Trains to and from Orlando

Book Orlando train tickets

The word “train” means three unrelated things in Orlando. Amtrak uses a downtown station at 1400 Sligh Boulevard, station code ORL. Brightline uses a station inside Orlando International Airport at 10705 Jeff Fuqua Blvd and publishes no downtown Orlando station at all. SunRail is a 61-mile, 17-station weekday commuter line run by the Florida Department of Transportation, from DeLand in the north to Poinciana in the south.

They are not a network. No SunRail station serves the airport or the theme parks, Brightline has no rail connection to the parks either, and the scheme meant to close that gap is still a study rather than a project. So the honest answer on mode: for a park holiday, rail is not how you get around Orlando. For two specific journeys it is clearly the right call, and the rest of this page is about those and the rules that set what you pay.

Those two are Brightline down the east coast to West Palm Beach and Miami, which starts and ends in the middle of things at both ends, and the Auto Train, which moves your car from Virginia to Florida overnight — though it terminates at Sanford, not Orlando. Compare against the alternatives on Orlando flights and car hire in Orlando.

Three operators, three stations, and a gap where the parks are

Start with the addresses, because two of the three are nowhere near each other. Amtrak’s Orlando station (ORL) is at 1400 Sligh Boulevard, a staffed building with a waiting room that Amtrak describes as a fine example of Mission Revival architecture. Brightline’s Orlando station is at 10705 Jeff Fuqua Blvd, inside Orlando International Airport next to Parking Garage C. Arriving into one and expecting to walk to the other is the single most expensive mistake on this page.

SunRail is the third thing and it is a commuter railway, not an intercity one. It was built by FDOT in three phases — 2014, 2018 and 2024 — and runs through Volusia, Seminole, Orange and Osceola counties. Four of its stations are named for the Amtrak service alongside them: DeLand/Amtrak (2491 Old New York Ave, the northern terminus), Winter Park/Amtrak (148 West Morse Blvd), Orlando Health/Amtrak (250 Columbia St) and Kissimmee/Amtrak (320 Pleasant St).

What none of them do is reach the attractions. Brightline’s published theme-park connection is a bus: Mears Connect shared shuttles from the Brightline station start at $16 one way for adults and $13 for children, with children aged 3 and under free, serving the airport and more than 25 hotels at the Walt Disney World Resort; a luxury private ride starts at $63 per vehicle. From SunRail the airport connection is a LYNX bus from Sand Lake Road station — LYNX 311 takes 12 minutes, LYNX 11 takes 16 and LYNX 42 takes 17 — and a valid SunRail ticket shown to the bus operator includes a free LYNX transfer within the same county.

The fix for all of this has a project number and no start date. FDOT’s Sunshine Corridor Transit Concept and Alternatives Review Study, project 451404-1, would link SunRail to Orlando International, the Orange County Convention Center, South International Drive and Disney Springs, and ultimately to Brightline: “The Sunshine Corridor Program is a multi-phase, multimodal passenger rail program.” Its final report was completed on 17 October 2024, the project page was last updated on 20 July 2026, and the phase is still listed as Planning with no construction date published. Plan around what runs today, not around that.

Brightline leaves from inside the airport, so allow 90 minutes

The station is in the terminal complex, and Brightline is blunt about what that costs you in time: “arrive at the airport at least 1.5 hours before your train departure”. From Terminal C it is a pedestrian bridge; arriving via Terminals A or B, you take the terminal link from the Main Terminal first. The hard cutoff at the other end of that walk is short — boarding closes at the turnstiles five minutes before departure, with the caveat that boarding times can change by station and operational need.

Service itself is frequent by American intercity standards. The station is open 4:30 AM until the last train departure, seven days a week, and there are 16 daily round trips with hourly departures in each direction. Brightline publishes approximate journey times of two hours to West Palm Beach and three hours thirty minutes to Miami.

The speed is real but it is concentrated in one stretch. Brightline built a 35-mile dedicated rail corridor along the Beachline Expressway (SR 528) through Orange and Brevard Counties and has tested it at 125 mph. South of Cocoa towards West Palm Beach the trains reach up to 110 mph. That is why the Orlando leg feels quick and the South Florida stations come up slowly.

If you are leaving a car, the numbers are published and they diverge sharply. The three airport surface lots beside the station are advertised at $20 a day and need E-Pass or SunPass Plus. Parking Garage C, the one the station adjoins, is priced by the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority at $24 per 24-hour period with a maximum stay of 45 days, or $32 per 24-hour period reserved; short stays run $2 for 21 to 30 minutes then $1 for each additional 15 minutes up to the daily maximum, after a 20-minute grace period. Off-site, WallyPark is advertised at 30% off standard daily rates, under $10 a day.

Brightline sells five fares, and the advertised one has two conditions

There are not two classes here, there are five products: SMART SAVER, SMART SELECT and SMART FLEX in main service, and PREMIUM SELECT and PREMIUM FLEX in first class. Brightline describes the cheapest as “Essential main service travel with no trip changes.” and it includes one carry-on plus a personal item, nothing more.

The advertised lowest fares — $39 SMART Saver, $59 SMART and $89 PREMIUM — carry two conditions that are easy to miss on the booking screen: a 7-day advance purchase, and a round-trip booking that includes Orlando as origin or destination. Brightline’s own wording is “Must include Orlando as origin or destination and booking must be roundtrip”, and cancelling any portion of the booking negates the discount.

What you can undo depends entirely on the tier. SMART Saver fares are non-cancelable and non-refundable with no travel credit at all. Select fares, SMART or PREMIUM, can be cancelled up to five minutes before scheduled departure for “a Travel Credit equal to seventy-five percent (75%) of the original ticket fare paid”. Flex fares can be cancelled in the same window for a 100% refund to the original form of payment. On 9 September 2026 Brightline announced new FLEX options specifically for travel to and from Orlando: cancellable at any time with no additional fee and a full refund, modifiable before the day of departure for only the fare difference, free same-day changes to any other departure that date, one large bag plus two carry-on size bags and a personal item, and a complimentary one-way Airport Connector Shuttle transfer between MiamiCentral and Miami International or between Fort Lauderdale Station and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International.

Two more rules worth knowing before you book. Since early October 2025 Brightline has priced South Florida travel by time of day: peak is “departures between 6:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m., 3:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday”, and the announcement cited a Miami to Aventura example of $10 off-peak against $17 peak. And luggage is airline-shaped: each complimentary carry-on must not exceed 50 lbs (23 kg) and 24 x 16 x 10 inches, with Select and Flex tiers allowing two carry-ons plus a personal item and Flex adding a tagged large bag.

Travelling with children: those aged 3 to 12 ride at 25% off, infants under 2 ride free on an adult’s lap, and nobody under 13 may travel unaccompanied — a minor must be with a passenger who is “at least 18 years old”.

Amtrak calls at four Orlando-area stations, and the fare tier decides your refund

Most people assume one Amtrak station. There are four in the metropolitan area on the Silver Service/Palmetto corridor between New York (NYP) and Miami (MIA): DeLand, Winter Park, Orlando (ORL) and Kissimmee. Winter Park and Kissimmee are often the sensible choice depending on where you are staying, and all four sit alongside SunRail stops. Orlando (ORL) itself is the downtown one, at 1400 Sligh Boulevard.

The other long-distance train is the Floridian, which runs Chicago to Miami via Washington, DC with a daily departure and lists Orlando (ORL) on its station list. Amtrak publishes an end-to-end journey time of 47 hours. Read that as a choice about the journey rather than a way of covering distance; for Orlando to Chicago it is not competing with a flight on time.

The fare tier, not the ticket, sets your rights. Amtrak’s reserved fares are Flex, Value and Sale, plus Business and First Class fares. Flex is refundable in full before departure with no fee and changeable with no fee, though a fare difference may apply. Value is harsher than the name suggests: “30% of total fare is forfeited if canceled before departure; 70% refunded to original form of payment. Changes are not permitted.” Sale forfeits 50% and permits no changes either.

Two backstops apply across all of them. Reserved fares bought with cash, credit or debit card get a 24-hour risk-free window: cancel within 24 hours of purchase and before scheduled departure and you get a full refund to the original form of payment. After that the cliff is absolute — “All fares are non-refundable and non-changeable after departure.” and a no-show forfeits the entire value of that segment.

The discounts that actually move the total: passengers aged 2 to 12 travel at 50% off the adult fare, and one infant under two rides free on the lap of each passenger paying an adult fare, with children accompanied by at least one adult aged 18 or over on the same reservation. Passengers aged 65 and over get 10% off most rail fares on most Amtrak trains, with proof of age required at purchase and on board. Neither discount applies to sleeping-accommodation charges, the senior discount may not combine with other offers, and a child’s age at the start of the trip sets the fare for the whole itinerary.

The Auto Train does not serve Orlando: it terminates at Sanford

Amtrak markets the Florida end of the Auto Train as Sanford, FL (Orlando), which is doing a lot of work. The terminal is at 600 South Persimmon Avenue, Sanford, FL 32771-2385, station code SFA — a different station from Amtrak’s Orlando (ORL) and a drive north of the city. The route runs “Lorton, VA (Washington, DC)” to Sanford nonstop, daily, with a published running time of 17 hours 29 minutes.

The timings that catch people are at check-in, not departure. Vehicle check-in opens at 11:30 am on the day of departure and closes at 2:00 pm for oversized vehicles, motorcycles, trailers and anything with Priority Offloading, or 2:30 pm for standard and extended vehicles. Miss that and the train goes without you and your car.

Your car has to fit, and the limits are published to the inch. Standard vehicles: maximum 192 inches (16 feet) long including racks and 85 inches high. Extended vehicles: 216 inches (18 feet) at the same 85-inch height. Maximum width for both is 84 inches including mirrors. Two-wheeled motorcycles are capped at 102 inches long, 72 high and 51 wide. Bicycles cannot be brought onboard the train; a bike rack is allowed only rear-mounted on the vehicle, temporary roof luggage racks must come off and travel inside the car, and empty factory-installed roof racks may stay.

On price and comfort, Amtrak quotes the passenger fare and the vehicle separately — it advertises “fares as low as $95 + the cost of your vehicle”. The Priority Offloading upgrade puts your car among the first 30 offloaded, which at the Sanford end is the difference between driving away and waiting in a car park. Coach passengers buy meals in the Cross-Country Cafe and get a complimentary continental breakfast; private-room passengers get complimentary traditional dining.

SunRail is weekdays only, and the tap off is the trap

Before anything else: SunRail runs Monday to Friday. There is no weekend service and none on New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day. A visitor planning a Saturday on it has no service to plan.

On the March 2026 timetable there are 21 trains in each direction on a weekday. The first southbound leaves DeLand/Amtrak at 5:15 am and the last at 9:55 pm; the first northbound leaves Poinciana at 5:45 am and the last at 9:55 pm, reaching DeLand at 11:36 pm. The frequency is the catch: trains run every 30 minutes at peak, but the published off-peak frequency is every 2 to 2.5 hours midday and late evening. A missed midday train is most of an afternoon.

Fares are zonal and cheap. One way: $2.00 for one zone, $3.00 for two, $4.00 for three, $5.00 for four. Round trips are $3.75, $5.50, $7.50 and $9.50, so a return always costs less than two singles — buy the round trip. Youth aged 7 to 18, seniors aged 65 and over and disabled riders get 50% off, and children aged 6 and under ride free with one paid accompanying adult, limited to three children per adult. Regulars use a SunCard: weekly passes run $17 to $42.50, monthly $56 to $140 and annual $560 to $1,400 by zone count, and loading stored value earns a 10% bonus.

Now the rule that costs money and can cost you the ride. SunRail is tap-on and tap-off, and the tap off is the one people forget; failing to do it can result in additional zone fares. Worse, the card itself is penalised: “If a passenger fails to follow these procedures, their SunCard is no longer valid, and the FDOT will lock the SunCard.” A conductor or fare inspector may then require the passenger to leave the train for lacking a valid fare. Paper tickets have their own limit — one-way and round-trip tickets are valid only on the day of purchase and are not refundable.

As a way of reaching the airport or the parks it does not work directly, and the LYNX connection from Sand Lake Road covered above is the published workaround. Where SunRail does earn its place is as a cheap spine between downtown Orlando, Winter Park and Kissimmee on a weekday, which is worth knowing when you are choosing where to stay. For the coach alternatives on the same corridors, see Orlando buses, and our trains page covers booking horizons and fare tiers generally.

Common questions

Does Amtrak go to Orlando airport?

No. Amtrak’s Orlando station (ORL) is downtown at 1400 Sligh Boulevard. The train at Orlando International Airport is Brightline, at 10705 Jeff Fuqua Blvd next to Parking Garage C, and Brightline publishes no downtown Orlando station. Amtrak does call at three other area stations — DeLand, Winter Park and Kissimmee — on the Silver Service/Palmetto corridor.

How long does Brightline take from Orlando to Miami?

Brightline publishes approximately three hours thirty minutes to Miami and two hours to West Palm Beach, with 16 daily round trips and hourly departures each way. Allow more than the journey time at the Orlando end: Brightline tells passengers to be at the airport 1.5 hours before departure, and boarding closes at the turnstiles five minutes before.

How do I get the advertised $39 Brightline fare?

Two conditions apply to the $39 SMART Saver, $59 SMART and $89 PREMIUM headline fares: a 7-day advance purchase and a round-trip booking that includes Orlando as origin or destination. Cancelling any portion negates the discount — and a SMART Saver ticket is non-cancelable and non-refundable with no travel credit, so the cheapest fare is also the one with no way out.

Does SunRail run at weekends?

No. SunRail operates Monday to Friday only, with no weekend service and no service on New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day. Even on weekdays the off-peak frequency drops to one train every 2 to 2.5 hours in the middle of the day and late evening.

Can I get a train to Disney or Universal?

No rail line reaches them. No SunRail station serves the theme parks or the airport, and Brightline’s connection is a bus: Mears Connect shared shuttles start at $16 one way for adults and $13 for children, with children aged 3 and under free, serving more than 25 Walt Disney World Resort hotels. FDOT’s Sunshine Corridor study, which would close the gap, remains in the Planning phase with no construction date.

Where does the Auto Train arrive in Florida?

At Sanford, not Orlando: 600 South Persimmon Avenue, Sanford, FL 32771-2385, station code SFA. The train runs nonstop from Lorton, VA in 17 hours 29 minutes, daily. Vehicle check-in opens at 11:30 am and closes at 2:00 pm for oversized vehicles, motorcycles, trailers and Priority Offloading bookings, or 2:30 pm for standard and extended vehicles.

Sources

Fares, journey times and operating rules on this page were checked against these sources on 11 September 2026. Authorities change fares and timetables without notice — confirm anything time-critical on the operator’s own site.

• Amtrak - Orlando, FL (ORL) station page
• Amtrak - Auto Train boarding and vehicle requirements
• Amtrak - train ticket refund and cancellation policy
• Brightline - Orlando train station, hours, parking and journey times
• Brightline - terms of service, fare tiers, baggage and boarding
• Brightline - press release 22 September 2025, network enhancements and peak pricing
• SunRail - fares and passes
• SunRail - using SunRail, tap on and tap off rules
• FDOT CFLRoads - Sunshine Corridor study, project 451404-1