daily ridership was limping along at 3,200.

But that was in the past. In a statement sent out Friday (3/8) afternoon, SunRail managers reported that during this January and February, daily ridership averaged 6,000.

They also pointed out that Friday ridership is averaging more than 6,300.

What happened?

The Southern Expansion – opening stations last summer in the south Orange County community of Meadow Woods and in Osceola County at Tupperware, downtown Kissimmee and Poinciana.

Sometimes trains headed northbound from those stations are so full there are few empty seats available by the time to train reaches the original 12 stations that opened 5 years ago when SunRail service launched.

“The ridership numbers are very exciting, and we are anticipating even higher numbers in March and April as these months are typically among the strongest for SunRail” said SunRail Chief Executive Officer Nicola Liquori. “The increases are trending system-wide as customers take advantage of the new schedule and the convenience of SunRail.”

It’s noteworthy that even though SunRail’s resources – money and equipment are limited – they have embarked on several initiatives to expand the service. They:

Tweaked the schedule to better accommodate the hours of the caregivers who work at Advent Health/Florida Hospital and ORMC. It still needs work, but we notice more caregivers boarding at those stations in the afternoons.

Launched a special late-night southbound train after Orlando Magic games.

Worked on partnerships to get people from the SunRail station in Sanford to historic downtown Sanford with a trolley service and worked with Lynx on a bus connection between the sand lake Road station and Orlando International Airport. Those efforts are bearing fruit. Many days the Sanford trolley is packed. We see more people with luggage boarding and getting off SunRail and Sand Lake Road.

We are also delighted to learn that SunRail is working closely with the University of Central Florida to find ways students at the new downtown campus can make use of SunRail. That downtown campus is due to open late this coming summer.

See you on The Rail.