Rumor Higher Speed Rail from MCO to Disney World

Disone

Disone

Well-Known Member
FutureCEO said:
You'll get from Boston to NYC faster by plane plus waiting for the flight faster than Amtrak.
Click to expand...
Yup ...

"Four staffers from The Points Guy organized a fun challenge to see who could get from Faneuil Hall in Boston to Rockefeller Center in New York the fastest. Each traveled a different way — by Acela train, JetBlue, Delta and United (arriving in Newark). While the JetBlue passenger won (total travel time including ground transportation: 3 hours, 12 minutes), the United passenger clocked 4 hours, 51 minutes — just two minutes under the Acela travel time."

Full article

www.allianztravelinsurance.com

Train Vs. Plane: 5 U.S. Routes Where the Train Beats the Plane | Allianz Global Assistance

Flying’s not always faster. Learn how to weigh the merits of the train vs. the plane and see five U.S. routes where rail prevails.
www.allianztravelinsurance.com www.allianztravelinsurance.com

I don't think I compared travel time between the different travel options only that they were in competition with each other. And clearly the fact that this article was written is evidence of that. Brightline is competing with the airlines just as Acela is competing with the airlines
 
IanDLBZF

IanDLBZF

Well-Known Member
Disone said:
"Four staffers from The Points Guy organized a fun challenge to see who could get from Faneuil Hall in Boston to Rockefeller Center in New York the fastest. Each traveled a different way — by Acela train, JetBlue, Delta and United (arriving in Newark). While the JetBlue passenger won (total travel time including ground transportation: 3 hours, 12 minutes), the United passenger clocked 4 hours, 51 minutes — just two minutes under the Acela travel time."
Click to expand...
A similar race was done in 2022 (and uploaded in 2023) by fellow transit YouTuber Miles In Transit, except they also added bus routes too.
 
HauntedPirate

HauntedPirate

Park nostalgist
Premium Member
With regards to Brightline - Pricing is ridiculous. We opted to rent a car in Fort Lauderdale in September and drive to Orlando rather than book tickets on the train. It cost us less to rent the car in FLL and return it 6 days later in MCO than it would have cost for 2 tickets on the Brightline. When I was looking at train tickets 4-5 months in advance, prices were over $100/person. By the time I booked the car, tickets were up to $140-160/person.
 
Disone

Disone

Well-Known Member
HauntedPirate said:
With regards to Brightline - Pricing is ridiculous. We opted to rent a car in Fort Lauderdale in September and drive to Orlando rather than book tickets on the train. It cost us less to rent the car in FLL and return it 6 days later in MCO than it would have cost for 2 tickets on the Brightline. When I was looking at train tickets 4-5 months in advance, prices were over $100/person. By the time I booked the car, tickets were up to $140-160/person.
Click to expand...
Wow. Honestly that's not typical of their pricing. I did a quick search for a few days and I did find on Sunday they had a lot of $99 prices. But I had to find that.

No promo code used. But honestly I don't think you're going to find in any scenario where it's cheaper for a family of four to take this versus rent a car. Same for airlines. Rent a car is going to win on price every single time. Plus the attic convenience of having a car in Orlando cannot be understated because Orlando does not have a great transportation system.

Screenshot_20240711-140038.png


Screenshot_20240711-140115.png

Screenshot_20240711-140134.png
 
D

DisneyCane

Well-Known Member
Twirlnhurl said:
From this article in the Orlando Business Journal.

The 135,918 passengers who took Brightline to Orlando is equivalent to 22 flights per day (assuming aircraft with 200 seats).

If memory serves me correctly from when I last looked into it, this is about the same number of flights to Orlando from the three main South Florida airports. I'm sure there has been a reduction in the demand for those flights, but it was probably pretty minor. Most of these train trips were probably latent demand.

I think the success of the leg to Orlando bodes well for the demand if the service extension is ever built.
Click to expand...
More likely it is mostly people taking the train vs. driving. The people that fly south Florida to MCO are more likely out of state people who fly to different legs of their trip.

If you live in South Florida flying to MCO makes very little sense. Door to door will take longer than driving or the train.
 
HauntedPirate

HauntedPirate

Park nostalgist
Premium Member
Disone said:
Wow. Honestly that's not typical of their pricing. I did a quick search for a few days and I did find on Sunday they had a lot of $99 prices. But I had to find that.

No promo code used. But honestly I don't think you're going to find in any scenario where it's cheaper for a family of four to take this versus rent a car. Same for airlines. Rent a car is going to win on price every single time. Plus the attic convenience of having a car in Orlando cannot be understated because Orlando does not have a great transportation system.

View attachment 799472

View attachment 799471
View attachment 799470
Click to expand...
This is the current pricing for the day we get off a Disney cruise:

1720729576784.png


The only tickets less than $149/person that day are the 9:25pm and 10:20pm trains. Absolutely bonkers.
 
Rich Brownn

Rich Brownn

Well-Known Member
HauntedPirate said:
With regards to Brightline - Pricing is ridiculous. We opted to rent a car in Fort Lauderdale in September and drive to Orlando rather than book tickets on the train. It cost us less to rent the car in FLL and return it 6 days later in MCO than it would have cost for 2 tickets on the Brightline. When I was looking at train tickets 4-5 months in advance, prices were over $100/person. By the time I booked the car, tickets were up to $140-160/person.
Click to expand...
If prices go up. it's because there are less seats to sell (i.r., supply snd demand).
 
Twirlnhurl

Twirlnhurl

Well-Known Member
DisneyCane said:
More likely it is mostly people taking the train vs. driving. The people that fly south Florida to MCO are more likely out of state people who fly to different legs of their trip.

If you live in South Florida flying to MCO makes very little sense. Door to door will take longer than driving or the train.
Click to expand...
I just checked Waze. If someone was leaving downtown Miami at 5pm on Tuesday and was traveling to MCO terminal C, it would take 4:05 by car.

Many companies in Orlando have office in Miami, and business meetings that end at 5 are very common. The train goes the same distance 30 minutes faster.

If you live in South Florida, I think it depends on when you are leaving, how many are in your party, where are you going in Orlando, and whether you need to work on the way. I can totally see that math not working in Brightline favor for lots of trips. But Brightline only needs to capture some of those trips to be successful.

Brightline recently announced their quarterly revenue numbers, and they are still spending more than they are earning (mostly on interest payments). This is concerning, and future interest rates are not very likely to alleviate the issue. But they are acting as though that was expected, and considering that they are performing approximately within expectations, I think they will make it to profitablity eventually.

Orlando is growing rapidly. Miami is growing rapidly. Traffic is getting worse. And those bond payments are not going to get more expensive as inflation reduces the real value of the loans as they are repaid.
 
C

C33Mom

Well-Known Member
We just booked using the code @Tony the Tigger shared earlier this thread for our upcoming trip from Orlando to FLL for a Magic cruise. It would have been $396 without the coupon (there were a few horribly timed trains that were cheaper but most trains between 10AM and 5pm were even more) and with the code it was $198. Thanks again, Tony! 😀

We were willing to pay a little more to avoid the difficulty of driving but 3x the cost of a rental car was hard to justify.
 
HauntedPirate

HauntedPirate

Park nostalgist
Premium Member
Rich Brownn said:
If prices go up. it's because there are less seats to sell (i.r., supply snd demand).
Click to expand...
I know. But the price for the 9-10am trains has been in excess of $140/person for at least 2 months.

Disone said:
Definitely not typical but yeah they do have some high prices sometimes. What date is this?
Click to expand...

A Friday in mid-September.

We needed a car anyway for all our post-cruise activities, the train pricing just means we get it at FLL instead of MCO.
 
Robbiem

Robbiem

Well-Known Member
It always amazes me how much more expensive the train usually is no matter where you are. Even in Japan its often cheaper to fly than take the shinkansen if you have a long journey. Its the same in Europe. It is a shame because train travel is usually nice but its not worth a large premium over other modes
 
Disone

Disone

Well-Known Member
HauntedPirate said:
Good info, thanks! I'll tuck that away for future reference, since getting to certain places can be cumbersome.

We rented a car in FLL (return at MCO). Not worth the hassle for us to fly or take the train when we need a car regardless.
Click to expand...
Sign up for brightline emails. Get notifications like this 1-day sale..... $29 fares galor. Must dates San's Fridays and Sundays
Screenshot_20240724-003911.png
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom