Osceola residents may get to ride SunRail for free

New SunRail riders in Osceola and some from Orange County may get to ride for free when the train service is expanded southbound in late July.

Osceola Commission Viviana Janer, who also serves as chair of the SunRail Commission, raised that topic Thursday (May 31) during the train commission meeting.

The idea had been discussed briefly in other SunRail meetings. Ms. Janer pressed SunRail CEO Nicola Liquori for a decision on whether residents who live near the new SunRail stations will get an opportunity to ride the train for free. Back in 2014, when SunRail launched the train system, people rode for free for several days.

1st-day riders in 2014

Ms. Liquori responded that by the second week of June she will decide whether to allow free rides for passengers boarding at the new stations.

There’s a lot to weigh in making that decision. People who live on SunRail’s new southern leg understandably want to get the same treatment extended to those who live on SunRail’s first leg. The tricky part is how to do that without giving all SunRail customers a free ride.

Back in 2014 when the train launched so many people decided to check out SunRail that the system was overwhelmed with up to 10,000 people daily joyriding as though they were checking out a new attraction at Universal or Disney. Trains were so packed the schedule went out the window.

As a reminder, the SunRail service is being extended to stations in Meadow Woods in south Orange County, and Tupperware/Osceola Parkway, downtown Kissimmee, and Poinciana in Osceola County.

See you on The Rail!

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SunRail haters gonna hate

Don’t be misled by the SunRail haters.

This past Friday morning one of the haters tweeted that SunRail was a failure because he had just been passed by a SunRail train that was carrying only 7 passengers. (This guy must be pretty impressive because he was able to count 7 people on a passing train.)

Twenty minutes later a SunRail rider posted a photo on our Facebook page showing a standing-room only crowd on a southbound SunRail train in Longwood. The accompanying photo shows the mob scene when that train arrived in Winter Park.

The haters want us to believe that SunRail is a pitiful failure.

We’re the first ones to admit that SunRail has had its share of problems. We ding them on a regular basis. But SunRail gets better and better and more Central Floridians are embracing the train – especially with the expansion of service hours to the late night and the recent service to support the Citrus Bowl game.

Yet the haters are relentless. This fall they used news reports covering SunRail ridership dips to help torpedo a proposal to enhance public transit in the Tampa Bay area.

Don’t expect facts to deter the haters. When they’re finally forced to concede that people are riding SunRail, the haters will change their tune and start saying they’re OK with SunRail “as long as it pays for itself.” Typically public transit system fares cover about one-third of the cost it takes to run the system.

Let’s deal with facts. There is almost no public transit system anywhere in the WORLD that pays all of its expenses out of the fare box. The two exceptions we could find are in Asia where the public transit agency not only runs the trains, but also owns and develops all the real estate around the train stations.

Public transit is a service that is paid for by the public. Police and fire are also services paid for by the public. The big difference is that public transit does generate some revenue – fares – to help pay its expenses. Who in their right mind would say we’ll keep police and fire service “as long as it pays for itself?”

Tell the SunRail haters to go play in traffic.

See you on The Rail.