News WDW to provide 50 acres of free land for high speed train

[mikeland]

According to the Orlando Sentinel, WDW will give the state 50 acres for a high speed rail line to enter WDW property. I assume the 50 acres will include a station for the train, which will probably connect to the rest of the resort with buses.

Disney on board: Walt Disney World backs high-speed rail, offers up to 50 acres for station -- OrlandoSentinel.com

[SummerInFL]

Re: WDW to provide 50 acres of free land for high speed train

About time!

[TTA-commuter]

Re: WDW to provide 50 acres of free land for high speed train

This is great news!

[ORD84]

Re: WDW to provide 50 acres of free land for high speed train

Hurrah! Hopefully they win the bid this will definitely alleviate some of the air traffic and bring much needed revenue and jobs to the area...

[Parisi]

Re: WDW to provide 50 acres of free land for high speed train

Thats cool!!!

I have taken the Acela express train from NYC to Boston for work and it was a nice smooth ride.

I am sure Disney will "Disney"-fy it so that if it does go from MCO to Disney, the kids will be excited the entire time....

[robbiem]

Re: WDW to provide 50 acres of free land for high speed train

Great idea - I guess its too much to ask for this to tie into a monorail expansion or light rail system for WDW but every little helps. Speaking as someone from teh UK where we've also been slow to back HSR I'm gald something like this is finally happening - I'm sure Walt would have approved as well. Maybe this could fulfill the orioinal EPCOT idea of educating people to new ideas and ways of doing things!

[flynnibus]

Re: WDW to provide 50 acres of free land for high speed train

This is great news to hear Disney granting support outside a more greedy view of the project. However I wish the government would focus on more practical rail projects that would be commuter focused, not travel/vacation focused.

[Burnt Toast]

Re: WDW to provide 50 acres of free land for high speed train

Well, that depends. The current phase 1 of the plan is supposed to go from MCO through the Orlando Convention Center, down to I-Drive, into Disney property, then down to Lakeland and Tampa. If anything, that's a huge stretch of area that is covered that will be easily used by non-tourists and locals just trying to commute to work and back.

[flynnibus]

Re: WDW to provide 50 acres of free land for high speed train

Americans still hate buses. People (especially non-city people) will not drive to a rail station, then rail, then bus, then walk, to work. Just isn't going to happen. Commuting systems are always tiered and need density to be successful. Florida really don't have the density so the other layers will be much more heavily relied on. And all anyone has to do is look at any threads here to see how much people in America love buses.

Serving MCO and Disney doesn't target commuters. It targets tourists. The line needs to serve the residential areas as well as the commercial areas to be commuter oriented.

Additionally, there is no real active discouragement of driving vs commuting.. so people aren't going to bare the burden of taking rail+bus easily. Commuting via mass transit really relies on a strong discouragement of personal car use to have mass adoption. In many places its due to extremely high cost or traffic. Florida has neither. The traffic on I-4 is a joke compared to real traffic in other cities.

[lazyboy97O]

[DisneyDude12]

Re: WDW to provide 50 acres of free land for high speed train

I always thought there should be a "rapid transit" link from the airport to WDW, I just didn't really think it would actually happen! And did it actually say they were going to link it to Tampa? Wow! It would be cool if they could like make another TTC to go along with it. But it depends where the station's going to be built. I wonder where???

[MarkTwain]

Re: WDW to provide 50 acres of free land for high speed train

I predict this will be popular, not among tourists arriving from the airport, but people going from park to park. For example, someone staying on Disney property, but wanting to spend a day at Universal. I'm sure Disney knows this, which is why I'm surprised they volunteered their land for this (I'm glad, just surprised). Isn't this a change of mind since a few years ago?

[JtnOrl]

Re: WDW to provide 50 acres of free land for high speed train

A high speed train is meant to get people from city to city, not to specific commuter destinations within a single city. That's why the area needs a separate commuter train. I would argue that this one shouldn't even be stopping at Disney. It should be limited to downtowns and airports. Otherwise it won't be very "high speed." The article doesn't even mention a stop downtown, which is proof that they're doing this all wrong.

[sir clinksalot]

Re: WDW to provide 50 acres of free land for high speed train

I disagree. One of the main reasons people go to Orlando is for Disney, and Disney is GIVING them the land.

Sure the reason is purely selfish on Disney's part (another option for people to come to Disney and arrive ON Disney property) but it really does give the option.

Of course, it's kind of sad that there will be a High Speed Rail TO Disney, but you will have to ride buses once your there.

[MickeyMaxx]

Re: WDW to provide 50 acres of free land for high speed train

Thread reopened because of the HSR initiatives recently proposed.

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

Re: WDW to provide 50 acres of free land for high speed train

Obama revs up Tampa with $1.25 billion in rail money

The rowdy town hall-style meeting at the University of Tampa looked nearly identical to one of his 2008 campaign rallies, right down to chants of "Yes, we can!" But even at his best on the trail, candidate Obama could not deliver the kind of goods President Obama did in Tampa: a $1.25 billion federal grant to start building a high-speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando.

"We are going to start building a new high-speed rail line right here in Tampa, building for the future, putting people to work," Obama told the crowd of nearly 3,000 inside a gymnasium. "I'm excited. I'm going to come back down here and ride it. Joe and I — you all have a date."

Obama revs up Tampa with $1.25 billion in rail money - St. Petersburg Times

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

Re: WDW to provide 50 acres of free land for high speed train

I disagree. One of the main reasons people go to Orlando is for Disney, and Disney is GIVING them the land.

Sure the reason is purely selfish on Disney's part (another option for people to come to Disney and arrive ON Disney property) but it really does give the option.

Of course, it's kind of sad that there will be a High Speed Rail TO Disney, but you will have to ride buses once your there.

Nothing's stopping Disney from expanding it's monorail system.

[SummerInFL]

Re: WDW to provide 50 acres of free land for high speed train

Obama revs up Tampa with $1.25 billion in rail money


Obama revs up Tampa with $1.25 billion in rail money - St. Petersburg Times

Yes! Yes! Yes!

As a person who lives in the Tampa Bay area this makes me happy. While most of you mentioned that its going to be tourist driven I COMPLETELY disagree.

Most locals will use it as a means to get to work every week. I've met SO many people who commute between Tampa and Orlando because its only an hour and change away. Having the train will open up so many options.

For me, I'm more than happy to drive to a park and ride, grab the train and take a bus to the parks, are you kidding? No more having to drive home at midnight, I can just sit back and relax and watch the swamp go by. Count me in! :thumbup:

[KevinYee]

Re: WDW to provide 50 acres of free land for high speed train

Here's a thought. What if Disney intends to cut back or eliminate its Magical Express busses? they could hand their hotel guests a card for a free train ride instead. Disney would save millions on gas.

[kcnole]

Re: WDW to provide 50 acres of free land for high speed train

While this may be beneficial for Disney, this is going to be a major problem for Floridian taxpayers. The fact is that there's not going to be enough riders to pay for this thing once Federal money runs out. Of all the things we could have used 1 billion dollars for, a train that nobody wants to ride isn't one of them.