SunRail: Smart, Forward-Looking Planning Continues

[Jdog]

Article provides some examples regarding SunRail's multi-faceted approach to marketing and planning -- this time at the institutional (i.e., commercial entity) level.   

_______________________________________________________________


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/os-sunrail-business-riders-20120311,0,6161540.story


SunRail already is courting Central Florida businesses for potential riders, even though the commuter train is not set to pick up its first fare until spring 2014.

Along with launching a major marketing and research push, SunRail officials are contacting employers large and small on the 61-mile corridor that eventually will link DeLand in Volusia County with downtown Orlando and Poinciana in Osceola County.

The pitch is invariably the same: What can we do to get your workers, clients and customers out of their cars and on the $1.2 billion train?

"The time is now to start developing the plan. This stuff doesn't happen overnight," said Jim Harrison, Orange County's top transportation manager.

SunRail is trying to avoid this nightmare scenario: A three-car train with seating for almost 300 slows to a stop in downtown Orlando or Winter Park with only a handful of people on board, one or two passengers getting on and a couple getting off.

That would fulfill the prophecies of critics, ranging from Gov. Rick Scott to local tea-party members, that SunRail would be a huge waste of money.

Right now, ridership is projected at 4,300 a day when SunRail opens for Phase 1: a 31-mile stretch from DeBary in Volusia to south Orange County. Harrison and most SunRail enthusiasts predict a higher number of passengers, although they will not offer a specific estimate.

"We're extremely hopeful and confident," said Harrison, chairman of a local government panel overseeing the SunRail startup.

But to get lots of passengers, SunRail will have to win over a region that has never had a commuter train. The only mass transit available is the Lynx and Votran bus services in Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Volusia counties.

Bus ridership has been rising, in part because of higher gasoline prices and a slowly improving economy. Lynx last year carried a record 28 million passengers.

Both bus companies will work with SunRail, which basically runs north and south, to ferry passengers east and west to and from their final destinations.

But where will the riders come from?

Already, SunRail has gotten promises to encourage workers to ride from some large employers, including Florida Hospital and Orlando Health, and smaller ones, such as Tupperware and the Orlando Magic.

Florida Hospital, which will have a stop on its main campus just north of downtown Orlando, may pay as much as half of the ticket price for workers who use the train. Officials also have pledged to work with stores, restaurants and cultural operations within a mile of the campus to push SunRail to customers and workers.

"We're still exploring all the ideas," said hospital spokeswoman Samantha O'Lenick.

Orlando Health is launching a multimillion-dollar expansion and renovation of its complex just south of downtown that officials think should provide lots of riders from an expanding pool of employees, patients and visitors.

The Magic are talking with SunRail about extending operating hours and making special runs for fans attending games at the downtown Amway Center. The team might offer a package in which a ticket to the game would include a seat on the train.

"We are looking forward to establishing a program for our season-ticket holders which would make it easier for them to get to and from the Amway Center on Magic game nights and on event nights â€" easing congestion onI-4, etc. This would also help in creating the economic centers around SunRail stops," said a statement from Magic Chief Executive Alex Martins.

Tupperware, with its headquarters just inside Osceola County, gets a nearby stop with the second phase of SunRail, which would open in 2016 and extend the system as far south as Poinciana and to the north to DeLand.

Tupperware, which has about 300 employees, is planning apartments, shops and offices on property surrounding the stop. Officials there are considering a bike stand to encourage workers to ride the three-quarters of a mile from the depot to the office.

"We feel good about developing our property that way," said Tupperware chief legal officer Tom Roehlk. "That way, it will definitely be an assist for SunRail."

The Cunningham Group, a marketing and public-relations company with a $2.4 million SunRail contract, also is devising a ridership plan that includes using practices of successful transit programs elsewhere and holding small focus groups with potential passengers to see what it would take to get them and others on board.

dltracy@tribune.com or 407-420-5444

[Jdog]

A Skyway extension and stop near a new (hopefully much larger) convention center...small hotel guest tax...to keep all downtown hotels connected with fixed transit to a relocated convention center (or not, maybe we all just like the Hyatt brand...)

The hundreds of thousands of visitors to the sports complex have skyway user privileges via their tickets (what a 30 cent surcharge on tickets...no calculation here, just an example)...

Whatever thoughts you have on the Skyway or transportation to a new convention center and stadium complex, I'm sure JTA has had some high-level communications with institutions just to see the possibilities. I'm not in the know on those types of things, but that would be right, right?  Thoughts?     

[thelakelander]

I wouldn't limit this to the skyway because this should be done with mass transit in general.  Cities have been doing this type of transit planning for years because it works.  Why we haven't jumped on board still perplexes me to this day.