No SunRail, but lots of art

No one who rides SunRail on a regular basis should be surprised that SunRail WILL NOT be operating on Monday – Independence Day. Would have been nice, considering the huge July 4^th Celebration being held in downtown Orlando’s Lake Eola Park.

Despite the absence of SunRail on July 4^th, there’s still fun to be had, and all the excitement won’t necessarily be in downtown Orlando.

Winter Park is putting on a pretty good July 4^th shindig. Our friends at the Charles Morse Hosmer More Museum of American Art (445 N. Park Ave.) will be offering free admission for people to see the museum’s extraordinary collection that showcases opalescent glass (stained glass), paintings, pottery and much more.

The Morse Museum will be open 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. meanwhile Winter Park will be celebrating the holiday with a bicycle parade, horse-drawn wagon rides, live patriotic music and more. The city celebration will be 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Happy Independence Day!

What's with SunRail's new executive director

How come SunRail just named its first executive director?

That’s one of several questions that we recently presented to Florida Department of Transportation officials. See the responses provided by an FDOT spokeswoman: 

QUESTION: Help me understand the difference between what Tawny has been doing and what this new executive director will do?  

SunRail Executive Director Nicola Liquori

ANSWER: The Executive Director is an FDOT employee with overall responsibility for SunRail, ensuring that the mission of the Central Florida Commuter Rail Commission and SunRail is accomplished consistent with Department goals and objectives. This includes oversight of daily operations, expansion of the system through Phases II and III, increasing ridership while managing costs, maintaining performance benchmarks, as well as administrative, financial and organizational management activities.  Tawny Olore is a consultant who provides guidance and support to the SunRail team. Like all SunRail employees and consultants, Ms. Olore will report to the Executive Director. 

QUESTION: Does SunRail's new executive director have passenger rail experience?  

ANSWER: SunRail’s executive director has 14 years of experience in user-financed transportation with FDOT at Florida’s Turnpike. This experience includes managing the financial aspects of a program with a $5 billion – 5-year capital plan, but also the daily operations of a 483-mile toll system with over 2.5 million transactions per day, management of eight service plazas along the Turnpike mainline and management of business development programs.

The SunRail team collectively has many years of passenger rail experience – the Executive Director brings the management experience of a complex transportation program. This experience will be key now that SunRail is operating a major commuter line (phase I), undertaking a major construction project (phase II) and beginning the development process for a new project (phase III).

QUESTION: Will SunRail's new executive director be focused on helping SunRail reach 7-day and late night service?

ANSWER: Yes, SunRail is at a critical time as the department begins Phase 2 South construction and planning for future expansions like to the Orlando International Airport and extensions of service such as possible nights and weekend service.

QUESTION: What happens to this executive director if the SunRail Commission (elected officials) decide to take over local management of the train system before 2021?

ANSWER: This is an item for future discussion. 

Use your SunRail ticket to unlock art treasure

Did you know that your SunRail ticket is a key to one of Florida’s greatest art treasures?

Seriously, it is.

From now and through September you can present your SunRail ticket for free admission to the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, 445 N. Park Ave. make sure you tell them you’re a SunRailRiders fan.

The museum -- only a 5-minute stroll from the Winter Park SunRail train platform -- is home of one of this nation’s most eye-popping collections of “leaded-glass” (stained glass) windows.

Don’t yawn. We didn’t realize what we were missing until we visited the Morse Museum last year. The works on display at this museum are stunning and you don’t have to be an art expert to enjoy the collection.

The museum showcases the opalescent glass windows and designs of Louis Comfort Tiffany. Surely you’ve heard of Tiffany & Co.? That business was founded by his family.

Our favorite part of the museum is the Tiffany Chapel, an awesome collection of mosaic art, leaded glass windows and Byzantine architecture that was originally created for the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. It narrowly escaped destruction and has now been reconstructed in the Morse Museum. When you see it in person, you’ll understand why we’re crazy about it.

For more information on the museum and its programs, including tours, please click here.

The museum is open Tuesday to Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Please note that the Morse Museum is usually closed on Mondays.

Who the heck is running SunRail?

Funny thing happened this week during the SunRail Customer Advisory Committee meeting.

The Florida Department of Transportation named  Nicola Liquori as the first-ever executive director of SunRail.

The announcement of the appointment was made several hours before the advisory committee met on Tuesday. For some baffling reason, the appointment information was not shared with advisory committee members who advocate for SunRail riders. Probably just a minor oversight, right?

Until now, we’ve been under the impression that FDOT engineer Tawny Olore was the main person calling the shots for SunRail. Now we get Nicola Liquori, who interestingly, comes to SunRail from Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise – a highway agency.

Florida’s Turnpike? Or to put it in the words of reader Simon Duvall: “Wouldn’t a person with a railroad background be a better choice?”

One would think so, especially since FDOT Nicola Liquori’s responsibilities at SunRail will include: finances, construction, maintenance, operations, rail corridors and safety.

It’s also curious this announcement was made about a month since Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who chairs the SunRail Commission, raised the idea of having local government take over the management of SunRail now instead of waiting until 2021 when FDOT funding for the rail system runs out.

A rider asked us if the executive director appointment is good or bad for SunRail riders. Hard to say. If Nicola Liquori is going to focus on expanding the train service to weekends and late-night service, that would be excellent.

But if she’s just another empty suit and a Rick Scott flunky, then she may as well stay out on the Turnpike collecting tolls.

Sound off Tuesday for better SunRail service

The decision to provide special SunRail service on Sunday to support the massive Pulse memorial event at Orlando’s Lake Eola in Orlando was the right call.

It is unfortunate that a special call had to be made, because SunRail should always be running 7 days per week. SunRail is a vital transportation resource, and the need for the train is not limited to Monday to Friday rush hours.

If you want to SunRail running on the weekends and late at night, please make your voice heard this Tuesday at SunRail’s Customer Advisory Committee meeting. This is one of the key forums for getting feedback from the public about the train service.

We attend their meetings and we know this committee, comprised of people who regularly ride SunRail, has been fighting valiantly to expand and improve train service. But they can’t do the job alone. They need the voices of more riders to back them up.

The beautiful thing about Tuesday’s meeting is that for the first time it will be held after business hours making it more convenient for more “regular” people to attend. Up to now the meetings were held in the morning and typically there were only two or three “regular” folks there.

Tuesday’s meeting begins at 5 p.m. in the LYNX office building at the LYNX Central Station, a major train and bus stop. This should make it easy for people to be able to attend the meeting and still catch the train or bus to go home.

This advisory committee meets once every three months, so please don’t miss this opportunity to attend and sound off.

See you at the meeting.

Dyer demonstrates the vision and courage needed to push SunRail forward

Judge John M. Cheney would have been proud of Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer at the recent SunRail Commission meeting.

Judge who?

At the turn of the 20^th Century Judge Cheney’s family owned the Orlando Water & Light Co.

Over time the privately owned company encountered problems providing services to a growing Orlando -- barely 10,000 residents by 1920.

Cheney recognized that his family didn’t have the resources to meet the demand. So he made the audacious proposal for the community to take over the water and electric plant and grow it.

Cheney and other civic leaders vigorously campaigned to pass a $975,000 bond issue to buy the utility. That sum was eye popping back in those days.

Certainly some people thought the idea was risky. It was risky, but also worth pursuing.

Fortunately, Cheney and his colleagues prevailed. The bond money purchased the water and electric plant for $600,000, and also provided money to make the capital investments needed to keep growing that utility company – now known as the Orlando Utilities Commission – into the second largest municipal utility in Florida.

What if Cheney lacked the courage or vision to make the proposal? What would Orlando be like today?

At the recent SunRail Commission meeting Mayor Dyer must have been channeling the spirit of Judge Cheney when he suggested the SunRail Commission take over management of commuter train now and not wait until 2021 when state dollars for SunRail run out and the train becomes the financial responsibility of local government.

What many people may not realize is SunRail is run by the Florida Department of Transportation, not the SunRail Commission of local elected leaders. For all we know, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (a proven passenger rail enemy) may have personally made the decisions that prevent SunRail from reaching its full potential to provide convenient service to our community.

Dyer explained the rationale behind his proposal is for local leaders to get a feel for what it takes to run a passenger railroad before FDOT walks away in 5 years.

Dyer’s suggestion received a warm reception from fellow SunRail Commission member Osceola County Commission Chairwoman Viviana Janer, a passionate advocate of public transit.

The other two commission members present – Seminole County Commission Member Carlton Henley and Volusia County Council Member Pat Patterson – sent mixed messages when they responded to Dyer’s suggestion with a barrage of confusing questions and comments. Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs didn’t attend the meeting.

We support Dyer’s proposal. We also urge local leaders to accelerate discussions to consolidate SunRail and LYNX into a seamless and dynamic public transit system.

Bringing SunRail under local control will make it easier for us – the riders and residents – to shape SunRail into the passenger rail service that meets the needs and expectations of our community.

To be sure, we have disagreed with Dyer on issues in the past, but we are delighted with his SunRail proposal.

Just as in the days of Judge Cheney, it takes leaders with vision and courage to get important work done and to improve our community.

Special train for soccer fans

Our Copa America Centenario soccer

tournament high hopes have been dashed …. sort of.

There was an item on the SunRail Commission meeting agenda regarding that soccer tournament at Camping World (Citrus Bowl) Stadium. In a Tuesday blog post we hoped that agenda item meant SunRail was going to run trains for the first match on Saturday, June 4.

No such luck – still no weekend service. Despite that disappointment there was some good news at Wednesday’s SunRail Commission meeting.

Officials announced that Bombardier – the folks who actually operate SunRail – will provide late-night service for fans attending the Copa America Centenario matches on Monday, June 6, and Wednesday, June 8.

By the way, the special late trains on those date aren’t free like some past SunRail special train operations. Everybody riding the late train on those nights needs to buy a ticket. And don’t forget to tap on and tap off before you board and when you get off.

Still, this is great news because usually the last northbound SunRail station would be leaving the Church Street station at 9:25 p.m. -- well before soccer fans would be able to get from the stadium back to the station after the matches.

See you on the Rail!