transit

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs say infrastructure spending is near the top of what's being spent in the U.S. as the region expands its commuter rail line, adds to Interstate 4, makes its airport bigger and builds a high-speed rail line to connect the city's airport with Miami. Infrastructure is the platform for attracting more businesses to the region, incubating startups and creating a high quality of life for its' citizens.

The Great Recession has fundamentally changed the trajectory of both real estate and transportation in the United States. For the past century, our nation's economy revolved around the production of vehicles, highways, sprawl, and more vehicles. Transportation policy emphasized a supply-side approach of building highways to increase the speed and mobility of our nation's vehicular-based mobility system.

Before Sunrail officially opens May 1, you can catch a ride for free April 15-25 on its 32 miles of track. Where exactly can you ride it to? The stops include Debary, Sanford, Lake Mary, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Florida Hospital Health Village, Lynx Central, Church Street, Orlando Health/Amtrak, Sand Lake Road

Before Sunrail officially opens May 1, you can catch a ride for free April 15-25 on its 32 miles of track. Where exactly can you ride it to? The stops include Debary, Sanford, Lake Mary, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Florida Hospital Health Village, Lynx Central, Church Street, Orlando Health/Amtrak, Sand Lake Road

The City of Orlando notified the two companies who bid to set up and manage a bike share program in the city that CycleHop (Website), who recently purchased Orlando based SunCycles, ranked the highest. The City will now work to establish a contract with CycleHop and get final City Council approval. CycleHop’s proposal included a setup where users will pay a monthly, weekly or daily membership fee to rent the bikes. Members would then get one hour of free bike rental each day. After that they would pay a small fee.

ideally opening at about the same time as SunRail. Set to accept fares in May 2014, SunRail will run from DeBary in Volusia County through downtown Winter Park and Orlando to south Orange County. The $1.2 billion train should provide potential riders, Wilson said, because many will be looking for a way to get to their final destination. Wilson, who studies pedestrian and cycling patterns, said people typically are willing to walk no more than a half-mile.

Lynx has won $3.5 million in federal grants to come up with the software and a plan to put the buses on the road by November 2013. The idea is to have the system running before the SunRail commuter train starts operations in 2014.

"You want it to be [working] pretty seamlessly before SunRail," Brock said.

FlexBus could help SunRail riders get to their final destination, as well as target "choice riders," or people who have access to cars but might be persuaded to ride a bus or train.

taking an existing rail spur that runs from Orange Avenue and Weatherbee Road east to just south of the airport, and converting it to commuter rail.

The line comes off the SunRail track between its planned Sand Lake Road and Meadow Woods stations, and would require a new track to lead into the planned $1 billion South Terminal at the airport.

Central Florida is a step closer to getting its proposed northwest rail system — the 36-mile, $55 million Orange Blossom Express.

the route, which would run from Eustis to downtown Orlando and tie into Central Florida’s $1.3 billion, 61-mile SunRail commuter rail.

Maglev as a Central Florida transit option first was talked about in the early 1980s as an airport-to-Disney route. The subject disappeared and then resurfaced several times throughout the years, with companies proposing privately funded projects priced from $500 million to $600 million.