We have been closely following developments as it relates to the Sunrail passenger schedule and the Orlando high speed rail plan. Kissimmee and South Poinciana are slated for stops on the commuter rail system. Curiously and to our selfish disappointment, the International Drive corridor, the Orlando International Airport, and such attractions as Disney World are not part of the existing Sunrail commuter rail plan.
We enthusiastically applaude efforts to improve the transportation infrastructure in Central Florida. However, there is great local disagreement on local demand for the new $4 billion rail system and the central focus on connecting Orlando and Tampa by high speed rail. Why are more efforts not being placed on adding more tourist connections such as those mentioned above to the plan? Perhaps we will learn more in the coming weeks and months.
Connecting the South Poinciana station and other tourist stops to Disney would be a huge success in our opinion. Disney cast members alone would provide thousands of additional daily passengers and would be a real boon to the industry. The inside buzz seems to be that government officials are banking on Disney funding this type of Sunrail expansion with private money. Although tourist passenger revenues and park employees would be a fraction of total system usage, this overall new programme could be the financial core of the whole system that reduces taxpayer funded operational deficits in other areas.
Nevertheless and selfishly speaking, Orlando vacation rental guests would also benefit greatly from such added passenger rail connections to Disney, I-Drive and the airport to the South Poinciana and Kissimmee Stations. Most of our international visitors are very familiar with travelling in this manner and the adoption rate would be quite high. International visitors to Orlando also spend the highest amount locally per capita. Let our government leaders reconsider a revised schedule that will add more tourist attraction related stops to the Sunrail passsenger rail system. For a direct link to the Sunrail website, please click here.
