SunRail is ready to start a new chapter

POINCIANA -- Sunday morning at 9, the SunRail trains are locked, loaded and ready to roll – on Monday morning.

The newest chapter in SunRail history starts – sort of – on Monday, July 23.

That’s when SunRail begins to run its new schedule – including scheduled stops at the new southern expansion SunRail stations.

While the trains will follow the schedule – they will not pick up or let off passengers at the four new stations – Meadow Woods, Tupperware, downtown Kissimmee, and Poinciana.

In other words, all southbound SunRail riders will be required to get off at Sand Lake Road (Yes, Joanne, that means you, too).

Once leaving Sand Lake Road, the SunRail train will continue its southbound run with brief stops at the new stations. No one will be allowed to board at those stations.

Think of this week (July 23 to July 27) as a dress rehearsal for the passenger service that will officially begin on Monday, July 30. When that service begins there will be a limited number of free rides offered to people who board at the new station. For details on those free rides, please click here.

To accommodate the new schedule, and for other logistical reasons, SunRail has established a small maintenance base in Poinciana where 2 SunRail trains will be stored – which is why they were there on Sunday morning. The rest of the SunRail trains are stored based in Sanford.

While we continue to lament that SunRail does not offer weekend or late-night service, the new schedule does offer a few improvements and changes.

To see the new schedule, click here.

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FDOT is working on bus service to Poinciana SunRail

Here’s the latest from the Florida Department of Transportation regarding bus service to support the future Poinciana SunRail station.

FDOT works with Lynx to provide bus service to SunRail stations. FDOT is subsidizing SunRail through 2021.

SunRail train service to Poinciana is expected to begin this summer.

Here is what FDOT said:

“Our goal is to look at the service area from a systems standpoint. With this in mind, it is important to note that the existing LYNX Link 26 serves the Poinciana area. When we evaluated the travel time for the existing Link 26 from the Poinciana Walmart to the Kissimmee Station and compared it to the County’s proposed route from the Poinciana Walmart to the Poinciana Station, we noted that there was a slight benefit in travel time with the existing Link 26.

In addition, when LYNX modeled Osceola County’s proposed route, the projected ridership was low and the cost for the service was high. This resulted in a projected cost per passenger trip of $23.98 compared to a LYNX system average of $4.15. We are proposing to modify the Link 26 to include additional service hours in the morning peak to match the SunRail schedule.

There is an existing route (Link 306 Disney Direct) that provides service between the Poinciana Wal Mart and the Disney Springs Transfer Center. 

Currently only one morning trip operates to Disney Springs and one late afternoon trip operates to Poinciana. This route is proposed to deviate from Poinciana Boulevard to serve the Poinciana SunRail Station.

With regard to US 192, there are several existing routes that serve the Kissimmee SunRail Station including Routes 55 and 56 to the west which run 30-minute headways all day and have significant overlap (almost like having 15-minute headways along those segments).  

Route 18 serves US 192 to the east for a short segment from US 441 to Denn John Lane with 60-minute headways, and Route 10 serves US 192 from the Kissimmee SunRail Station to St Cloud with 30-minute headways.

Finally, NeighborLink is a dial-a-ride flex-service that is designed to make it easier for individuals living in less populated areas to use public transportation. 

The Neighborlink 604 provides service to Intercession City and Campbell City.

The existing base location is proposed to be moved to the Poinciana SunRail Station, and service hours would be expanded to match the SunRail train schedule, with service beginning approximately 45 minutes earlier and operating approximately 2 hours later in the evening. This service provides smaller buses that can access neighborhoods and is more cost efficient. As the ridership in that area grows, we will work with LYNX to evaluate the need for a different type of service.

As reported, Commissioner Janer requested that FDOT and LYNX review the analysis for the proposed route. This effort is underway, and we will report the results when available.”

Make Poinciana SunRail a winner

Will the Poinciana SunRail station be a winner or a loser?

Making it easy for people to get to the train station is key, and Lynx plays a big role in that equation.

Poinciana SunRail station

The experience of the last four years has shown that the end of the line stations – DeBary and Sand Lake Road – have been two of the busiest in the SunRail system. DeBary – the only SunRail station in Volusia County gets passengers from the Votran bus system. The Sand Lake Station in south Orlando is supported by 6 Lynx bus routes.

At this writing, the bus situation is not nearly so bright for the nearly completed Poinciana station. That station at the intersection of Old Tampa Highway and Poinciana Blvd. is in Osceola County, relatively close to Polk County.

In case you’ve never been there, the Poinciana station that will become the southern end of the line for SunRail is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. (OK there is a Home Depot, a soft-drink bottling plant, a Wawa and an ice-cream-stand nearby.)

What concerns us is that currently the Poinciana station will be served only by Neighborhood Link 604. That bus circulates mainly in the Intercession City and Campbell City area near the station. As it is a Neighborhood Link you must call 2 hours in advance to arrange for pick up.

Under a contract with Polk County, Lynx will provide the only bus (Link 416) for Polk County residents to reach SunRail. That bus (Link 416) will carry people from Haines City to the Lynx Super Stop at the Poinciana Walmart. At the Super Stop, riders would transfer to Link 26 to take them to the intermodal station in downtown Kissimmee where people can catch SunRail, Lynx, Greyhound, and Amtrak.

The problem is that neither SunRail or Lynx offers service that is convenient to use.

Blame the local, state and federal elected officials because there is no dedicated source of funding to subsidize our local public transit – Lynx and SunRail.

All public transit throughout the world relies on government subsidies. Passenger fares only pay about 30 percent of the operating costs. Roads, highways and even airlines rely on government subsidies.

Until politicians find the courage to provide adequate funding a reliable people who rely on public transit will continue to receive janky service.

There is some good news. Currently, Osceola County, Lynx and the state Department of Transportation are discussing the possibility of offering additional Lynx bus service to connect more people to the Poinciana SunRail station.

Hope to see you on The Rail this summer at the Poinciana SunRail station.

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Are you ready for SunRail 2.0?

SunRail 2.0 will arrive in the summer of 2018 and we’re looking forward to it.

This new chapter of SunRail opens with the 17-mile extension of the commuter rail service into Osceola County.

Extending the service south will add four new SunRail train stations:

• Meadow Woods in south Orange County, serving the sprawling Meadow Woods and Hunters Creek residential communities

• Tupperware in Osceola County, serving the corporate headquarters of Tupperware and Osceola Parkway – a major crossroad in Osceola that stretches down into the Disney resort area.

• Historic downtown Kissimmee. This station is certain to become a major destination for SunRail day trippers. Downtown Kissimmee is filled with restaurants and shops – half a block from the train station and adjacent to a Lynx bus Super Stop, an Amtrak station, a Greyhound bus station and the Kissimmee Civic Center. The train station is a 5-minute walk from Lake Toho’s waterfront park. For more, click here for a video sneak peek at some of the things downtown Kissimmee has to offer.

• Poinciana, SunRail’s last station which is closest to Disney resort; a 5-minute bus ride to the popular Green Meadows Petting Farm and relatively close to the Polk County line. SunRail will also store a couple of trains in Poinciana and perform light maintenance on trains at this station.

This expanded service provides a great transportation option for many people who endure the aggravating traffic congestion on Interstate 4, Orange Avenue, the Orange Blossom Trail, John Young Parkway and US 192.

From our perspective, the best thing about extending SunRail into Osceola is that the commuter train will attract more riders.

Regular readers of this blog know that we’ve been disappointed in SunRail’s current ridership that is roughly 3,200 daily boardings. For the actual number of riders, you divide the boardings in half because the people who board the train to ride to work in the morning are pretty much the same people who board the train in the evening to ride home.

Some SunRail/FDOT officials predict SunRail 2.0 could add as many as 2,000 new riders to SunRail. We think that’s a credible estimate because many Orlando International Airport workers live in Osceola County. Even though there’s currently no direct rail link to OIA, the airport is a less than 10-minute bus ride from SunRail’s existing Sand Lake Road station. You can get a free transfer from SunRail to the Lynx bus at Sand Lake Road. There’s also talk of public or private express bus service between the Meadow Woods station and the airport. (An airport rail link will cost at least $200 million.)

The Poinciana station can draw more riders from nearby Polk County. There are already Polk County riders who drive up to the Sand Lake Road station to take SunRail to jobs in downtown Orlando, Winter Park and Seminole County.

Improving ridership is crucial to the long-term survival of SunRail, and key to expanding the service to weekends and late night.

SunRail 2.0 can’t arrive fast enough!

Click here for more SunRail news.