Riders deserve clean SunRail stations

SunRail will celebrate its 5^th anniversary in a few days. Before that happens, can somebody please clean the SunRail stations at Lynx Central Station and in Sanford?

The accompanying photo was taken at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday (4/24) on the northbound platform at Lynx Central Station. There was trash on the platform and the fenced area between the platform and the neighboring apartment complex.

It’s clear the platform area had not been cleared in a long time. Some trash has blown onto the railroad tracks.

One problem complicating the situation is that homeless people camp at the station overnight. Many sleep in the station on flattened cardboard boxes. Some sleeping pads were still on the platform Wednesday morning.

There are mystery substances smeared on the platform. The platform needs daily power washing.

Every morning hundreds of people get off SunRail trains and walk through this mess on the way to the sprawling Orange County Courthouse. In a few months, this station also will be used by people headed Creative Village and the downtown campus of the University of Central Florida and Valencia College.

The maintenance issue in Sanford is not as egregious as Lynx, but it is still very serious. A few weeks ago, we wrote about litter at that station. The biggest pieces of litter have been picked up, but the bus loop next to the station is strewn with thousands – no exaggeration – of cigarette butts. (See the accompanying photo.) Many of these cigarette butts have been faded by the weather, so it’s clear they have been there for a long time.

A Sanford official told us that one reason for the problem is that the federal Department of Homeland Security won’t let the city deploy cigarette butt receptacles because terrorists can use them to hide bombs. He pointed out that’s why they have see-though trash receptacles with transparent bags.

Good point!

That rule applies to all the SunRail stations, such as the one at Sand Lake Road where you would be hard-pressed to find two dozen cigarette butts or any trash.

How does Sand Lake Road stay so clean?

“I just stay on top of it,” said the Sand Lake Road maintenance man that everybody knows as Dan.

Cigarette butts are not just unsightly, they are an environmental hazard. Though cigarette butts and filters look like cotton, they aren’t. They’re plastic. We were surprised to learn that cigarette butts make up more than one-third of the litter that is collected annually worldwide.

The discarded cigarette butts leach toxic chemicals, including arsenic and lead into the soil and water. There are huge stormwater pipes at the train station. 

Waste from the station ends up in nearby Lake Monroe. It’s ironic that beautiful mosaics of alligators and manatees decorate the sidewalk at the Sanford SunRail bus loop.

SunRail it’s addressing the maintenance issues at Lynx with contractors who are supposed to do the work. SunRail officials also said they’re discussing the issues at Sanford SunRail with the City of Sanford and Seminole County.

The maintenance at the Sand Lake Road station is the gold standard that should be applied throughout the system.

Please get ‘er done and keep those stations clean. The riders and the community deserve it.

What's ahead for #SaturdaySunRail

Before you even ask. There will be NO #SaturdaySunRail service, a week from today on Nov. 26.

That’s disappointing, but at least we know early. Remember #SaturdaySunRail service is a privately funded initiative to support large-scale public events on weekends when SunRail doesn’t usually run.

The good news -- as reported first by us-- SunRail is running this Saturday to support the Florida Classic collegiate football showdown between Florida A&M and Bethune Cookman at the Camping World Stadium. This is the biggest football showdown in the Historically Black College and University universe!

Florida Classic fans staying in International Drive hotels can park for free at the Sand Lake Road SunRail and catch the train down to Lynx Central Station in downtown Otlando. Then they just need to walk one block to Orlando Vo-Tech for a bus ride to the stadium.

Folks driving I-4 from Florida’s east coast or from Daytona Beach can get off the highway to park their cars for free or take the train at the DeBary or Sanford SunRail stations.

Even if you’re not planning to attend the Florida Classic this #SaturdaySunRail service is a great deal because there’s so much going on. For example, in Winter Park the popular Winter in The Park ice skating is underway; Festival of the Trees in Lake Mary; the West End Beer Fest in Sanford; Bach Festival Society on Rollins College and the Magic playing the Dallas Mavericks at Amway Center.

Please ride the heck out of #SaturdaySunRail because it makes the case for regularly scheduled weekend SunRail service.

For more information on this week’s #SaturdaySunRail, please click here. To avoid disappointment, please arrive at the station 30 minutes before the train so you have enough time to buy your tickets at the vending machines.

Hopefully SunRail will double check to make sure all of their ticket-vending machines, especially the ones that take cash, are functioning properly.

See you on The Rail.

Bus blogger needed

SunRailRiders is seeking a blogger to write about LYNX and crusade to improve the public bus system that serves Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties.

For the past 2 years www.SunRailRiders.com has been raising hell to fix our commuter-train service. We want to give LYNX the same scrutiny because its riders deserve better service than they’re getting.

Frankly, SunRail’s success depends on LYNX success. We need a strong, unified, reliable and easy-to-use public-transit system – bus and train – to improve Central Florida’s livability.

Too many of our neighbors spend 4 hours or more every day riding the bus or waiting for a bus in the rain and sun. That’s because LYNX doesn’t have enough buses. This situation is wrong and needs to be fixed NOW.

Ideally the bus blogger has been riding LYNX for years. The writer needs to be someone who keeps up with local current events (as in reads local newspapers); knows the ins and outs of the local bus system, and understands the politics of public transportation. It doesn't matter if the bus blogger doesn't use SunRail.

This is a chance for a creative person who is passionate about facts and public transportation to get published and make a difference.

The bus blog will initially be incorporated into the SunRailRiders website. However, it will have its own distinct Facebook and Twitter channels. We would also back up the blogger with video and photos.

So how about it?

Don’t apply if you hope to get rich, but we can probably work out a little something, something. Send an email to sunrailriders@gmail.com.

Welcome to SunRail's nastiest platform

It would be nice if this was a Halloween story but it’s way too scary.

The southbound platform at SunRail’s Lynx Central station is N-A-S-T-Y. The northbound platform appeared to be much cleaner.

We’re not sure what transpires overnight on the southbound platform, but it’s pretty bad, as you can see in the accompanying photo.

At 6 o’clock this morning that platform was covered with everything from cigarette butts to what we think was human waste (we’re talking No. 2).

At almost all the other SunRail stations the platforms are close to pristine – a testament to diligent work by janitorial workers who clean stations during the day.

We don’t know whether the filth we found this morning on the southbound platform at Lynx Central station occurred overnight, or if the janitorial worker has been on vacation, but that platform needs a deep clean. We’re talking high-pressure washer, boiling hot water, bleach and other disinfectants. There was also questionable brown substance smeared on a couple of benches.

Clearly smoking – which is banned on the platforms -- is another big problem at this station. We started counting cigarette butts on the southbound platform and we quit when we reached 50. We saw riders waiting for trains smoking. There was a technician at the station trying to fix the 3 broken ticket vending machines, and even he was smoking!

SunRail’s Lynx Central station needs lots of attention, please.

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.