Rumor Higher Speed Rail from MCO to Disney World

[Twirlnhurl]

Nobody should feel “bypassed” by an Orlando to Tampa route. If they want sun rail to serve I drive and universal great - that would be lovely.

If money were no object, I would agree it would be unfair to take a route that skips the convention center.

But do you really want tax payers in Volusia County to be on the hook for train service to the convention center? (Not necessarily saying they will be. But the funding structure of SunRail would need to be changed pretty significantly for Volusia County to not be a major contributor to the Sunshine Corridor.) The route that skips the convention center is very likely to cost half as much and require fewer agencies and governments to need to play ball to make happen.

If you want something to happen in government, the worst thing you could do is have more people at the table. More partners = more veto points. More veto points = greater chance of delay or failure.

 

[Batman'sParents]

If money were no object, I would agree it would be unfair to take a route that skips the convention center.

But do you really want tax payers in Volusia County to be on the hook for train service to the convention center? (Not necessarily saying they will be. But the funding structure of SunRail would need to be changed pretty significantly for Volusia County to not be a major contributor to the Sunshine Corridor.) The route that skips the convention center is very likely to cost half as much and require fewer agencies and governments to need to play ball to make happen.

If you want something to happen in government, the worst thing you could do is have more people at the table. More partners = more veto points. More veto points = greater chance of delay or failure.

The 417 route would cost less but also is chalk full of things that could slow down the project. Brightline would need to work with FDOT over using the 417 alignment and back in 2021, the HOA representing Hunters Creek had expressed opposition to the alignment.

Hunter's Creek community fighting planned Brightline route

A high-speed train could soon be yards from Hunter's Creek homes. Tracks are planned to run along State Road 417 near the Orange County community. According to an attorney representing the Hunter’s Creek Community Association and Hunter’s Creek Town Center Property Owner Association, it...

www.fox35orlando.com

 

[lazyboy97o]

The 417 route would cost less but also is chalk full of things that could slow down the project. Brightline would need to work with FDOT over using the 417 alignment and back in 2021, the HOA representing Hunters Creek had expressed opposition to the alignment.

Hunter's Creek community fighting planned Brightline route

A high-speed train could soon be yards from Hunter's Creek homes. Tracks are planned to run along State Road 417 near the Orange County community. According to an attorney representing the Hunter’s Creek Community Association and Hunter’s Creek Town Center Property Owner Association, it...

www.fox35orlando.com

Brightline was already working with FDOT and they will still have to work with FDOT along FL-528 and I-4.

The Hunters Creek residents were the epitome of nonsense NIMBYism. They live next to a highway. A modern higher speed train wasn’t going to drastically change their acoustic environment.

 

[Lilofan]

The 417 route would cost less but also is chalk full of things that could slow down the project. Brightline would need to work with FDOT over using the 417 alignment and back in 2021, the HOA representing Hunters Creek had expressed opposition to the alignment.

Hunter's Creek community fighting planned Brightline route

A high-speed train could soon be yards from Hunter's Creek homes. Tracks are planned to run along State Road 417 near the Orange County community. According to an attorney representing the Hunter’s Creek Community Association and Hunter’s Creek Town Center Property Owner Association, it...

www.fox35orlando.com

Poor planning building high speed rail next to schools where kids bike to school. The critics may think again if rail is being built next to their homes.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Poor planning building high speed rail next to schools where kids bike to school. The critics may think again if rail is being built next to their homes.

The rail line wasn’t going to go through the playground. No kids are riding their bikes along a limited access highway and would have been nowhere near the tracks.

 

[Lilofan]

The rail line wasn’t going to go through the playground. No kids are riding their bikes along a limited access highway and would have been nowhere near the tracks.

Watch the video if you haven’t from the post of Batman parents. That high speed rail is basically in spitting distance to the backyards of Hunters Creek homes. I would be fully onboard with the lawyers if that was in my neighborhood.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Watch the video if you haven’t from the post of Batman parents. That high speed rail is basically in spitting distance to the backyards of Hunters Creek homes. I would be fully onboard with the lawyers if that was in my neighborhood.

It was in the highway right-of-way. There was no material change to the existing conditions. A highway is more dangerous and plenty loud.

 

[DisneyCane]

It was in the highway right-of-way. There was no material change to the existing conditions. A highway is more dangerous and plenty loud.

Aren't there noise walls in place? I think they got installed with the widening project.

If you don't want traffic noise then don't buy a house next to a highway. Planes fly over my house at about 3,000 feet all day every day. I knew the house I bought was going to have air traffic above it and I accepted it. I'm not complaining to the FAA after the fact to reroute air traffic because I don't like hearing planes pass overhead.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Aren't there noise walls in place? I think they got installed with the widening project.

If you don't want traffic noise then don't buy a house next to a highway. Planes fly over my house at about 3,000 feet all day every day. I knew the house I bought was going to have air traffic above it and I accepted it. I'm not complaining to the FAA after the fact to reroute air traffic because I don't like hearing planes pass overhead.

I can’t imagine CFX or FDOT wouldn’t have required new ones either.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Crossing the highway to get to kindergarten just got a lot more dangerous!!

 

[Lilofan]

Crossing the highway to get to kindergarten just got a lot more dangerous!!

How one moved the goalposts and others fell for it hook line and sinker.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Poor planning building high speed rail next to schools where kids bike to school.

How one moved the goalposts and others fell for it hook line and sinker.

You didn’t say kids would have been riding near the tracks to school?

 

[Disone]

I honestly wonder if it was universal funding the "not so bright" campaign to get Brightline to move from the 417 route to the route that goes to the Orange county convention center.

This campaign / video portrayed the Brightline traveling at grade level past schools. And like painting a crosswalk crossing the travel Lanes of 417 toll road this was not accurate portrayal of what the project is. It may have even been purposeful misinformation.

 

[Twirlnhurl]

Also, my elementary school was literally adjacent to a live railroad track with a grade crossing next to the school driveway (the railroad predated the school by about 50 years). So even if that was the case here, it literally wouldn't matter. I had actually forgotten that was the case until reading the last few posts, it was such a non-issue.

As stated elsewhere, the Central Florida Greeneway has six lanes of traffic, including motorcycles and cars with modified exhaust to be extra noisy. The Brightline trains are substantially quieter than the expressway noise.

But it is all moot, since most likely no passenger train will make it west of the existing SunRail tracks. And if passenger trains do go west of SunRail, it will be passing by the residential areas on the south side of 528 in Williamsburg, causing the exact same (non) impacts to an identical residential area to Hunters Creek, but several miles north.

 

[lazyboy97o]

The lawyers are going to fight this for the homeowners , rightly so. Some must armchair quarterback with no sympathy.

Fight what? Sympathy for what? The FL-417 route is not happening right now. The highway right of way already exists and the highway already exists. The actual experience of the neighborhood wasn’t going to change.

 

[Lilofan]

Fight what? Sympathy for what? The FL-417 route is not happening right now. The highway right of way already exists and the highway already exists. The actual experience of the neighborhood wasn’t going to change.

I hope the residents and lawyers fight this . I know I would if a rail was literally at the edge of my back yard.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

The lawyers are going to fight this for the homeowners , rightly so. Some must armchair quarterback with no sympathy.

Have you looked at the right of way? It’s all next to a major highway and within the right of way of the highway.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I hope the residents and lawyers fight this . I know I would if a rail was literally at the edge of my back yard.

Fight what? Where do you think the train is going?

Could you give specific issues that make a train different than a limited access highway?

 

[JoeCamel]

Fight what? Where do you think the train is going?

Could you give specific issues that make a train different than a limited access highway?

Trains run less frequently than non stop vehicle traffic?

 

[flyerjab]

I hope that this happens. Walt loved trains. Transportation always seemed to go along with Disney. WDW has a monorail and a Skyliner. That would be great if they announced a new station at Disney Springs. I never expect to hear them announce new monorails. But to have a train stop at DS would be fantastic. Heck, some of the backstory is DS had to do with trains. This needs to happen.