Virgin Trains USA is looking at building a station at Walt Disney World. The stop would be a part of the proposed high-speed rail route between Tampa and Orlando.
“We are continuing to explore the possibility of building a station on Walt Disney World Resort property, which we believe will help transform the region," Virgin Trains USA senior vice president Ben Porritt said in a statement to the Tampa Bay Business Journal Tuesday.
“A proposed station would provide a direct rail connection to Orlando International Airport and serve as the initial segment for Virgin Trains’ future extension to Tampa.”
Porritt said that a Disney station would offer the 126 million visitors to Florida, as well as its 21 million residents, “a car-free option to the state’s most-visited attraction and one of the world’s greatest destinations.”
Disney officials confirmed talks, telling the Orlando Sentinel: “While we have not yet made any definitive commitment, we have mutually agreed to more formally explore developing a train station on our property.”
Virgin Trains, formally known as Brightline, is a privately financed railway company that has already built a high-speed line between Miami and West Palm Beach and is now working on its extension to Orlando International Airport.
Part of the new extension, including a station at the airport, has been already built, but the whole project is expected to be completed by 2022. After that, the company is planning to work on connecting Orlando and Tampa.
