Would it be worse than the high speed, high traffic, noisy toll road that is already there in their backyard? At least the trains would only pass every hour, rather than constant freeway noise.
For real. This is such a non-issue. Highway noise is much worse then train noise. You probably won't even notice the train going by since it's built right next to a highway. And this isn't even a freight line, the kind of trains that are slower and louder then passenger rail. Still probably wouldn't even notice it go by if it were freight.
OH! This is my mistake, I'm not an Orlando native, I completely missed that Brightline is regular rail while SunRail is light rail. Connecting the airport to the various theme parks and convention center via SunRail is a great idea.
The additional noise is an unfortunate consequence of the seemingly unchecked construction of subdivision after subdivision in the region without any regard for the cars that will come with it, leading to horrendous, all day traffic on the major roads, including to/from WDW. If they can get this corridor up and running, and extend it south to Haines City and Lakeland, there may very well be appreciable improvements in the vehicular traffic on a day to day basis.
Brightline is higher speed (which is slower than high speed) intercity passenger rail.
ah ok. thank you for the clarification.
I have had a train track run literally in back of my back yard. After a while you don’t even notice it.
Yeah, they're more than willing to support the project. They understandably want it to stop at their resort along with the other nearby resorts.
They just started a few months back with a widening project that will accommodate 4-5 lanes each way, 4 express lanes (2 each way) and access for Brightline. In addition to new and improved exits.
You have no idea. What's bothersome is that all they need to do is alleviate/adjust some of the exit ramps to avoid backups and most of the problems will be solved.
Acknowledging that these costs are always wildly optimistic, Universal almost single-handedly quadrupled the estimated cost of the project and far beyond what they will be contributing. We’ve gone from $1 billion for the FL-417 alignment vs $2 billion for the FL-528 FL HSR alignment to now $4 billion for the Sunshine Corridor.
It also needs to have remained a separate project - I’m all for sun rail linking the airport and convention center etc. - but that’s a totally different goal than Brightline wanting to link Orlando and Tampa.
I would caution you that the 417 route estimate is likely low by a similar amount. Construction cost inflation has been extremely high over the past few years. The 417 route is almost certainly still cheaper than the Sunshine Corridor, but not 1/4 the price.