Well first reports are always incorrect. Just saw aerial view. Train was approaching Longwood station and a dual tire truck puling a trailer did not clear the road just south of the station. Only trailer completely demolished truck appeared OK. Guess it was good train slowing for station ?
Understand penalties for these incidents are stiff ?
Few more corrections.
Snow plow pilot appears to have only scrapes after accident. Loco # 103
Trailer not demolished only spun around as train slowing and then in emergency approaching station.
other items
Late train complainers do not realizes that motorists snagging grade crossing are causing delays
SunRail has “another train coming” warning signs at many pedestrian crossings. Carl will appreciate.
For those interested Orlando newspaper has several articles. Warning this web site is one of the slowest encountered in a long time. So surfing thru the articles takes time. This link is directly to article but going to home page then digging thru local news takes time.
Found out the slowness of the site when I attempted to view the ‘video’ of the 1st days operation.
.Had several business locations to visit yesterday. On one leg detoured by a SunRail station. Got stopped at crossing for train. Bicycle rider came up to gate and walked around gate with bike and mounted up. Next thing he knew was a blue light special behind him. Gets off with the universal gesture " what is the problem officer ? "
Watched the futile argument as ticket written out. Fines are steep here. Maybe the work will get out ?
BTW there were at least 3 different police cars at that location so he had to see at least one.
Media report today that 2 - 4 gates a day are striking autos, Pulling too far up ?
I think that SunRail probably has more grade crossings per mile than any other system that has observed ?
SunRail averaged 11,200+ during free ride time. Now the real ridership test begins Monday.
Monday’s paid ridership 4100 close to the projected 4300. however a source tells me that the ticket machines are not working well and he thinks that many rode free ? Did not see any fare checking. Does it seem that it is a problem whenever any agency institutes a new fare system ? Guess each agency has vendor that invents the wheel all over ?
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/sunrail/os-sunrail-day-one-riders-20140520,0,5804077.story
This is not so much a new fare system as a new service. The learning curve is going to be pretty steep at this point since all facets of this operation are new, not just the fares.
A new driver stalled a stick shift auto in front of a north bound train with predictable results. This occurred on the only single track section just south of Maitland station. No reported damage to loco. This is close to where pickup trailer was hit last week. Train was 3 cars which is puzzling when free rides were 2 car trains. Several friends in Orlando predict that these accidents will become a frequent occurrence. Just too many auto grade crossings. Still having many problems with fare system.
Link but remember it is slow and loaded with 30 second ad.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/sunrail/os-sunrail-crash-video-20140522,0,5076294.storyew
A better link
CATS had a lot of trouble with the fare machines during the first couple of months. They responded by only issuing warnings to people with no ticket and putting them off at the next stop.
Ridership is running about 4100 / day. Very interesting various station numbers. A surprise is the northern most station DeBarry is carrying many more passengers than the Sanford station. Sanford station has about 4 times the parking that DeBarry has.
The Winter Park station has the most boarding as it has a lot of persons traveling both north and south for business in and out.
Sanford being outdrawn by DeBarry is surprising, but an even bigger shock is the fact that the Orlando Amtrak station ranks dead last. My guess is that it brought up the rear because residents still think of the Sligh Boulevard location as “the tourist station” and continue to stay away from it. If the FDOT and the winner of this year’s gubernatorial race eventually implement a statewide intercity system, Church Street, Sand Lake Road, or LYNX Central could be used as “the local Orlando station.”
My contacts say the same thing. Even more troubling is Florida hospital is 2nd last. Amtrak & Florida hospital are the 2 stations that adjoin the 2 major hospitals in Orlando. It may be that these two stops have not implemented their pick up system to include these two SunRail stops to pick up employees and patients ?
We always avoided the main Orlando station for Amtrak the seven years I lived there, mostly becasue of congestion downtown. I had a friend who would go from Orlando to Miami on Amtrak on weekends and I would drop her off in Winter Park even though it was about the same distance (from the UCF area) as the downtown station, and even though it meant a longer ride through town on the train and a long stop at the main station. That may be what is going on now.
SunRail hits SUV in downtown Orlando. Apparently delays northbound Meteor ~ 4 hours. This accident happened just south of Orlando Amtrak station.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/sunrail/os-sunrail-crash-orlando-20140627,0,4424409.story
We are long past the time when we should have started gradually eliminating grade level crossings. People are not smart enough to be allowed to cross the tracks.
Phoebe – Sun Rail probably has more grade crossings per mile in downtown Orlando than any other heavy rail location in the country. This accident was one of those crossings.
Well there is another car hit last Friday. The link below shows several videos one which shows many car drivers stopping on tracks. enjoy idiots. Note link is still very slow.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/sunrail/?track=orl-sub-nav-local-sunrail
Had Orlando as a part of my territory a couple of decades ago - Every week or so a train would run over a body laying across the tracks, that didn’t move on the approach and warnings of the train. Always figured we were being used as a body drop that would destroy or at least mangle most of the evidence of a gangland hit.
A review. SunRail thru Fl DOT bought ~ 57 miles of the CSX “A” line. The present service is ~ 31 miles. The whole 57 miles are dispatched by a contractor for SunRail. For a couple weeks the northbound Meteor # 98 often is taking 1 - 2 hours more than schedule on Sunrail’s tracks. Even on weekends when no SunRail service. Contacts have not been able to determine why; anyone ?. Note delays are even on rebuilt downtown areas where no MOW should be occurring ?