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Comcast NBC Universal has been pushing for it for probably more then a decade now, very quietly and carefully.

I think the answer is put Brightline in charge, let them build what they want, where they want it. Brightline said this route wasn't feasible, it was too expensive, and was ready to go on another route. Our local leadership (combined with lobbying efforts from Universal) said NO, we will tell Brightline what to build and how to build it, and Brightline has moved its resources elsewhere. This is no surprise.

Yeah its definitely hard to come up with a reason why doing more then requiring clear, concise labeling for it is necessary.

Obviously many is a subjective word, but here's some backup to the statement: - If you follow the Brightline reddit or YouTube video reviews, for example, it is overwhelmed by people who are trying to use it locally, and with Brightline consistently raising its peak pricing for local travel as a result of all trains being at capacity, it is extremely common to see reddit posts to the nature of "Your going to force me to go back to Tri-Rail, please don't, this is unfair that you are raising the price on us by this much" (although the trains keep selling out, and they have not been able to obtain more as of yet, so they have little choice) - Brightline has modified its ticketing system to reserve many seats for Orlando to Miami, and has been holding back seats, to the dismay of many trying to use it locally - Actually, since I made my last post, and before your post, Brightline is dropping the commuter passes causes a lot of complaints on Reddit right now, they want are doing a massive price hike because so many people are using it instead of Tri-Rail. They say they are working with Tri-Rail to setup an Express train to get the time more comparable at least. https://www.gobrightline.com/train-tickets/passes?utm_source=AJO&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Train+Passes+Update+4.29.24&correlationId=c812fef7-7fa8-482f-b7c2-1563c08af632-0 I didn't mean anything as negative towards Tri-Rail. I used to live in South Florida, and I rode Tri-Rail a lot, and loved the service and I'm not discounting anything of what Tri-Rail is, but its obvious if you have the disposable income, Brightline is a waayyy nicer service. I mean, just look at the stations, the trains, every single detail. There is plenty of room for both to coexist (and expand) as demonstrated by Brightline continuing to hike prices and still fill the trains up (and they're optimistic too, they've ordered 30 more train cars, and they're not for any Orlando expansion, and the first 10 are supposed to arrive in a few months) I'm not saying Tri-Rail shouldn't exist. They have more stops, they are cheaper so a different market segment can use them, and Brightline just doesn't have the capacity for the demand. If Brightline and Tri-Rail both continue to expand, it will encourage more transfers and make it easier to ride the system without having to transfer to a car. I do think it will be great if Tri-Rail approves the proposed partnership with Brightline to expand the service further with the Northeast Corridor (and wtf is with that name Tri-Rail, its not in the Northeast of your region, let alone the proposed rail line (coastal link) and that name is already used by those referring to the busiest passenger rail system in America) I think that is a very apt comparison, and whats all I was trying to say. For those who can afford it with more disposable income, they want to be on Delta or Alaska airlines, nobody wants to really be on Spirit or Frontier if it wasn't a matter of price. That doesn't mean I think Spirit or Frontier shouldn't exist. Like seriously:

I think its fairly obvious that the limited parking depicted on that map isn't going to support much of anything, they would have to put multiple garages in... They also have split the parcel into 2 pieces recently, which is either likely done because one part will be residential, the other part will be commercial/hotel, or perhaps to phase the development. They might try to keep the event center (at least for the moment), so my guess is there thought is to build residential in the blue area, and a hotel north of it.

OMG, I didn't think of that, that would be so absurd.

In South Florida, many are taking Brightline over Tri-Rail, or at least try to. The service is just sooo much nicer, even if its cheaper. Why would anyone stay at a nice hotel when there is a cheap one that still has beds? Why buy a Tesla or BMW when you can buy a Nissan Sentra?

The Unicorp owned Wyndham on the corner of I-Drive/Sand Lake is closing for redevelopment into a more modern hotel tower along with some residential and maybe more retail. Hopefully they complete their master plan and also redevelop the shopping center in between this and Icon Park, this will really change this corridor even more if they do. https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2024/05/01/wyndham-orlando-resort-redevelopment-epic-universe.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search

You make it sound like it ever made economic sense. Remember, the city already gave massive subsidies here.... first, they subsidized the rent the entire time they were building the new arena, then after subsidizing the rent for years, they kicked everyone out and knocked down what was a reasonable looking city block with street level retail and parking above, rebuilt the facilities such as the police department elsewhere for many millions that probably didn't need it. And then they sold it to the Magic at a subsidized price. If they just did nothing, it would have still looked like a perfectly reasonable city block instead of a blighted empty lot. Its not like there was trash here before they got involved, it was reasonable... yeah, it wasn't great, but it wasn't anything anyone would really call awful. Edit to add a street view link of this area a decade ago: https://www.google.com/maps/@28.5401728,-81.3832778,3a,90y,287.03h,86.59t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sn-9CCzuTyvhvso_JMoxRDA!2e0!5s20140301T000000!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu

The plans have it as double track. Considering its only planned to be used by Brightline, they might have minimal signals and switches perhaps? I also imagine the equipment can be post mounted in the air if need be, and that some areas will have some extra room

I-4 Beyond the Ultimate South is being designed to transport all stormwater off to the sides of the highway with underground stormwater facilities, without any need for swales. and such, with retention ponds along the sides of the highway, at exit ramps, etc. The entire median will have jersey barriers to protect vehicle from entering into the rail ROW. Also, since this new corridor is supposed to be used exclusively for trains with no freight, they can have the tracks slightly closer together. I'm sure Brightline would be speaking up if they did not have adequate space.

They are literally building the express lanes in the Disney area starting construction in the next year or so, it was literally funded BY DeSantis. Prior to DeSantis overhauling the plan and prioritizing I-4, the Beyond the Ultimate improvements were expected to take 30+ years to be completed. Now many of the improvements are being pushed up by decades over what was planned before DeSantis was in office, in the Disney area. The area immediately south/west of Disney wasn't slated to get any improvements for a long time, but now, starting construction late this year or early next year, the project has been extended by 10 miles of giving 4 express lanes. He is literally doing exactly what you want. He also has spent zero of our tax dollars on any signs for the CFOD. I checked, the number is ZERO. Yup, and don't forget OBX. Mica got funding to get some improvements done, and we were expecting OBX to start construction within a year when he got voted out. Now we've literally got nothing, directly because the complain about everything, do nothing democrats took over.

That did get funded, but original plans called for a double decker which has been deemed necessary to get 4 express lanes in that area and there isn't enough money for that... that has been put on hold in favor of temporarily adding 2 express lanes. The 4 express lanes were funded in Osceola County. If Disney paid their fair share of impact fees, its likely the full project would have been funded, but they seem to have escaped that.

You seem to be entirely unaware of what the lawsuit was about. First off, it was suing the State of Florida, so as a resident, yes, it includes us, and second of all, DeSantis was never willing to put any of us with the bill. All bills have always been assigned to the district in which Disney is the primary taxpayer. Disney, while they pay to maintain their infrastructure, has avoided paying the taxes on said payments that everyone else, including me, Universal, and SeaWorld, all have to pay on services that are done for ourselves. In fact, with the investigation done so far, Disney is also now negotiating with the IRS about not paying taxes in relation to RCID that they were covering up. DeSantis has always offered Disney huge benefits to get them to move stuff here... he offered benefits and was courting the relocation to Lake Nona, prior to Disney going and attacking the State of Florida. DeSantis was a huge Disney fan, he even got married there. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see further news about Lake Nona, as Disney has multiple issues in relation to that project that are unsolved, they are legally unable to just sit on that land without building what is promised, they have a use it or lose it provision and tax benefits tied to it they already agreed to, and rumors are the Disney settlement involves them massively increasing spending in Florida.

There also appears to be some very good news regarding Disney! It appears their battle against Florida is coming to an end, with them giving up entirely on the fight against DeSantis, and it appears that the settlement negotiations involve requiring Disney to do massive investments into their Florida properties that were not otherwise planned. It likely will take a bit of time for it to be sorted out, but Disney is now negotiating with the state about what they are going to be building here instead of trying to sue us.

I still think SeaWorld's decline has little to do with the animal activists and Blackfish, and everything to do with Busch selling them to private equity, and subsequently removing free stuff and customer service without lowering the price. SeaWorld then double downed by downgrading all the animal exhibits as well. SeaWorld would be wise to embrace the animals again, no one with that mentality is ever going to SeaWorld anyways, and listening to those people in just bad business. I'd really like to see some stuff other then coasters. I do have to admit on Howl-O-Scream at SeaWorld, I thought the shows were literally BETTER then HHN. They did a stunning job on their first few years bringing the event to Orlando. The haunted houses also seemed to be close to competing with HHN, but they seemed quite a bit understaffed (and an employee confirmed that to me that there were supposed to be many more "Scare-actors" working that night, but I got the impression that was a recurring issue. Unless they're changed it, the master plan is to eventually relocate the parking to the Aquatica area, its unlikely they put money into a parking garage on that side of the street. This first hotel is replacing the team member parking surface lots, so thats likely the first thing to move.

Even after the bridge is fixed, it will still have a much slower speed limit then the rest of the route due to the curvature, it just won't be 25mph and single-tracked slow.

It appears the number one factor in these decisions was number of seconds it adds to the travel time. Both stations are located where the train needs to slow down anyways due to curves.

They have 30 more passenger cars on order to make the trains longer that should be delivered prior to new stations opening. This will make each train 3 cars longer, from 4 to 7 cars. As it is, Bightline is reserving seats in South Florida to keep capacity for those travelling the Orlando route. Tickets within the South Florida section are often listed as sold out to keep room for anyone going from Miami-Orlando. Remember, prior to the Orlando section launch, Brightline took some of the Orlando passenger cars and put them on the South Florida line to make them 5 passenger cars long, and they were just about filling them up in that section. Most trains are not full on the Orlando-WPB section, so its likely the 3 new passenger cars on each train are likely mostly intended to serve the demand for local traffic, that Brightline at this point is actively rejecting. Also, for those going on cruises, most Disney cruises do leave out of Port Canaveral, and I foresee plenty of people still leaving out of there even if originating from South Florida. Its previously been proposed to extend Sunrail on the north side to Daytona. If that were to come to fruition, I image then travelling back south along the FEC to Cocoa/Melbourne/Palm Bay from Daytona likely would make more sense. There are a ton of airport shuttles from MCO to the Villages. It doesn't seem like a leap for those in the Villages going on a cruise to utilize said airport shuttle, and then Brightline to Port Canaveral to entirely avoid driving for the old folks. The other thing that will likely hasten the double tracking is the proposed "First Coast Rail", a commuter rail service along FEC from Jacksonville to St Augustine. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/43572ee892264d9aa1df6dc1c72e6a24

It all depends on the date, but Frontier and Spirit typically are the cheapest by far. I just selected a date exactly a month from now, and while Spirit doesn't seem to fly this route, Frontier does (and they are typically the same price), and Frontier is $58, JetBlue is $130, and Southwest is $195 for a roundtrip flight. *Note: If you need to take anything with you, you likely need to sign up for their membership, or the price difference is a lot less, Frontier does not include any carry ons or checked bags. Also, since the Frontier-Spirit merger failed, Frontier has gotten a LOT stricter with nickel and diming the crap out of everyone, and seems to have encouraged their employees to be a lot meaner, if your lucky enough to get any sort of customer service at all. While I didn't have a direct issue myself, seeing multiple other people's issues and how it was handled last Frontier flight I went on, I elected to pay more for a better airline on my last few flights.

Alaska and Southwest aren't in the same price range as the "Ultra" Low Fare providers like Frontier and Spirit.

Brightline has said its capable of more, especially with the dual locomotives brightline is using. Brightline seems to believe it is possible to get it certified for a higher speed. During testing they ran it over 130 without issues. It's very unclear what the truth is, i don't think anyone really knows, as there hasn't been demand for it from my understanding

Brightline has said they're targeting 150mph for Orlando-Tampa expansion

So unbelievably stupid. They should not do anything, but if they are, no roof at this price? The fasade is already new. Very bad leadership

SeaWorld Entertainment (the parent company of SeaWorld) has a new name: United Parks & Resorts Inc. The parks are not being renamed.