SunRail to Polk County

[HeartofFlorida]

A Lakeland extension isn't a terrible idea but they should really work on increasing frequency, expanding operating hours (literally no weekend service), and redeveloping their park-and-ride lots. That would do way more to increase ridership than a Lakeland extension would assuming they continue to run just 20 trains daily M-F.

I agree.  Based on current commuting patterns between Orlando Metro and Polk County (even though Polk is now part of the Orlando-Lakeland-Deltona CSA), I believe the gains would be minimal when compared to the expansion costs and maintenance.

[thelakelander]

I agree as well. Even the expansion to DeLand is a very questionable expense to me. That's not going to generate a fraction of the ridership growth that increased headways and denser development around existing stations would accomplish. Unfortunately, many of these decisions are made from a political perspective, even when logic doesn't support those actions.

[jaxjaguar]

Once the Airport connection is complete the expansions mentioned above will make a lot more sense for commuters / travelers, because there are a lot of big projects in the works along the Sunrail line. The train will be running 7 days a week with connections to Brightline / MCO, Downtown Orlando (2 new entertainment venues are currently underway for Dr Philips Center and Amway Center), 2 new expansions underway at Advent and Orlando Health, the new Universal Park will be opened with a new connection from the airport to the convention center, etc.

The cheaper land on the outskirts of town will start to build up density around the stations and become more attractive to high density developers. I've already seen this happening around the 4 downtown stations (I'm including advent and Orlando Health), by Debary Station and at Kissimee station. The more connections that are added (especially the airport) the more traffic all of these stops will see. I expect Kissimee to become a budget friendly "Winter Park" stop for tourists soon. They've got some pretty big construction going on by the station right now.