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Ditto. Thanks for posting the link. I did not know about soft opening.
 
Ditto. Thanks for posting the link. I did not know about soft opening.
I've also heard a rumor that it's going to be running for the Winter Park Art Festival in March.
I read that in the Sentinel and it was confirmed by the representative when I purchased my pass. I will try to ride it then. According to google, the art festival is March 21-23. I have a class that weekend, so I will try to ride on Friday.
 
The opening of SunRail on May 1, 2014, and the free riders to try it out before, will probably sound very exciting to many. As far as I can see, an actual schedule of the service has not been published yet. Or has it? March 21-23 is only a month away. Or will SunRail operate on a different schedule during the soft openings? Wouldn't really make sense, would it?
 
Ditto. Thanks for posting the link. I did not know about soft opening.
I've also heard a rumor that it's going to be running for the Winter Park Art Festival in March.
I read that in the Sentinel and it was confirmed by the representative when I purchased my pass. I will try to ride it then. According to google, the art festival is March 21-23. I have a class that weekend, so I will try to ride on Friday.
Glad to hear it!! I'll be working that Friday or I'd try to meet up with you!
 
Ditto. Thanks for posting the link. I did not know about soft opening.
I've also heard a rumor that it's going to be running for the Winter Park Art Festival in March.
I read that in the Sentinel and it was confirmed by the representative when I purchased my pass. I will try to ride it then. According to google, the art festival is March 21-23. I have a class that weekend, so I will try to ride on Friday.
Glad to hear it!! I'll be working that Friday or I'd try to meet up with you!
I was really hoping to ride Friday to the WPSAF (actually just ride until they kick me off...Ive seen the Art Festival...give me SunRail!), but most articles say they will only run Saturday and Sunday ... :huh:

Testing is going full blast. They ran 8 full length trips today! Yesterday they even brought the FDOT DMU out of the barn! :eek:
 
Ditto. Thanks for posting the link. I did not know about soft opening.
I've also heard a rumor that it's going to be running for the Winter Park Art Festival in March.
I read that in the Sentinel and it was confirmed by the representative when I purchased my pass. I will try to ride it then. According to google, the art festival is March 21-23. I have a class that weekend, so I will try to ride on Friday.
Glad to hear it!! I'll be working that Friday or I'd try to meet up with you!
I was really hoping to ride Friday to the WPSAF (actually just ride until they kick me off...Ive seen the Art Festival...give me SunRail!), but most articles say they will only run Saturday and Sunday ... :huh:
If they are not running on Friday, I may have to change my weekend schedule and ride either Saturday or Sunday morning. I am with you.... I would rather ride SunRail than see the art festival. Maybe this will turn into a "mini gathering." :lol:
 
Or will SunRail operate on a different schedule during the soft openings? Wouldn't really make sense, would it?
Gives them a chance to test the schedule. They can put out one schedule for the soft opening -- if it works, they stick with it, if it doesn't work, they change it before the "real" opening!
 
Or will SunRail operate on a different schedule during the soft openings? Wouldn't really make sense, would it?
Gives them a chance to test the schedule. They can put out one schedule for the soft opening -- if it works, they stick with it, if it doesn't work, they change it before the "real" opening!
Yeah, guess that doesn't seem impossible: Soft opening as a schedule test.

(Just checked the SunRail website again - still there are no schedules posted... :) )
 
Or will SunRail operate on a different schedule during the soft openings? Wouldn't really make sense, would it?
Gives them a chance to test the schedule. They can put out one schedule for the soft opening -- if it works, they stick with it, if it doesn't work, they change it before the "real" opening!
Yeah, guess that doesn't seem impossible: Soft opening as a schedule test.

(Just checked the SunRail website again - still there are no schedules posted... :) )
That is what a "soft opening" is supposed to be. That was done with the Taiwan HSR. There were two weekends. The first was limited to employees and immediate families. We were supposed to go to the ticket windows and get tickets and in generally do what the paying passengers were going to do except hand over money. Just show or employee ID instead. The first weekend showed a lot of issues, mostly related to the operating employees developing the habits and moves necessary. There were few transfers from the existing Taiwan Railway as it appeared unlikely to to lose significant business to the HSR (It didn't.), so most of the people behind the counters and on the trains were new to moves required. The trains themselves did OK, as there had been quite a bit of running empty or with a limited number of riders. The next round was open to family and friends and for that the reservation system was given a tryout. They got some fairly full trains this way, and again some very interesting events with the system having its first real operation. This number of days operated this way was extended if I recall correctly. Doing this made for a lot fewer glitches upon the real opening than they would have had otherwise.
 
April 15th-25t will be perfect for me to check out how Lynx will do when it comes to connecting with Sunrail. All the schedule changes for Lynx by the way go into effect on April 13th.

http://www.golynx.com/news-events/news_detail.stml?portalProcess_dd_0_1_1=showPublicPosting&calendar_entry_id=1770
Thanks. I am fortunate that, weather permitting, I live walking distance from the Lynx Central Station and will have easy access to SunRail. On another note, I am concerned that I have not received my pass in the mail yet. Friends of mine have already received theirs.
 
Thank you for posting this.

April 15th-25t will be perfect for me to check out how Lynx will do when it comes to connecting with Sunrail. All the schedule changes for Lynx by the way go into effect on April 13th.

http://www.golynx.com/news-events/news_detail.stml?portalProcess_dd_0_1_1=showPublicPosting&calendar_entry_id=1770
This isn't about SunRail itself, just about the Lynx bus changes that seem to come along with it: Bus line 41 will be split! Can one still ride the new bus lines 436S or 436N as a one-seat ride, say, from the airport to Altamonte Springs? Or does one have to physically change buses, or is there too long of a pause inbetween the 436S and 436N service at Fern Park for it to be practical? There is no updated system map graphically showing all the new or altered routes, is there?

BTW, still no schedule (even no test run schedule) posted yet on the SunRail website... ;)
 
Thank you for posting this.

April 15th-25t will be perfect for me to check out how Lynx will do when it comes to connecting with Sunrail. All the schedule changes for Lynx by the way go into effect on April 13th.

http://www.golynx.com/news-events/news_detail.stml?portalProcess_dd_0_1_1=showPublicPosting&calendar_entry_id=1770
This isn't about SunRail itself, just about the Lynx bus changes that seem to come along with it: Bus line 41 will be split! Can one still ride the new bus lines 436S or 436N as a one-seat ride, say, from the airport to Altamonte Springs? Or does one have to physically change buses, or is there too long of a pause inbetween the 436S and 436N service at Fern Park for it to be practical? There is no updated system map graphically showing all the new or altered routes, is there?

BTW, still no schedule (even no test run schedule) posted yet on the SunRail website... ;)
Well depends on where exactly in Altamonte Springs. They're going to split the route at Fernwood Boulevard and Oxford Road, not at the Sunrail station as originally planned. The picture below gives everyone an idea of where the 41 will be split.

6877547071_9a3d72abef_o.jpg


Unless the 436S and 436N is interlinked, like the 102 is with the 103 (and vice versa), you're going to have to change buses at Fernwood and Oxford. Now all of these changes are subjected to change. As for the updated map, all of those service changes go into effect April 13th, so nothing has been updated yet. As for Sunrail not uploading a schedule yet, it's still early before the train starts up.
 
Thanks for posting the Lynx link! I hadn't really explored Lynx but am happy to see that it goes by the building where I work.

Looking forward to the SunRail schedule being out one of these days.

I saw the train crossing Kaley this morning and up in Sanford yesterday morning…..I'm soooooo ready to kiss I-4 goodbye!
 
Thanks for posting the Lynx link! I hadn't really explored Lynx but am happy to see that it goes by the building where I work.

Looking forward to the SunRail schedule being out one of these days.

I saw the train crossing Kaley this morning and up in Sanford yesterday morning…..I'm soooooo ready to kiss I-4 goodbye!
No problem. Votran in Volusia County I believe may have service changes to service the Sunrail stations there, though I'm not sure.
 
IMO, they need earlier northbound trains in the afternoon. There should be at least a 3:15 pm departure. That 2.5 hours is way too long of a break when everybody is going north during the evening rush hour.
 
I hope they do improve the schedule to make this more attractive for everyone, especially for tourists and so forth.
 
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Once again with this paragraph going off-topic about the Lynx bus changes with SunRail starting:

Unless the 436S and 436N is interlinked, like the 102 is with the 103 (and vice versa), you're going to have to change buses at Fernwood and Oxford. Now all of these changes are subjected to change. As for the updated map, all of those service changes go into effect April 13th, so nothing has been updated yet. As for Sunrail not uploading a schedule yet, it's still early before the train starts up.
Yes, I have changed buses at that stop, going into Sanford etc, while also just riding by it a lot on the 41 - and it was confusing how it was just called the Jai Alai stop, while having no clue what that was referring to until I found out. Now that complex just seems to have changed its name to "Orlando Live Events". :) And it might seem to some at least that it would be great if like the former 41 the new lines were interlinked, otherwise it would be an extra transfer for everyone who wanted to take public transportation down that part of 436 - unless there are some big benefits coming from separating those lines which are not so obvious. Still, f.e. with SunRail leaving only every 2 and a half hours during midday at least for starters, probably a lot of people at least sometimes will still have to take the bus, even when traveling a route similar to that of the train.
 
The schedules have been posted!

http://www.sunrail.com/documents/sunrail_train_schedule.pdf

These are also subjected to change, just like the Lynx schedules.
Thank you for writing this notification, that a schedule is posted now.

SunRail starting will bring so many new public transportations options to the Central Florida area - it's so good to finally see a concrete schedule. F.e. for people who work in Winter Park, actually not far from the station, coming from south of downtown near Sand Lake, and who used to be on the bus for 2 hours (each way) with two transfers, being able to take SunRail from Sand Lake to Winter Park in 22 minutes is going to be a huge difference. And not even thinking of all the people on I-4 commuting towards downtown. For many, it might be really exciting to see how ridership develops, probably one will see a ramp-up period and numbers slowly increasing, still it appears like it'll only be two bi-level cars with a maximum capacity of 300 every 30 minutes during rush hour, so of course it won't show the ridership numbers of the New York City subway, or even The Tide in Norfolk, but still, it might be interesting if thanks to word of mouth slowly more and more people who actually work close to of the stations will realize, SunRail actually can be better and less stressful than those traffic jams on I-4 each morning. Of course it is also a possibility that a lot of people won't be willing to put up with less-frequent headways, or the fact that SunRail possibly won't drive them right into their office parking lot, and rather continue to drive, still at least for some this will be interesting to see.

Questions about the schedule: Anybody have any guess to why the Southbound leaves at 5.45 instead of at 6.00? Seems like at least there would be no Amtrak trains interfering at that time. Or does a coal train to the power plant come through every morning at that hour? What is your opinion on the evening service? Might it be a drawback for many f.e. in downtown, in case having to work late and traveling southbound, that once the 6.44pm departure left, one has to wait for 2 hours for the 8.44pm departure?

It might seem like it for some that it would be great in case at least one late-evening train was added. Southbound, last depature from Lynx Central Station is 8.44pm, shouldn't be too difficult to add another run 2 hours later, leaving from downtown at 10.44pm (though of course it won't be as heavily used as the rush-hour ones, still there might be quite some downtown visitors also in the evening). And northbound, in case SunRail needs to be off of the corridor by midnight, looking at the trip times it should be enough in case it left Lynx central station at 11.15pm, then it would arrive at midnight in DeBary.

Seeing the schedule, and hearing the talk or reading the newspaper reports about a possible airport expansion, to many it might seem obvious that in case that airport expansion actually gets built, the schedule needs to be different. No airport traveler will want to wait - during the light of day, not talking about middle of the night here ;) - for 2 and a half hours for a departure to downtown, then they'll rather take 11 or 51. And obviously also those connections to Florida East Coast Industries' service will not be good with a 2 and a half hour wait, so many might think that service would need to be more frequent as well then.
 
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