How much does SunRail care about rider convenience?

Open letter to SunRail Project Manager Tawny Olore

Dear Ms. Olore,

Were SunRail stations designed for the comfort of real people, or for the convenience of engineers? Certainly rider convenience and safety were not the paramount concerns.

Tawny Olore

One of the worst examples of the passenger-UNfriendly design can be found in the SunRail station at Church Street in downtown Orlando -- ironically the busiest station during the morning and evening commuter rush hours.

Let’s not even talk about the station’s confusing configuration where the northbound platform is at Church Street and the southbound platform is a block away at South Street. Let’s instead focus our attention today on the fact that riders can’t use cash to buy a ticket on the southbound platform.

Show up on the southbound platform hoping to catch a train to Orlando Health or Orlando International Airport and all you have is cash in your pocket and you’re out of luck because both ticket vending machines only accept credit or debit cards. There isn’t even a sign telling you that you can buy a ticket with cash on the northbound platform.

Maybe there’s no sign because getting to the northbound platform poses a huge problem. Following the pedestrian crossing signs you have to walk the equivalent of four (4) city blocks, cross busy South Street and active railroad tracks to use the cash machine.

Southbound machines

As a SunRail official you don’t have to buy a ticket, but for your convenience you can click here to see a video of the path riders with cash have to follow. (By the way, it’s nearly a 10-minute walk to and from the cash machine.)

You’re an experienced engineer, we’re not. But common sense says the easiest solution is to add a cash ticket machine to the southbound platform. We’ve raised this issue before with your public relations staff, and they give us fluff instead of real concern about the safety and convenience of southbound riders who need to buy tickets with cash.

Please don’t study this to death. We showed you the problem, we’re counting on you to act with all deliberate speed and address this situation by installing a cash machine on the southbound platform at Church Street.

Sincerely,

SunRail riders

Bet they were disappointed

One of our favorite SunRail riders told us a surprising story.

A few of her friends rode SunRail to the Amway Center to attend an Orlando Magic pre-season game. After the game they returned to the station and it was only then that they realized that SunRail stops running before the end of the game.

They were both surprised and disappointed. Of course they really should have checked the schedule and they would have known that the last northbound SunRail train departs Church Street -- the stop closest to Amway -- at 9:25 pm.

But we do sympathize with them because most reasonable people can't be blamed for assuming that our $1 billion train would run late and on weekends to help residents enjoy the Magic and all the great entertainment, shopping and cultural venues in Central Florida. Ya think!

Is Barney Fife running SunRail?

Ever been to an Orlando Magic basketball game at the Amway Center in downtown Orlando?

It’s great fun, especially if Orlando wins. (Here’s hoping for a championship season.)

What’s not so much fun is getting to and from the Amway Center for the game.

Fortunately, relief is at hand. The SunRail train station at Church Street is about a five-minute walk from the Amway Center. The accompanying photo was taken from the northbound platform of the Church Street SunRail station.

Unfortunately, the SunRail train schedule is out of sync with game time at Amway Center. Sure you can catch SunRail to arrive at the game, but considering that the last SunRail trains leave Church Street before the game is over, how would you get home? Or do you just leave Amway Center before the game is over?

SunRail said the Magic could pay thousands to charter a train to bring fans to and from the games. But why should the Magic have to do that?

SunRail is a public resource for everyone -- including Magic fans.

This is not an Orlando Magic issue, and we’re not season ticket holders.

There is much more going on at night than Orlando Magic games. Up and down the SunRail’s 31-mile corridor there are dozens of diverse activities and venues open at night to enrich the lives of residents. SunRail can make it much easier to experience everything this community has to offer.

However, SunRail stops running earlier than Andy Griffith’s Mayberry rolled up the sidewalk at night (Millennials, please check the TV reruns).

Failure to provide service on the weekends and during late-night hours makes SunRail look as useful as a deep freezer at the Arctic Circle.

Enormous investments have been made to turn Central Florida into a world-class community with the airport, convention center, public university, sports/events arena and performing arts center. We deserve much more than a part-time train system.

Click here for important video.

Going to the performing arts center? Don't count on SunRail

Have you checked out the new Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts in downtown Orlando?

You can get a sneak peek at the performing art center’s spectacular design in the accompanying photo that was shot during the early-morning hours from the northbound platform of the SunRail station at Church Street.

We regret that you can only see a small corner of the performing arts center in this photograph, but our point is to show you how close the SunRail station is to the performing arts center. An out-of-shape 5-7 guy can walk from the train station to the performing arts center in about 5 minutes.

But walking from the train station to the performing arts center is futile because SunRail doesn’t run during late-night hours or on the weekends. Under the existing SunRail schedule, on weekdays the last northbound train leaves the Church Street SunRail station at 9:25 p.m., and the last southbound train leaves Church Street at 8:51 p.m.

Now think about this. On Saturday, Nov. 8 Grammy Award winner Sheryl Crow will perform during a free concert to celebrate the grand opening of our new performing arts center. The street in front of the performing arts center is congested during the best of times. Imagine what it’s going to be like for a free performance in Central Florida’s newest public venue.

The traffic congestion could be greatly alleviated if there was a transportation alternative, such as SunRail, available to bring Central Florida residents to downtown Orlando. But, oops, SunRail doesn’t run on weekends. That reality isn’t just sad, it’s stupid.

Central Florida is a world-class community, and it needs to start acting like one. We deserve much better than a part-time train system. Our new performing arts center deserves more than a part-time train system.

Failure to provide 7-day-a-week and expanded evening service plays right into the hands of the SunRail haters who are overjoyed to cluck about recent declines in train ridership. The naysayers get great pleasure by calling SunRail a white elephant. We know that’s not true. Full-time rail service will make mass transportation a part of this community’s DNA and add tremendous value to the new performing arts center and many other cultural, recreation and entertainment venues in this region.

SunRail officials say they’re studying the idea of expanding hours and they’ll make a report at the end of this year. We’re not optimistic.

Don’t just read this post, help make Central Florida a world-class community by clicking this link and signing the petition to get SunRail service hours expanded.

Please eliminate traffic death trap for SunRail riders

Check out the accompanying photo at the Church Street SunRail station in downtown Orlando.

This is what a death trap looks like.

Every morning hundreds of SunRail riders who get off the train at Church Street – one of SunRail’s busiest stations – play dodge cars while crossing South Street because there is no crosswalk or traffic signal to help them.

Granted, the pedestrians in this photo are jaywalking. But they really don’t have any other way to get across the very heavy two-way traffic on South Street. Conditions will only get worse as the sun rises later and riders are left to cross South Street in the darkness.

This is not a new problem. Riders tweeted about this crossing back in May, shortly after SunRail began operations. Yet this dangerous situation continues. Every one of those riders is in danger when they cross this street.  We're not traffic engineers, but this location cries out for a clearly marked crosswalk, zebra strips on the pavement and maybe even some warning lights.

Even though this problem is at the SunRail station, the responsibility rests with the city of Orlando. You would think Orlando would have jumped on this situation months ago, especially considering this crossing is around the corner from Orlando City Hall. Mayor Buddy Dyer has spoken eloquently in the past about having a pedestrian friendly, walkable downtown. So what's up Mr. Mayor?  It's time to walk the talk (bad pun intended).

Hope it doesn’t take someone getting killed before something is done to make it safer for SunRail riders to cross the street in the morning on the way to work.