WDW Railroad closed; still has more riders than SunRail

“Central Florida’s commuter rail line” still lacks commuters.

ORLANDO, FL — Last month, Uncle Walt’s Insider reported that SunRail was, surprisingly, now the 25th Safest Train in Orlando. This drastic move up into the rankings was caused by the closure of the Walt Disney World Railroad, which had previously occupied the #1 spot.

However, it appears that the ridership rankings have not changed enough to move SunRail up.

Disney still leads the way

The Orlando Bureau of Misleading Railway Statistics publishes a report every month, detailing ridership numbers. When the January report came out, we were surprised to see that the Walt Disney World Railroad was still ranked ahead of SunRail. We caught up with Disney (the company) spokesperson Jun Disney (no relation) to ask about the discrepancy.

“Well, even though the Walt Disney World Railroad is closed for refurbishment, apparently it’s still popular,” Disney (no relation) says. “Our ridership did drop, true, but we are still ranked above SunRail. We were curious about how this was happening. We put a hidden camera at the Main Street station, and what we found will blow your mind!”

Almost riding

“It turns out that people were actually still walking up to the station, going through the turnstiles, and staring forlornly at the tracks. Even though they never actually boarded a train, because they crossed the turnstile, it still counts.”

Those of us who are familiar with SunRail and the 2-4 riders per day they get are not surprised by this news.

Would you rather not-ride Disney’s trains than actually ride SunRail? Let us know in the comments below!

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Cover photo: a typical SunRail train (empty). Photo by Artystyk386 [CC BY-SA 3.0] via Wikimedia Commons