Polk County may be a future target for SunRail expansion, among other growth projects for the commuter rail system.
U.S. Rep. Darren Soto (D-Florida) mentioned the county as a potential area for the growth of the system during a June 2 Orlando Economic Partnership event. Other targets for future investment would be the addition of weekend service and connectivity through a location like the Meadow Woods SunRail station with intercity rail system Brightline, which is more than halfway completed on a 170-mile expansion from West Palm Beach to Orlando International Airport.
The talk comes as the investment into the system could draw development in areas where there is a station.
“If you look at a place like Washington, D.C., you can see clusters of development from the plane when you fly in. That’s where the Metro stations are. That investment came over a period of 20 to 30 years,” Soto said.
Soto said there are already some places where development like new apartments and houses are going up near SunRail stations — such as the stop near Tupperware Brands Corp.’s (NYSE: TUP) headquarters — and federal infrastructure dollars may play a role in making those projects a reality. A timetable to pursue those projects was not revealed.
Soto previously said in 2019 that the goal would be to expand the service as far as Lakeland, including cities like Davenport and Haines City along the way.
FDOT has not yet made official plans to expand the system to Polk County yet, but the organization said through a spokeswoman that building a strong transit network would be key for the region to have a successful transportation system. “Other FDOT projects like SunRail, which serves as an alternate form of transportation along the I-4 corridor, and Wekiva Parkway, which will complete the beltway around Orlando, will have positive impacts on the region’s transportation system and indirect effects on I-4 through congestion relief. With that said, the department will continue planning with our partners to strategically meet anticipated needs as Central Florida is expected to continue to grow,” FDOT told OBJ.
Increasing connectivity has become a bigger deal in counties neighboring metro Orlando such as Polk, Volusia and Brevard, as migration has increased to those locations in the past 18 months, Orlando Economic Partnership President and CEO Tim Giuliani said. By 2030, the seven-county Central Florida region is projected to have 5.2 million people — 800,000 more than in 2018, according to the partnership’s Alliance for Regional Transportation report.
Improving those connections would give more people access to jobs they may not be able to reach otherwise, along with avoiding congestion, Giuliani said.
The work also comes as FDOT nears completion on the tolled lanes portion of the $2.4 billion I-4 Ultimate project, which FDOT District 5 Secretary Jared Perdue said is expected to wrap up construction by the end of this year. The next step related to that would be the I-4 Beyond the Ultimate project, which includes two 20-mile segments of road reconstruction to the north and south of the I-4 Ultimate work, which is primarily in Orange and Seminole counties.
Already, SunRail is working to complete the full 61-mile corridor it originally proposed with a 11.5-mile northern expansion to DeLand in Volusia County. Current timelines would have the $44 million project start construction by roughly January 2022 and finish by December 2023.
Brightline also is exploring a shared corridor with the commuter rail system to Orlando International Airport as part of its own study of a proposed Tampa expansion.