By Harlow A. Hyde, the Snoopy Septuagenarian, DeLand 

 The wait is over … it’s showtime! For the past month, we’ve endured press releases, advertising, online publicity and other types of propaganda touting the beginning of SunRail service from the new DeLand Station. We’ve heard speeches, seen politicians and DOT officials shamelessly mug for the cameras and gotten badges, stickers, and free bottles of water for our trouble.  

But today it was finally time to put up or shut up. At 5:15 a.m. SunRail in DeLand began service to Orlando and points south. I took the train this morning to see for myself if the service was half as good as promised by the hoopla and hype. I write this from the viewpoint of a grouchy 77-year-old, who is skeptical of ad campaigns and anything produced by a public relations department. 

My “real life” goal today was to determine if it was convenient, or even feasible, for seniors like myself to use SunRail to get to and from Orlando International Airport (MCO). I’ll cut to the chase and simply say that SunRail and the Lynx bus system earned an A+ grade from this old cuss! So here are the details: 

I purchased an old fashioned “paper ticket” from the vending machine. The machine was easy to use, and the round-trip ticket cost only $3.75. This, by the way, was the most expensive option. A variety of discounts are offered by purchasing fares in advance via the “app” or using their reloadable SunCard. Considering what everything costs these days, SunRail fares are amazingly cheap. In fact, SunRail tickets are virtually free.  

SunRail has no fewer than nine morning departure times from DeLand from 5:15 to 11:15 a.m. I chose to take the 7:40 a.m. train. It left the DeLand Station at 7:40. My destination was the Sand Lake Road Station, which is the 12th stop on the 16-stop route. The schedule said the train would arrive at Sand Lake at 9:01. It arrived at 9:01. 

SunRail’s seats are very comfortable and have lots of legroom. Some seats were configured with worktables, and there are plenty of plug-ins for our ubiquitous electronic devices. However, in most of the cars, there are no overhead storage racks and there is only a little room for luggage or packages. 

If you have more than one “carry on” type item, you should take the “Cab Car,” which is the car farthest from the train’s engine. The Cab Car has ample room for large suitcases and even has a rack for bicycles. In addition, it is the only car with a restroom. 

The scenery along the SunRail route was, (in my opinion), nice — varied and interesting. The ride was smooth, quiet and relaxing. The car did rock a little going around curves. All in all, the experience was infinitely better than the typical “white knuckle” slog by car to Orlando’s MCO, using either I-4 or the 417 Expressway. 

From the Sand Lake Road Station, I was told that I should find and take “LYNX Bus Number 311,” which is a recently established nonstop “express route” to the Orlando Airport. The path from SunRail over to the LYNX station was clearly marked and was only about 100 feet.  With my paper SunRail ticket, I was given a free transfer to use the bus, so this part of my trip to MCO cost nothing. LYNX Bus 311 left Sand Lake at 9:21 a.m. and I arrived at MCO at 9:33, 12 minutes later. The dropoff point for the LYNX buses is at Terminal A, North Entrance, Lower Level. LYNX uses parking spaces A38 to A41.

For my trip, I imagined that I was a passenger who needed to catch a JetBlue flight leaving from Orlando Airport’s new Terminal C. Terminal C is about a mile south of the older Terminals A and B. A flight departing from either Terminal A or B would be considerably easier. To get from the LYNX bus dropoff at Terminal A, Level 1, to the Terminal C airline passenger check-in area is a bit of a journey; it was really the most challenging part of my day. 

First, I needed to get up to Level 3. Elevators and escalators are nearby the bus drop-off. Next, I had to walk completely through the main terminal building to get the free rail service to Terminal C. This trek seemed to be about 300 yards. If there are any of the conveyer-belt-type people movers to help transit Terminal A and B, I did not find them! Once you arrive at the rail station in Terminal B, the trains over to Terminal C run about every 10 minutes. 

At the Terminal C rail drop-off, I still had quite a long walk ahead of me to get to JetBlue’s passenger check-in counter. This included a counterintuitive trek through the southern part of the new open-air parking garage. It was extremely hot and sticky. The path through the garage was clearly marked with color-coded lines, but I still wondered what genius came up with this configuration. Nevertheless, it was no problem. I arrived at JetBlue’s passenger counter at 9:55 a.m. The 2-hour, 15-minute elapsed time from when I departed DeLand’s SunRail station seemed to have gone quickly, and the cost was only $3.75! 

My return trip to DeLand was simply retracing the above steps. I did pay $1 for my bus ticket back to the SunRail station. Even this segment might have been free had I known how to request a return transfer. But I didn’t want to bother with this detail. 

One minor inconvenience was that the late-morning SunRail train does not leave the Sand Lake Road station until 11:13 a.m. Bus 311 arrived at Sand Lake Road at 10:30 so I had a 45-minute wait. Happily the Sand Lake Road station has two restaurants: McDonald’s and Denny’s! So I grabbed a quick bite to eat and waited for my train in air-conditioned comfort. The train to DeLand was scheduled to arrive at 12:30. It arrived at 12:31. The icing on the cake is that passengers arriving in DeLand are greeted by a new Votran shuttle bus that will take you to four drop-off lots in Downtown DeLand for free if you show your SunRail ticket!

The whole process, coordinating SunRail with LYNX, seemed well-thought-out. I must give credit to the politicians, bureaucrats, and everyone else involved. In my book, you’ve hit a grand slam home run! 

My one caveat is that you will need to be able to handle your luggage. At age 77, I can still cope with suitcases, but others might need help. Neither SunRail, LYNX, nor the airport seem to have assistance readily available for those who cannot lug suitcases. Help might have been available, but I didn’t see it. So be aware of this factor, and plan accordingly.  

Analysis and Commentary: 

SunRail is a wonderful addition to travel options available to DeLand and West Volusia. It is almost unheard of for a small city in the United States to have a frequent, modern and inexpensive rail service to a large metropolitan area 50 miles away. 

Of course, there are still those who will gripe about the up-front expenditures necessary to bring it to fruition. But I think we should remember that the Erie Canal, completed in 1825, transformed the economy of New York state. And it was labeled “Clinton’s Ditch” during its planning and construction. The canal’s high revenues allowed its bonds to be paid off many years early. Furthermore, the purchase of Alaska in 1867, for 2 cents an acre from Russia, was ridiculed as “Seward’s Folly” by the small-minded naysayers of the day. Visionary ideas always cause the hand-wringers and fault-finders to ooze out of the woodwork. But now that SunRail is a reality, we can simply choose to ignore them! 

Still, SunRail could prove to be a spectacular failure. It’s up to us. To prevent SunRail from being a dud, people will have to get out of their comfort zones. We will have to break our decades-long addiction to driving up and down Interstate 4 and take the train instead. Take SunRail to save money! Do it because it’s easy, fun and safe! Take the train to help save the environment! Just do it! I guarantee that if you’ll try it, you’ll like it! 

Nevertheless, some changes will have to be made, as soon as possible after the control of SunRail passes from the FDOT to the counties on Jan. 1, 2025. Only the current management of SunRail would be dumb enough to design a system that runs 19 daily trains on weekdays to and from DeLand and DeBary to Orlando but not even one on Saturday or Sunday! 

Granted, money is always limited. Therefore, a thorough analysis of ridership for each train is critical. I predict that about 14 daily trains instead of 19 would carry 95 percent of the traffic on weekdays. If so, four to six of the weekday trains could be canceled. Weekend service could be offered with the money saved. Plus, for weekend junkets, higher fares should be charged. 

The point is, if the counties aren’t willing to respond, and respond quickly to the needs of the public, SunRail could become an embarrassing white elephant. Flexibility, imagination, and even some risk-taking will be necessary. 

American railroad music has a long and honored history. Like me, most seniors will fondly remember the lyrics to the lively folk song “I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad, All the Live Long Day …” And of course Willie Nelson’s sad and poignant “City of New Orleans” reminds us of passenger railroads’ slow decline. One of the cutest tunes of all time has to be Glenn Miller’s “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” released in 1941. And most baby boomers could sing along with The Monkees’ ballad “Last Train to Clarksville.” Finally, Duke Ellington’s version of Billy Strayhorn’s “Take the ‘A’ Train,” with its brilliant melody, is well-known to jazz lovers. 

But ask yourself, will a song ever be written about SunRail?  Right now it’s a toss up — the flip of a coin. If it lands on heads, its title could be lively and upbeat, “Sweet Sweet, Sunrail: Sunny Florida’s Success!” But if it comes up tails, the song’s title will be a funeral dirge, “SunRail: the Biggest Boondoggle Since the Great Wall of China!” As of now the coin is in the air, slowly turning. Will it be heads or tails? Frankly, we must accept ownership of the outcome. So like I said, we’d better use SunRail — or we may end up losing it!