Brightline Station at Disney Springs Cancelled

https://wdwnt.com/2022/06/breaking-walt-disney-world-cancels-brightline-high-speed-rail-station-at-disney-springs/

Well, wasn’t that the reason they deep-sixed the Magical Express?

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Disney has really pissed off the wrong people somewhere and once again Universal gets the benefit. Way to go Team WDW. You have successfully made yourself 2nd rate.

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What new configuration?

Sounds like the station will be by the new Universal Park? I honestly don’t know if that was in the original plans or not

always kinda figured this was vaporware. There were far too many politicians and city officials getting involved with their hands out to make this succeed as originally described.

It was their “but it’s ok…” excuse that stunk from the jump.

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I thought that the route that would take it to the convention center was nixed in the beginning in favor of Disney springs because of the time and increased cost involved.

I know the price kept going up and up every time they went for approval. And then there was Disney not wanting to “compromise” with Universal, and they in turn having issue with only a stop in DS (so USO put up land for them).

It was a mess.

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No, because Brightline was never intended to be an airport connector. Brightline itself said that.

It was always a heavy lift from the standpoint of the central Florida governments’ perspective to use the Greeneway alignment. Not having a Convention Center station would be a major omission. Especially since Sun Rail, the central Florida commuter rail service, was going to share the new trackage, and many more International Drive-corridor workers would use Sun Rail compared to Disney workers.

Disney made it clear years ago that the station and monetary contribution were contingent on the Greeneway alignment. Had the state and CFX chosen the Greeneway alignment, there was a roughly 100% chance one or more parties would’ve brought a lawsuit. From a public service perspective - and remember Brightline was getting a considerably financial boost by being allowed to use CFX public right-of-way - the Bee Line alignment made a lot more sense.

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You realize the tracks from West Palm Beach to Orlando are already substantially complete?

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It was never their excuse. Brightline was never going to have the number of trainsets or service capacity to serve as an airport connector. Just because Disney Food Blog said so doesn’t make it true.

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