This Wednesday, October 24th, Lynx is hosting an Open House between 5PM and 7PM showcasing the new East/West Lymmo expansion that is planned to break ground next month. The map above shows the route of the bus that will finally link the southern end of the current route with the Amway Center, West Church Street, the Federal Courthouse to the west along with Church St and Central Blvd all the way to Summerlin Ave on the east end. While most of the route on the west side of I-4 has dedicated bus lanes, the very ones that made Lymmo so famous as the first real bus rapid transit system in the United States, the east end of the route will have the bus mixed in with traffic.
This is just the beginning for the little downtown bus that can. There is also plans for a new north/south route that will stretch north through Uptown and Ivanhoe Village all the way up Florida Hospital through Loch Haven Park all the way to Mills Ave. To the south the roue will stretch down Orange Ave, past the Amtrak/SunRail Station, through Orlando Health's village, beyond SoDo to the intersection of Michigan and Orange where the new Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market is going in. This North/South route though has no funding or timeline in place yet so for now only the East/West route is the only expansion being discussed.
Eventually all of these routes will be even more streamlined into a planned downtown streetcar system but those plans are even further away. It is good to see these first steps towards that greater plan though, every expansion of Lymmo will help connect Orlando and make it an easier place to maneuver for local and tourist alike.
