Orland-Tampa train proposal includes a stop at Walt Disney World

Not sure how I feel about this, particularly the spur from MCO to WDW.

There are multiple door to door transportation options to and from MCO and you always have the free Magical Express.

Not sure what the value proposition would be with having to work around a train schedule, getting to and from the stations, having to purchase tickets, etc.

For me, it's worth the $30 bucks and just Uber'ing it, or if I am feeling cheap, just take the ME.

This is a no brainer and should have been done 40 years ago. The value proposition is: avoid the roads, traffic and nonsense by taking a smooth, fast, roomy and convenient train ride. The same reasons people love riding the monorail - it's easy and fun. I'll always choose smart, modern train travel (examples throughout Europe ad Asia) over a car or shuttle. Always. From the little I have read about Brightline, it seems like they understand the details make the difference.

Obviously they've done market studies, but I wonder who is traveling that corridor and why. That's an odd thing to say, because I had to do it about every two to four weeks at a previous job, as my employer and some clients were in Tampa even though I worked remotely from Orlando. I was one of those people, and I-4 is terrible almost all day between the two cities. I love BGT but hate driving there for the same reason.

I don't see how all these stops constitute "High Speed Rail."

I would like to ride on a train at 110 MPH though.

But I also paid to drive across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel system just to turn around and come right back, so I'm kind of a dork like that.

We did that in Mackinac this summer. Paid to cross the bridge, were yupers for about ten minutes, then paid to come back. I like stuff like that too, though, so it was awesome.

There’s been years worth of talk here in Ohio about intra/interstate rail service, and I think it could be a great idea. However, I would feel most confident knowing that there was something for me to do and a way to get there once I arrived. Public transportation in most of our cities is abysmal, and some of our city centers are up and coming at best. So depending on one’s destination, a car might be necessary anyway. As far as Florida goes, it might be the same way unless Disney was your ultimate destination. I dunno.

I, too, drove hours out of my way just to see the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Back then I wasn't sure it was worth the $ but I'm glad I did it. I've been to Italy twice now and both times I took advantage of their trains. I just can't help but think we are so backwards here for not developing rail more around the country.

Lid my visit to JapN taught me one thing it’s that it’s a shame that we don’t have high speed rail EVERYWHERE I. This county. The patriotic out there say we’re the best.

No. No we aren’t. If for no other reason than we don’t have the amazing transportation infrastructure that Japan has.

At least part of the reason for that is Japan is about 1/25 the size in land area as the US. Its about the size of California. About 1/3 of the population though. Transportation logistics are much different.

Size and land area has absolutely nothing to do with it. Clean, modern and fast rail lines run all across Europe and Asia. The challenge is the American culture and attitude. We can put a man on the moon but we can't run some train lines across farm land to connect our great cities? One of the many reasons I encourage all Americans to travel abroad is to enlighten them against the, "yeah, but it won't work HERE" mindset. Of course it can work here.

American exceptionalism is like a disease, and it's made worse by the political climate. We apply it industry, culture, healthcare, education, infrastructure... everything. Worse, we hold no one accountable. Tell me, at your job, will you last long if your response to problems is, "I can't?" Rejecting solutions without better solutions, or at least iterative solutions, is self-inflicted failure.

You people never heard of airplanes?

What is that even supposed to mean?

Jeff - I agree exceptionalism is part of the problem. The other one is this stark unwillingness to change the status quo in a country where "disrupt" and "innovate" are practically baked into the ethos. Everyone balks at the cost for transit infrastructure (evil subsidized travel) but doesn't bat an eye at these hugely expensive and inefficient highway projects that subsidize private car ownership. If America wants to think itself the best, I'm all for it. We just need to put the work in because the developed world is leaving us in the dust.

Tommy - Thanks for making my point about the lack of imagination. Airplanes are great for some forms of travel. Less so for others. Have you ever flown from Chicago to St. Louis? Or Dallas to Houston? Or...Tampa to Orlando? It's a huge pain. Hopping on a comfortable, roomy train that runs on time and gets you from downtown to downtown efficiently is a vastly better experience. And there's no magic to it; it's just a different approach. In all sincerity Tommy, I would encourage you to visit Europe (via airplane!) - anywhere in Europe, really - and experience what you have been missing out on. See what the naysayers are saying America can't have. I would love to hear your thoughts after that.

My first European experience was this past summer and yeah, the rail system is far superior to any US city system I've been on. Barcelona's Metro was pretty amazing where some of the trains are fully automated, on time (complete with countdowns to the next arrival), and at some points many stories underground. Couldn't imagine the massive undertaking to build the network without disturbing the buildings at street level, but they did.

Some friends of mine were able to take a train from Paris to Berlin and then to Barcelona as well. That's probably we see posts from our friends across the pond who land in San Francisco and expect to take a side trip to Chicago (don't forget to stop at Knoebels!) and fly out of Orlando.

It's worth saying also that a train will be considerably faster than a plane for short distances – such as Tampa to Orlando.

The Maglev that runs from Shanghai Airport to downtown has a top speed of 267mph – allowing it to cover a nineteen mile journey in a shade over seven minutes. I would expect Orlando to Tampa on a similar system to take less than thirty minutes.

Jetsetter said:

Everyone balks at the cost for transit infrastructure (evil subsidized travel) but doesn't bat an eye at these hugely expensive and inefficient highway projects that subsidize private car ownership.

To say nothing of billion-dollar sports stadiums where a football team plays 8 games per year.

I've heard some of them play 9 or 10 games a year at home, not that Lions fans would know.

I would settle for a decent option for Detroit to Chicago. You can pretty much drive there in a shorter time than taking a train, and that is a direct route.

We looked into a train ride for a trip to Atlanta last summer. If we left home Tuesday morning we'd arrive on Thursday. We could shave off 10+ hours by driving to Toledo, skipping the ride to Chicago and back.

GoBucks89 said:
At least part of the reason for that is Japan is about 1/25 the size in land area as the US. Its about the size of California. About 1/3 of the population though. Transportation logistics are much different.

But that doesn’t excuse why we don’t have infrastructure to support the population here. It could and should be proportionate. But it isn’t.

There is absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t have a propritionaltely comparable high speed rail infrastructure that supports population centers.

And Tokyo is much larger than NYC, is a billion times better, and the infrastructure (and cleanliness!) there makes NYC look like a third rate city.

Edit: two weeks spent in Japan, I traveled A couple thousand of miles, mostly by train. A couple hundred by bus. And we had to take a cab from the station to our hotel once. That was
The only time I was in a car for two weeks.

And never had any problems getting around and getting around quickly.

Charlotte has extended their light rail and I live it. I wish it came a little further north and went to the airport (and Carowinds!). It’d be great.

Richard Bannister said:

The Maglev that runs from Shanghai Airport to downtown has a top speed of 267mph – allowing it to cover a nineteen mile journey in a shade over seven minutes. I would expect Orlando to Tampa on a similar system to take less than thirty minutes.

Holy crap, that thing is amazing. When we passed the train going the other way (relative velocity of ~500 mph) it whooshed by in nearly a blink of an eye. I know it's super expensive, but building something like that between San Jose and San Francisco or Dallas and Fort Worth or Minneapolis and St. Paul would be incredible.

But even "normal" high speed rail seems like a no brainer. We took a train from ChangSha to GuangZhou (418 mi.) in 4 hours. That's about the distance from Boston to DC which is a 7+ hours drive before traffic and it's further than SF to LA. And you can arrive 5 minutes before your train departs and hop right on without all the security and baggage check-in nonsense of an airport.