SunRail Establishment

Jeff Smith wrote: Are any of these stops near John Young and I4? Stops 10, 11, or 12? Just curious.

And here's a question I'm sure has been answered; this shares the Amtrak ROW, right?

John Young Parkway doesn't even come close to the tracks until it crosses just south of Kissimmee where the station will be in downtown. I-4 roughly parallels the line and it gets within less than a mile from the Florida Hospital to the Orlando Health Center/Amtrak and they also cross over near Sanford. However, there's no actual I-4 Park-and-Ride station (thank god). And yes, it'll share the same ROW except for a segment near Poinciana I believe.

On a side note, there's a lot to hate about this project (rolling stock choice, station choice, cost, etc) but it's not as half-assed as a lot of other commuter rail start ups have been.

I was curious about John Young. I've been in the AO on numerous occasions there in the vicinity of I4, and never remembered seeing ROW.

And, speaking of SunRail: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/201 ... -crossings

Railroad crossings from Sanford to downtown Orlando could be blocked for 15 minutes at a time starting early Thursday because new track will be dropped off for the SunRail commuter train.

The rail, each section of which is 1,650 feet long and weighs 31 tons, will be delivered by train at various times and locations until March 28. It will begin with the first shipment at 2 a.m. Thursday, a Florida Department of Transportation release said Wednesday.

Please post any news, comments, discussion concerning the FEC proposal to Orlando from South Florida here: http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 65&start=0

I would put it here, but this proposal is more intercity than suburbs to downtown. Which begs the question of the title of the forum, doesn't it?

SunRail studies who might hop aboard commuter train

Um, seems a little late for this? Or is this more marketing?

With locomotives on order and tons of new track delivered, SunRail is now trying to figure who might ride the $1.2 billion commuter train.

Once they come up with an answer, SunRail contractors are going to do everything they can to talk potential passengers out of their cars and onto the train when it starts rolling sometime in 2014.

"Slowly but surely they will change their attitude and there will be a paradigm shift [toward SunRail]," predicted Tasha Cunningham, whose company is being paid $2.4 million to market the train.

Cunningham's group has talked to more than 200 people in person and gathered more than 5,000 online surveys. They plan to use that information to come up with a ridership plan by May 15.

Tortoises Causing Issues For SunRail Construction

LAKE MARY, Fla. -- SunRail commuter rail line construction is up against the environmental challenge of gopher tortoises.
Florida is spending nearly a $250,000 to have a company capture and relocate the protected animals that have habitats near several future train stations.
Construction teams are using buckets to capture the tortoises near the intersection of Old Lake Mary Road and Palmetto Street. The Lake Mary SunRail station is planned to be built in the area.
The buckets are part of an effort to humanely capture and remove the tortoises from the rail corridor to make way for SunRail stations and track upgrades. The tortoises were expected to be taken to a tortoise farm in Sumter County.

Read more: http://www.wesh.com/news/30908931/detai ... z1sQ0nkV4B

I'll do it for 100K!

The third set of rails for double-tracking the Sanford to Orlando section are being delivered today through Wednesday. This article says 31 tons for 1650 feet - that works out to 115# rail.

Slideshow: Riding the future SunRail route

For years now, Central Floridians have been hearing all about what it would be like to ride the planned $1.3 billion, 61-mile SunRail commuter rail.

But on Sept. 14, about 200 government officials, real estate representatives and business executives — and yours truly — finally got a chance to experience it in person.

The Orlando Regional Realtor Association organized a SunRail sneak peek ride-along on a regularly scheduled Amtrak train from DeLand to Kissimmee. Though the Silver Star train stopped only at Amtrak’s existing stations — Winter Park, Orlando Health and Kissimmee — riders also were able to see construction at many of the Phase 1 stations, which runs 31 miles from DeBary in Volusia County to Sand Lake Road in Orange County.

Trains are expected to begin running on Phase 1 in 2014. Meanwhile, the state Department of Transportation last week received approval from the Federal Transit Authority to begin design work on the south portion of Phase 2, from Sand Lake Road to Poinciana. That phase is slated to be completed in 2016.

Another portion of Phase 2, which runs from DeLand to DeBary in Volusia County, will be designed at a future date.

I can only hope the sponsors were properly billed by Amtrak for the surely three Amfleet II Coaches that had to be deadheaded from Miami to Jacksonville for the party. I have to wonder if Amtrak still maintains a Yard Engine and crew at JAX to have handled this move. While to my best knowledge the existing Train & Engine agreements allow the road crew to do one "drill", if the cars for the party were handled on the rear of 92(13) and simply left at the station overnight for 91(13), I guess the move could be done without a Yard engine, but it would be awkward and time consuming (after completing station work to back the consist to the storage track and couple up). Of course, talk about the waste of deadheading the cars from New York and return for 40 miles of revenue service.

But then lest we forget, normally "Amtrak hating" Rep. John Mica (R-FL7) is a "SunRail lover" and could have his way with Amtrak on a matter such as this. I'm sure he is also happy to have support from the real estate brokers of which many likely do business within his District.

The drawbridge over St Johns River in Sanford was replaced last weekend: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/201 ... -crossings

Here's a preview of the cars:

http://www.cfnews13.com/content/news/cf ... f_new.html

ORLANDO --
SunRail is getting closer to becoming a reality in Central Florida.

Our first look at what the commuter rail cars will look like came from a post on Twitter Monday.

MetroPlan Orlando tweeted a picture of the SunRail cars currently under construction in New York.

The colorful cars have a green, blue, yellow and orange paint scheme.

SunRail service is expected to begin by 2014.

Photo Source: MetroPlan Orlando

What's the source for Sunrail's remanufactured locomotives that MotivePower is producing for them? They're apparently being classified as rebuilds instead of new locomotives.

I see that SunRail trains are locomotive-hauled consists of 1-3 cars.

Isn't that really inefficient: having a locomotive that could haul at least 7 passenger cars (presumably) taking just 1-3?

Wouldn't DMUs have been a better choice for this system?

SouthernRailway wrote:I see that SunRail trains are locomotive-hauled consists of 1-3 cars. Isn't that really inefficient: having a locomotive that could haul at least 7 passenger cars (presumably) taking just 1-3? Wouldn't DMUs have been a better choice for this system?

Probably, but there wasn't a modern FRA compliant DMU available at the time they ordered railcars. FRA compliant because Amtrak runs FRA compliant passenger cars and CSX will still be running FRA compliant freight cars. Temporal separation waivers to run non FRA compliant DMUs wasn't an option. Additionally they didn't want to order new unproven railcars, so that didn't leave them much choice but order proven equipment.

Thanks.

The FRA's motto should be, "Forcing US railroads to waste money and delaying adoption of proven technology".