Saturday was the public unveiling of a SunRail passenger car for Central Florida. Hundreds of potential future passengers were given a closer look.
“When I have to drive to work, I have to drive out to the coast. If I had something like this available to me, it’d be nice to have,” said Bryan Doyle.
The passenger cars have two levels. Those touring the cars said there was a decent amount of leg room.
There is also free Wi-Fi access and electrical outlets available near many of the seats.
“It looks like a nice train. It’s a little short for my height, but it does have a lot of leg room, which I would need,” said Doyle.
Employees from the Florida Department of Transportation said comfort is one of the things they’re aiming to offer passengers.
“We just want to make a stress-free, very efficient system for our customers,” said Steve Olson.
FDOT employees said the project is estimated to cost $615 million.
The cars will travel 61.5 miles of track to 12 different stops across Central Florida, about $10 million per mile.
“All the way from Debary to Sand Lake Road in phase one, and then in phase two, we take it as far south as Poinciana,” said Olson.
The costs to fund the project will be split three ways, with money coming from the local, state, and federal level.
Officials say 50 percent of the money comes from the federal fund with the remaining 50 percent split by local and state levels.
They also say five local funding partners approved funding commitments in 2007. Those partners include Volusia, Seminole, Orange, and Osceola counties, and the city of Orlando.
As far as maintenance goes, FDOT claims they will pay for operations and maintenance for the first seven years.
The project will be completed in phases.
Phase one is scheduled to be complete in the spring of 2014.
The final phase is scheduled to be complete sometime in 2016.