SunRail

The Florida Department of Transportation will begin testing an additional round-trip train for late-night service.

The test will begin Monday, December 22. The train will depart the DeBary station heading southbound at 9:05 p.m. and will arrive at the Sand Lake Road Station at 10:08 p.m. It will then leave the Sand Lake Road Station Northbound at 10:20 p.m. and arrive back at the DeBary station at 11:23 p.m.

According to a written statement, FDOT anticipates that the additional train will help for downtown events including those at the new Dr Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

FDOT will be paying for the fuel to operate the additional train and the contract operator will pay for extending the crew schedules.

No end date is set for the test, but an FDOT spokesperson tells Bungalower they will continuously evaluate the test.

Here’s the complete release:

The Florida Department of Transportation announced today that it will operate an additional round-trip train to test customer demand for enhanced SunRail service. The additional daily train will be added to the current SunRail schedule starting on Monday, December 22, 2014, departing the DeBary station and heading Southbound at 9:05 p.m.; arriving at the Sand Lake Road Station at 10:08 p.m. The additional train will then head Northbound, departing the Sand Lake Road station at 10:20 p.m. and arriving at the DeBary station at 11:23 p.m. For a full schedule of SunRail station stops, please visit the www.SunRail.com website.

The Department anticipates that this additional train will help satisfy customer demand for additional service later in the evening for events at the Amway Center, the new Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, and additional evening activities along the Central Florida Rail Corridor – particularly during the holiday season. As is currently the case with SunRail operations, the additional train will not operate on weekends or most federal holidays, including Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

To promote the additional SunRail service, the Department also plans to launch a “Be Merry and Ride!” marketing campaign that will include digital billboard messages along the Interstate 4 corridor, radio advertisements, social media promotions and co-branding opportunities with venues and community partners.

The Department will pay for fuel needed to operate the additional train, and the SunRail contract operator, Bombardier Transportation, will extend existing crew schedules at no cost to facilitate the expanded test schedule. Once instituted, the enhanced SunRail service will be closely monitored by the Department to assess ridership trends, as well as the feasibility of introducing permanent late-evening service.

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  1. Would be better if they tested it even later… or even maybe the weekends… but this is a step in the right direction.

  2. Still not running late enough for downtown events (Magic games, Dr. Phillips Center events, concerts, etc.).

  3. This is a positive step, but not late enough for people getting out of a performance at Dr Phillips or most Magic games

  4. My only concern is that most of the big performances at the performing arts center will not get out until about eleven. It appears that the train will have left downtown by that point and thus not allow those individuals to use the service.
    Otherwise, this can only be viewed as a positive step in my book.

  5. That train is messed up. It went through robinson this morning AFTER the bars went up! People almost got hit by it!

  6. Sweet! Tasha Forde this will help with Day after Christmas, so sad I won’t be able to partake with you