Orlando airport plans ‘Grand Central’ terminal for Florida’s high-speed rail

When high-speed rail finally arrives in Central Florida, Orlando International Airport wants to be ready - with a "Grand Central Station" of terminals that could include multiple rail lines, food and retail concessions, a hotel and rental-car counters, officials said March 17, the Orlando Sentinel reports. There is no estimate yet on how much the terminal would cost or who would pay for it, though airport leaders said they think state and federal officials should provide most of the money.

The $1.25-billion
federal-stimulus grant that Florida won in January gives the state its best
prospect yet to develop a long-discussed $2.6-billion high-speed rail system,
starting with a route from downtown Tampa to OIA. Meanwhile, state and area
planners are preparing to build a $1.2-billion SunRail commuter train line
through Central Florida. Both could be operating by 2015.

So the Greater Orlando
Aviation Authority, long ready to expand into the rail business, has spruced up
its old plans to propose a station that could link those lines and even
eventually be a hub for the entire state. The terminal would be about a
half-mile south of the airport’s main terminal, connected to that building by
an elevated tram like those that now connect the main terminal to the airport’s
remote air terminals. The proposed station could handle not just high-speed and
SunRail trains, but also a possible light-rail line connecting with the Orange
County Convention Center on International Drive.

Passengers would find a
train terminal lobby with soaring ceilings and the ambience of OIA’s main
terminal. The station could have its own parking, rental-car, taxi and Lynx bus
areas, ticketing counters, baggage-sorting systems, baggage-claim carousels,
concessions and eventually a hotel.

"It has to fit in with
the ‘Orlando experience’ that has become the standard for the Orlando International
Airport," said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who is a member of the aviation-authority
board, which adopted the plan Wednesday. "This will be a station a lot of
people will come to and visit. It needs to be iconic."

Consequently, both Dyer and
Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty – another member of the board – said state and
federal rail authorities must be persuaded to pay for something more grand than
a basic rail platform. Crotty and Dyer would not specifically discuss putting
up any county, city or aviation-authority money.

The authority has planned
since the 1980s to get into the train business whenever it might be coming. All
the current buildings, roads, bridges and airplane taxiways leave room for
future rail lines. The authority’s previous rail plan, from 2005, estimated
that running tracks up the north-south spine of the airport would cost $105
million, likely to be covered by state and federal grants. A basic train
station in 2005 was estimated at $68 million.

In past plans, the
authority actually envisioned two train stations, one next to the current, main
terminal, and one next to a planned but indefinitely delayed "south"
terminal. The authority’s general-planning consultant, Tom Chandler, president
of Shenkel Schulz Architecture, said the position next to the current terminal
does not provide enough room to build anything but a fairly basic train
station, so plans were revised for one station, in the middle of where the
south terminal was planned.

When the aviation authority
builds the south terminal, it would envelop the train station. Meanwhile, the train
station could stand alone.

Chandler and a team of
airport officials have been revising the authority’s rail plans for months. He
said they envisioned one that also could also receive high-speed lines in the
state’s long-term plans, from Miami, Port Canaveral, Jacksonville and
Tallahassee.

To that end, they also set
aside land for a high-speed-rail maintenance yard at the airport.

"This is the Grand
Central Station. This is Union Station," Chandler said.