SunRail in Orlando, FL

You were there when the railroad trains started rolling. Good for you.

ams,

That is a beautiful summer color paint scheme on a modern designed and shaped train.

unfortunately, this project is designed to fail.

Looks like a Go train to me . They're not  that comfortable to ride on. Hope I'm wrong.

It's growing on me--generally I like bolder and more powerful colors in a livery, but as I understand it, the design is intended to show our blue skies, sun, and greenery--things that are intrinsically FL, for sure.

Yep, these are the same Bombardier coaches used by GO, as well as the MPI MPXpress locomotives.  Haven't set foot in one yet.

Gee, i wonder what the people whose property is right next to the track think about it? Not much of a noise barrier between them and the train---

Forrest:

Please elaborate.

Thank you,

Bob

So what was wrong with the Amtrak SDP40F units? The sure worked VERY well on the Santa Fe, UP, and SP, all roads with very good track, by the way.

I would like to echo the sentiment of the previous poster regarding the SDP40F. Evidence has shown the SDP40F was a victim of the period during which it was introduced. What many of today's fans don't realize is the railroad industry of the 70s, compared to its revitalized form of today, with certain exceptions as listed above by Hot Water, was not a healthy one. Maintenance in many cases was substandard and there was a lot of bad track out there. The SDP40F was operated quite successfully on a number of roads. I personally rode behind them and found them to be excellent performers which had no difficulty keeping the schedule. I firmly believe these units got a bad rap because of the conditions under which they were forced to operate. I would have liked to have seen some of these larger and heavier third generation units of today run on some of that track back in the 70s. It would not have been pretty. 

To the originator of this thread, thanks for posting about the SunRail operation. I enjoyed the video. A friend of mine lives in Florida and she's been sending me pictures of the equipment. I'll try to post some of them. 

Bob  

The FEC has nothing to do with SunRail. The FEC endeavour is All Aboard Florida. It will run from Miami to Orlando(actual termius will be the intermodal terminal at Orlando International). Sun Rail is a smaller version of Trirail, which runs from miami to West palm beach. tri rail uses the same Bombardier coaches.

This commuter train will use the long-time existing CSX right-of-way so those residents next to the tracks are used to the noise of 100-car unit coal trains, the Tropicana juice train and the speedy Amtrak passenger trains.

And you are correct that this train has nothing to do with the FEC Industries “All-board” Miami–Orlando intercity passenger train.  Speaking of which, I was driving along the Beach Line Expressway today and didn't see any physical evidence of any construction or planned construction for the new right-of-way planned for this train from Orlando to the FEC mainline in Brevard County.  They will have to build a few bridges to cross State Road 520 and several expressway on and off ramps.  So their 2015 start-up date seems very optimistic.

Bill

"

Forrest:

Please elaborate.

Thank you,

Bob"

Bob,

i would classify this project as a demonstration effort; to show that commuter trains can run on these tracks.  unfortunately, in this day and age, no one has the patience for a demonstration project.  as currently configured, the trains will not move enough people to make a dent in I4 traffic.  the trains are too short and scheduled too far apart.

in addition, between Winter Park and Longwood the track is a single. the distance is enough to create a bottle neck for bidirectional traffic at levels enough to move a lot of people.

i believe commuter rail along the I4 corridor is a must.  There are lots of modification plans for I4 (toll lanes, for instance), but none of them will really help and they don't address the problems of increased traffic exiting at critical points in Orlando.

Unless they run trains every 5 minutes or so during rush hour, they will never reach passenger volumes that make sense.  Without double tracking between Winter Park and Longwood (which would require replacing the bridge over 17-92 in Winter Park) and changing the initial project profile, they don't have a chance of doing this.  People will be unimpressed and support will wane.

We will have pretty trains and pretty stations (the one they are building in Winter Park is very nice), but they will lack substance.