Sunrail Commuter Rail System

[jzquince69]

great post, Tampasteve.

Do we know what the locomotive will look like for Sunrail yet? VRE, MARC, or Metrolink, or other?


Yeah, CRT and Heavy Rail: two totally different types of trains; ATL, DC, and Miami all have heavy rail electric trains. Now, in Chicago and ATL, you can get on the train (MARTA and The EL) at the terminal and take it into town. I've done it with MARTA. It's awesome. Hopefully Sunrail will be that easy to use so you can get to downtown from OIA from that intermodal facility.

[tampasteve]

The article just says the locomotive will be from Motive Power, but it does not say which model. But with that information alone we can assume it will look like Metrolink and Northstar locomotives. MARC (Washington DC) uses some locomotives from MP too, but I am not sure how many and most pics I can find show the older EMD locomotives.

The Northstar trainsets (and Railrunner, etc.) should look very similar to Sunrail trains as they use MP locomotives and Bombardier Bi-level coaches, all of which are new rather than old re-purposed (Nashville, Salt Lake City).


Steve

[ukiyo]

What is CRT mean? Why won't sunrail be like Atlanta/Miami's? "heavy rail"?

[jzquince69]

Originally Posted by NihonKitty

What is CRT mean? Why won't sunrail be like Atlanta/Miami's? "heavy rail"?

"Commuter Rail"= CRT

Atlanta and Miami have electric heavy rail systems; elevated and underground on dedicated tracks. They have frequest stops like the NYC Subway and Chicago El Train; every 5 minutes or 10 minutes- whichever it is.

CRT uses existing freight lines and is meant to operate frequently during peak hours (commuting rush hour times) and less frequently during off-peak times.

Miami built Metrorail first, then added TriRail CRT a few years later to link with it. CRT is meant to link outlying suburbs and service commuters mainly. Orlando tried to start with the Lynx proposal LRT in the Late '90's but it was shot down and the money went to Charlotte for their system. That was going to go from Altamonte to Universal via downtown along the I-4 easement more or less.

The opportunity arose a few years ago to start with a CRT system instead using the existing CSX freight tracks after their proposal to shift operations off the track (see old comments regarding the drama in '09 and '08 regarding the Senate voting).

Lots of people who only casually followed this stuff don't really know the difference between CRT and LRT and heavy rail and who has what and how each works and what technologies each uses. Hope this cleared it up.

In essence, Orlando is starting things off with a "TriRail" or "METRA" line of their own first, and then (as luck would have it), the second technology is going to be HSR (high speed rail) which will service the airport to Disney corridor and service the convention center too. After that, proposals will be submitted for new CRT corridors (up 441 I'm sure) and LRT corridors (SLR from Lake Nona to I-Drive or the like)

Sunrail will differ from TriRail for the reasons Skydivejunkie has stated in his prior posts. To me, it will be a hybrid system with heavy rail b/c it will service so many traditional centrally located business centers and downtowns-- it can't fail; it shouldn't fail I should say;

That's all I know for now...

[ukiyo]

Thanks for the explanation! So how often will sunrail trains run?

[SkyDiveJunkee]

^SunRail.com is a comprehensive website that has a lot of this information. The schedule will vary between peak and non-peak hours (half hour intervals to hour intervals I believe depending on the time of day).

I think it's safe to say that we will never see heavy rail in Central Florida. I do like the idea of continuing to expand the commuter rail system (up 441, out to Winter Garden/Clermont, East to the University area, and perhaps Southwest to the Four Corners area). Let's also get streetcars downtown and around it, and get the light rail system to connect downtown with the attractions area.

[tampasteve]

Originally Posted by SkyDiveJunkee

I think it's safe to say that we will never see heavy rail in Central Florida.

I would expand that to say that I believe it is safe to say we will not see any new heavy rail metro service built for many years. With better LR technology it has made heavy rail metro service almost redundant in many areas that might have built it. Examples include Dallas, Seattle, and Houston, all of which are planning LR and making great LR expansions but non of which are building heavy rail metro systems. Dallas is a great example of a high capacity LR system.That is not to say that systems will not be expanded though.

Steve

[ukiyo]

I hope Orlando will build a light rail too it would have been better if sunrail was electric not diesel.

[jzquince69]

they are planning an LRT along the Sand Lake Corridor, which is also being pitched by that Maglev company. But, since Sunrail announced a station at OIA via the Taft spur, not sure if they'll be able to justify the Maglev proposal (which originally was meant to link OIA to the Sunrail Sand Lake Station- primarily, en route to I-Drive) unless the private company proposing it fronts most of the costs like they said so all the County has to do is provide easement for it.

[SkyDiveJunkee]

SunRail chugs along:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...,5305082.story

[immillizy_854]

Why do they have to call it a "bullet train"? That's so oriental and un-American.

[Bobdreamz]

^ what? last time I checked the word "bullet" is a word in english! The term is to describe a train that travels fast like a bullet. How is that un-American?

[Hia-leah JDM]

Because it was originally coined to describe the Japanese trains. But I disagree that it's un-american or too asian to describe the fast speed trains in Florida.

[TampaMike]

Isn't there a difference between bullet and high speed rail anyways? I thought bullet was way faster than any high speed rail train?

[xerxesjc28]

Half hour intervals train? Why so long, it would be like an average bus wait time in Miami.

From what I understand Bullet train is what I think Japanese call their HSR trains. High speed trains are the generic term for these fast trains (over 120 or was it 150 mph).

I probably am wrong on some of that .

Basically, what I am trying to say is that different countries call their High Speed Trains by different name. The Japanese call it bullet, the French and Germans something else.

[SkyDiveJunkee]

Half hour intervals is not a long wait for commuter rail -- in fact that is actually quite good. It's slightly less than NYC commuter times during peak hours, and about on par with Boston commuter train wait times.

[xerxesjc28]

I guess I was comparing it to the MetroRail we have here in Miami, it seem like it would actually be more like the Tri-Rail instead.

[kevinkagy]

Tri-Rail runs every 20 minutes during peak then every 30 then every hour during weekdays. On weekends, it's every 2 hours.

Miami's Metrorail runs every 7-8 minutes during rush hour and every 15 minutes there after on weekdays.

[tampasteve]

Originally Posted by xerxesjc28

I guess I was comparing it to the MetroRail we have here in Miami, it seem like it would actually be more like the Tri-Rail instead.

It is absolutely more like Tri-Rail in every way. SunRail is commuter rail like Tri-Rail, rather than heavy rail metro like MetroRail.

30 Min intervals are pretty good for commuter rail, and they could always increase them if demand is there, but 30 min is pretty good.

Steve

[jzquince69]

this Falconer candidate to replace Crotty won't get elected talking that anti-rail talk. geez... the enemy within...


Tri-Rail has great operating time intervals, thanks to the double-tracking initiative from a few years back. They're attacking that issue right off the bat with Sunrail.