That's still a very early stop in the evening. Adding at least some late evening services (doesn't need to be hourly) might help cater for the party crowd and could be achieved without additional equipment. Especially if you consider there are people who would like to have a drink or two but can't because they need to drive.
Brightline has their "Buzzer Beater" service in Miami. It's not on the schedule however there is a train that leaves from Miami going north 30 minutes after Miami Heat home games. Maybe they could test a southbound train to Miami that leaves Orlando at 11:30pm. If the theme parks close at 10pm, it would give riders time to grab a bite to eat and get to the airport.
I think that is a good idea. That would work as long as they are able to service the consist in time for handling the 8:30 departure from Miami, or they are able to cycle some other consist into service while keeping the last incoming at home for the day. Each consist could potentially require a few hours of care and feeding each night to stay in good order.
"On weekdays, Brightline is planning hourly departures: southbound from 5:00 a.m. until 8:50 p.m., with the first train arriving at Miami at 8:30, and northbound from 6:50 a.m. until 9:45 p.m., with the first train arriving at Orlando Airport at 9:15 a.m. The weekend schedule would be the same, except the first train will leave Miami at 5:45 a.m. and arrive at Orlando Airport station at 10:15. "
For the same fare, unlikely. For half the fare, quite likely for a very significant group of people who are not floating on money. And if you are going to resort areas around Kissimmee, actually getting dropped off at Kissimmee may be a plus.
This particular city pair is probably going to take a hit, but (as @jis said) it's going to depend on the fares and so on. Brightline will generally be the more convenient option, but it is likely to (generally) be the more expensive option as well. However, at least for the moment Amtrak also implicitly interfaces with both SunRail and Tri-Rail (indeed, once the Tri-Rail downtown service starts you could get to MiamiCentral with a transfer), and I believe that parking at Tri-Rail stations tends to be cheaper as well. So there's still going to be a market on the Amtrak side of things.
Rental Cars are a definite plus at the airport. There are shuttle services that will pick up from Amtrak Orlando. I have seen people use it to the resorts, and I have used myself to the airport.
If the Amtrak expansion happens, then you might get better shuttle support at KIS/ORL as well (particularly depending on train count).
Maybe. But I might just choose Amtrak, because their trains are more comfortable…
Where does that line go? (I recall reading about it at some point in the past but am blanking on the details.
Schedule is another factor. Brightline is going to be running hourly service. That's an absolute no-brainer decision for me. You have so much more flexibility, especially if your plans change, or there is a service disruption.
Where does which line go?
Why would anyone need a fourth track to run maybe 1-2tph more? Wherever they extend Sunrail service to, there will need to be a low level boarding platform tracks or two. All that is already part of the plan for the Sunshine Corridor through Orlando, and the potential extension of Sunrail service east of OIA. There will be no station between Industrial Way and Cocoa should service be extended that way since hardly anyone lives between those two places along SR528. Being able to run a Commuter Service at 125mph is really no big deal, specially 10+ years from now. Capable equipment as we know is already available in many forms.
(1) Where is Industrial Way? I looked at a map and couldn't find it.
My mistake. Look for Innovation Way and International Corporate Park Blvd. The Eastern end of the East - West Corridor is supposed to be in that area.
They will need two main line tracks, but not four. There will be station loop(s) at the East end station any any en route station, possibly between Narcoussee Rd and SR417, somewhere there. It is possible that there will just be single loop between the two main tracks. That will be more than sufficient to handle 8-12 or so tph in each direction with 4 of them being local trains (SunRail) without doing any high density signaling gymnastics as done on the NEC to ram through 26 tph in each direction. That also is at lower speed of 90mph IIRC on the High Line between Newark (well actually CP Swift) and New York.
Ah...so, my only thought on "needing four tracks" was physically at the station at Orlando. And that was presuming some desire to either physically separate Brightline from Sunrail or to keep services mostly on a given track (since Miami probably mainly needs five tracks because it's a stub-end).
The OIA station for SunRail will be a single low level platform two track separate new setup east of the Brightline Station. There is space set aside for that.
