Here’s the opportunity for Orlando to explode on the world stage, once again.

Sunrail
As someone from Orlando, I have to say this is hardly revolutionary. The Sunrail, the only rail project here that I support, is itself deeply flawed. I’ve hounded against suburb-to-CBD park-and-ride lines before and that’s very much what Sunrail is. I support it only because it actually happens to pass through a few suburban downtowns that could desperately use revitalization to counter the area’s sprawl, because it will hopefully instigate a wave of mass transit projects, and because the area’s bus system is so desperately slow because of the geometry of the road network. In fact, the rail line that Sunrail uses has no highway equivalent for buses to use — I-4 and 17-92 follow roughly the same end-to-end points but they don’t pass near the same critical downtowns. Normally I would support increased bus service but it’s just not possible to create an efficient frequent bus line that hits the same points Sunrail does. At least they’re planning a rail service that’s somewhat frequent for startup commuter rail (about every hour) and plan to run it outside of rush hour. Of course even the route itself isn’t perfect. It won’t serve downtown Deland, Sanford, or Maitland.

Orange Blossom Express
The maglev and the Orange Blossom Express are absolute jokes. The Orange Blossom Express follows a decaying industrial corridor from downtown and ends at a series of retirement communities. Right now the plan is to clean up the corridor, revitalize it into a ‘new urbanism area’, and establish a transit corridor downtown with I think is absolutely laudable and I wholeheartedly approve of. However, the transit element is supposed to be another commuter rail corridor. Think slow heavy trains and infrequent, inconvenient service unless you happen to be a park-and-ride commuter. However, unlike Sunrail, there’s actually a perfectly good road that parallels the rail line the entire way — Orange Blossom Trail — which could be used to establish frequent, convenient buses to downtown and be used as actual mass transit. On top of that, it seems absolutely asinine to send a commuter train down to retirement communities. Just think about that. People in retirement communities tend not to travel, let alone go to work downtown. If they do build the line, the scope of the project needs to be narrowed so the line only goes as far as Apopka (and I would say the same about any bus corridor). Do I think the rail line could be used for light rail eventually? Absolutely, but that’s pretty far down the road.

Maglev
The Maglev, I don’t even know where to start. Let’s ignore the fact for now that maglev is an expensive, pipe dream technology. The most important part is it does not serve any urban areas. The maglev goes to the airport, and serves a touristy automobile wasteland. Nevermind that everything is even more spread out than your typical suburb that’s horribly hard to serve with a fixed route high-capacity transit line. Plus, private companies have already developed a massive (if not very efficient) network of private shuttles and buses that bring you almost anywhere (ie, the internal Disney transit system, I-drive trolley, etc). It does not go where people live, it does not benefit the people who live in Orlando, it does not benefit those who pay for it, it fails at cost effective mobility, and it does not benefit the cause of urbanization in any way.

If it were up to me to build a rail project in Orlando, I would build it from south Orlando, through the medical center, through downtown, through uptown and onward to Winter Park, maybe going through the Hannibal area. This southern part of this corridor has an existing huge employment base and great potential for urban revitalization while the northern part is quickly becoming a dense, new urban corridor with apartments and dense commerce and a college. Of course, even here it would make more sense to put in a frequent bus line before light rail.

Andi: That’ll be the hardest part, turning SunRail into more-than-just-commuters system. Hopefully they’ll start by running it on Magic and OCSC game days.

Norah: I agree, we need to change people’s attitudes towards public transit. But I’m pretty sure gas prices will take of that in the coming years…

Crystal: With a more flexible schedule, SunRail could definitely move workers during the day and safely transport tourists and party-goers at night. According to their website, if All Aboard Florida is successful with its first leg, they want to expand to Tampa and Jacksonville.

Mary: Definitely. An expansion to the east (Colonial, UCF, Waterford, even Cocoa Beach) would draw in a lot of passengers.

What makes me use public transportation?
Clean, safe options with convenient routes that link me to downtown and work. The most important thing I think is to nurture a culture that embraces public transportation. Link people to the places that they want to go, and make it easy. The first step is to get the trains up and running. If you build it, they will come!

Hopefully Sunrail will get the ridership necessary to move it away from a strict commuter-model and towards running more frequently at non-peak hours.