FDOT suffers blowback on DeLand SunRail fail

The Florida Department of Transportation experienced some serious blowback on Thursday from its decision to withdraw an application for a federal grant to extend SunRail service to DeLand.

The incoming fire came from the SunRail Commission of local elected officials charged with overseeing Central Florida’s commuter train.

Relations between the SunRail Commission and FDOT are normally affable. Things took a turn when Volusia County Council Member Pat Patterson expressed frustration that the TIGER grant application was pulled at the last minute. Patterson said he didn’t clearly understand the reason the application was pulled. Neither do we.

Earlier this year FDOT officials spoke glowingly about the TIGER grant application that was being prepared. This was to be the second year an application was submitted and FDOT officials said they thought there was a great chance for it to be approved. At the last minute, though, it wasn’t submitted to the feds.

Many people in Volusia County are understandably upset there is no timetable for doing the work needed to extend SunRail service north from DeBary to DeLand.

Patterson was not alone in his unhappiness. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who chairs the SunRail Commission; Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs, Seminole County Commissioner Bob Dallari and Osceola County Commission Chairwoman Viviana Janer all said FDOT should have notified them there was a problem so they could work together to solve it.

This hot potato landed in the lap of SunRail new CEO Nicola Liquori who had not joined SunRail when FDOT promised to submit the application. Ms. Liquori has already pledged to find the federal dollars needed for the project.

We’ll see what happens.

SunRail screwed Volusia out of DeLand train station

SunRail is running off the tracks.

Volusia County Council (county commission) members are ready to pull the plug on SunRail unless the promised DeLand SunRail train station gets built.

Who can blame them?

Mythical DeLand SunRail station

Nine years ago Volusia signed on to SunRail because they were promised a train station in DeLand – Volusia’s county seat.

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) currently operates SunRail. Orange, Seminole, Volusia, Osceola counties and the city of Orlando are supposed to take over the financial responsibility and operations of SunRail in 5 years when FDOT leaves the project.

Three new stations are currently being built in Osceola County – with the help of a special federal grant. A new spur is being planned to connect SunRail tracks to Orlando International Airport. But nothing is going on with the DeLand station.

Last year SunRail’s FDOT masters applied for a special federal grant to extend the SunRail tracks to DeLand. The grant was denied. This spring FDOT was preparing another application for the federal grant. In a surprise move, at the last moment, FDOT chose not submit the grant application to extend tracks to DeLand.

Volusia County deserves more than sweet words from FDOT. The county was promised a SunRail DeLand station. FDOT needs to deliver.

Currently SunRail tracks only go as far as the Volusia County city of DeBary – one of the busiest stations in SunRail.

We’re passionate supporters of SunRail. We’re also deeply disappointed in the defective SunRail product FDOT delivered. The train service is limited to weekdays. There are service gaps of up to 2 ½ hours. No late-night service. There’s no trains to DeLand, even though that service was promised.

No surprise SunRail is used by fewer than 2,000 daily because its schedule is so inconvenient. SunRail’s potential is tremendous. There are at least 10,000 people on the SunRail track corridor who could be use the train daily.

SunRail was pitched as a vital element in the I-4 transportation network. Unless our leaders wake up, SunRail will run off the tracks in 2021 when FDOT departs. We’re furious because FDOT’s poor leadership, poor planning, poor attitude and indifference to customer satisfaction are responsible for SunRail’s failures.

Please get this railroad back on the tracks.

SunRail needs a better boss

Central Florida’s Lynx public bus system should be running SunRail.

That notion may seem off the wall, but it makes sense because Lynx is in the mass transit business, and the Florida Department of Transportation – which built and oversees SunRail – is in the road-building business. Those are two completely different disciplines.

FDOT is top notch when it comes to building roads. They’re engineers. They care about things, but they’re not exactly warm and fuzzy when it comes to caring about living and breathing people.

A couple of weeks ago there was a tragic situation at SunRail when a dead body was found early in the morning on the tracks near the Sanford station. The public address systems at SunRail stations announced that SunRail service was canceled for the morning. “We apologize for the inconvenience,” the announcer added.

We were flabbergasted. SunRail announced service was canceled as though it was no big deal.

Lynx would have never done that, regardless of the tragic circumstances. They know people are counting on them to get to work. To their credit, SunRail did resume service that morning. But why did SunRail think canceling service was an option?

Customer service at SunRail is a joke. When SunRail launched they had station Ambassadors to answer questions from riders. But they got rid of the Ambassadors so there’s no one to talk to face to face when you have a question.

At Lynx Central Station in downtown Orlando there is a Lynx representative who answers questions and sells bus passes. Oh, and did we mention that customer service booth is in the bus system’s air-conditioned passenger lobby. That’s right, air-conditioned – something to think about next time you’re standing under the skimpy canopy on a SunRail platform in the blazing sun, or in driving rain.

In addition, Lynx has a platoon of supervisors in marked cars who patrol the bus routes checking on drivers and answering rider questions. When SunRail failed a few weeks ago and announced service was canceled for the morning, it was the Lynx supervisors who led a convoy of buses to rescue stranded SunRail riders.

Lynx runs 7 days a week, albeit abbreviated service on the weekends. SunRail provides 4,200 rides daily. Lynx provides 105,000 rides daily. And as we all know, SunRail doesn't run on weekends, or much during the middle of the day.

SunRail is new and sexy. Lynx is not.

The overwhelming majority of people on Lynx ride because they don’t have a choice. They can’t afford a car, or for one reason or another, they can’t drive. It takes a long time to get from Point A to Point B on Lynx because of traffic congestion and the Lynx bus fleet is too small. Lynx has 299 buses to serve Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties. Lynx really needs about 700 buses to provide more convenient service. The problem is that Lynx doesn’t get enough funding, but that’s a story for another day.

Central Florida won’t get the mass transit it deserves until bus and rail service is being managed under one roof. Clearly Lynx knows more and cares more about mass transit than our friends at FDOT.