Maitland City Talk

SunRail is scheduled to begin service in May 2014. It is because of the hard work and dedication of Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs in conjunction with many diverse Central Florida groups having teamed up and worked together that has made this regional transportation system possible for all of our citizens. We are all grateful for their tireless efforts and are anticipating its opening with great excitement.

The success of SunRail is closely tied to the ridership feeder systems that are in place when it opens. Obviously, if you can’t get the ridership to and from the SunRail stations, it will not be successful and this failure will greatly harm the region. With that simple fact in mind, and wanting to do our part to make transit a success in Central Florida, the cities of Altamonte Springs, Casselberry, Longwood and Maitland joined together across two counties to help implement a phase-one demonstration of a transit system called FlexBus. This unique test project teams the cities, Federal Transit Authority (FTA), the state, and LYNX in a project to provide real world experience for innovative transit technologies. Additionally, the cities of Eatonville, Lake Mary and Winter Park have also expressed their interest in joining us. If this system is successful, we believe it will be a foundation for expansion throughout the SunRail corridor and help assure the future success of commuter rail and our individual local economies in Central Florida without continued reliance solely on the automobile.

From the start, critical to the development and success of FlexBus, is the partnership that we have formed with LYNX. As Central Florida’s regional bus transportation authority, they have the expertise and the responsibility to move transit passengers through their bus system. Their role is important in making this passenger travel experience a seamless one for SunRail and the business community. They alone have the primary eligibility to receive federal funding and manage an operating system. Our four cities do not. It is because of this partnership that the four cities had the confidence to move forward and agree to fund 50 percent of the $1.56 million cost of the demonstration bus service as requested by LYNX in November 2012.

Until recently, when we received letters from David Healey on March 18, 2013 and John Lewis on April 3, 2013, the four cities had no idea that LYNX had reevaluated its position and changed its commitment to us. The reasons they gave for changing their position are unfounded. First, you cannot have Title VI concerns until the project has been finalized, the service parameters have been established, and months of operational results of the system have been analyzed. As for their concern about limited connectivity between residential and retail land uses with a concentration on work-based trips, this has always been the goal of FlexBus from day one; emphasizing employment ridership. Likewise the availability of this service to anyone was never in question, nor was the cashless quality or technology of the system to be based solely on cell phones.

It is very disconcerting that here at the critical stage of the implementation of FlexBus, these letters from the staff at LYNX display such an obvious lack of understanding of this project, its goals, and the methods necessary to achieve those goals. It seemingly has shifted solely to us to implement the demonstration system. The real damage is much greater than to the four cities, but to the whole commuter rail system in Central Florida. Without LYNX’s expertise, oversight and future funding capability, the prospect of getting the ridership of SunRail to and from the stations timely and economically is in real jeopardy and therefore puts the success of SunRail in real jeopardy.

The four cities urge LYNX to renew their commitment to Central Florida by quickly releasing the RFP for equipment and service costs for the system, applying for the state grant already funded through FDOT, and rededicating themselves to oversee the FlexBus project as they committed to the four cities more than a year ago.