WDW To MCO Rail

[TP2000]

You have to factor in all the people using mass transit, not just driving in cars. DC has an awesome subway system. LA has great highways and a mass transit system that gets better by the day. Orlando has I-4.:lol:

Orange County, California (home to Disneyland) is even better than LA, with far better freeways and a very thorough bus and commuter rail network throughout the county. OC has about 3.5 Million people who consider themselves as being seperate from Los Angeles and the issues they have up there. Disney has a great working relationship with the local OCTA transit agency, and it could serve as a model for a relationship WDW may need to forge with a regional transit entity in Orlando.

I know the thread was started about local commuter rail options, but with all the news this week about high speed rail coming to California with Anaheim as the big terminus, I keep thinking what options might be available for WDW and Florida there. A high speed system linking Tampa/Orlando/Miami would seem to be a good fit for both residents and tourists. Has there been any work towards that?

The high speed rail coming to SoCal, and specifically Anaheim's new ARTIC station a few blocks east of Disneyland, should prove to be interesting regarding whether or not it significantly drives business and tourism to Disney resort properties like Disneyland or WDW. An interesting article with maps of the coming rail lines for Anaheim was in this weeks OC Register. http://www.ocregister.com/articles/anaheim-rail-speed-2309861-high-billion

 

[cloudboy]

But the issue again isn't moving people directly from the airport to Disney.

Traffic issues are not significantly a result of tourist traffic. 192 is a bit of an exception to this, but the major cause of traffic congestion in the Orlando Area is the movement of commuters - people who work outside of the attractions area. Orlando is a very decentralized city, and people live in one spot and travel across the city to their jobs. It is not a nice easy linear system. It is rare that I-4 south of Sand Lake ever really gets congested, and even when that happens, unless it is due to a major accident, it is usually just really, really bad congestion from further north working its way down. So moving people form the airport to Disney will do little to really alleviate that traffic. Now, finding a way to get tourists out of their cars along I-Drive, that is a different issue. And the city has done something about that - the I Drive trolley and bus system.

A additional issue - again the city doesn't benefit from people entering the airport then leaving for Disney. they benefit when people come from the airport and stay on I-Drive above the airport, or visit Universal. Those revenues from Lake Buena Vista, 192, and Disney contribute Orange County, Kissimmee, and Osceola County, NOT the city. So why would they want to spend all that money to allow their biggest source of revenue to completely bypass them?