SunRail's ticket vending machine mess

If we were in charge of SunRail and we cared about rider convenience, one of the changes we would make is to add a second cash ticket vending machine to the SunRail station at Church Street in downtown Orlando.

Every SunRail station has four ticket-vending machines – two on the northbound platform and two on the southbound platform. Of those four vending machines, only one accepts cash. The other three vending machines (when they’re working) only accept credit or debit cards. SunRail’s rationale for only providing one cash machine per station on either the northbound or south platform is kind of wonky, and doesn’t make much sense to us.

With the exception of one station, the northbound and southbound platforms are directly across from each other. So if you show up on the wrong platform with cash you have to run to the other side to buy your ticket.

And now for the exception – the SunRail station at Church Street, which you can see in the accompanying aerial photo. The northbound and southbound platforms are more than a block away from each other and separated by busy two-way traffic on South Street. The cash machine is on the northbound platform.

On two occasions we have seen people rush up to the southbound platform and try to buy a ticket with cash. One of the people missed the train because he couldn’t buy a ticket. The other ended up boarding the train without a ticket. It wasn’t her fault. She wanted to buy a ticket, but couldn’t. (It’s stuff like this that adversely affects SunRail passenger counts.)

Common sense dictates that Church Street needs cash machines on the northbound and southbound platforms. Ideally, there should be cash machines on both platforms at all SunRail stations.

While SunRail bosses are scratching their heads about Church Street, they need to move the cash machine at the Sand Lake Road Station. At that station (SunRail’s end of the line), the cash machine is on the northbound platform. But SunRail isn’t even using the northbound platform at Sand Lake Road. All passenger loading and unloading is done on the southbound platform and that’s where the cash machine needs to be.

For heaven’s sake SunRail, get with the program.

SunRail platforms suck

Wonder if the person who designed the platform canopies for the SunRail stations actually lives in Florida?

If that designer lived in Florida for at least two weeks in the summer he or she would know that the SunRail platform canopies are completely inadequate. The canopies are too narrow and offer zero protection from the sun and rain. You almost feel like passing out while waiting 15 or 20 minutes for a train.

Come on SunRail bosses, don’t you care about the riders?

Tri Rail in South Florida, which is identical to SunRail in many ways, has platform canopies that are wider and more substantial to protect riders from the elements.

The more we ride SunRail it becomes increasingly apparent that it was built on the cheap. And we deserve better.

Obviously it would be extremely costly to retrofit the existing platforms as plans are being made to extend service north to DeLand and south to Poinciana. But we expect SunRail planners to learn from their mistakes and design serious canopies for the five stations that will be built in the Phase 2 expansion.

And after that, they need to go back and replace the canopies that were installed during the SunRail’s Phase 1.