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February 11, 2003
LAKE BUENA VISTA -- The Disney Co., whose millions of visitors and thousands of employees add heavily to Central Florida's chronic traffic woes, will support a multibillion-dollar regional transportation plan, the company said Monday.
The result could one day be a light-rail system linking Walt Disney World with the Orange County Convention Center and the International Drive tourist district.
The Mobility 2020 plan, to be funded through a half-cent sales tax, would also pay to widen Interstate 4 and other major traffic arteries. The measure likely will go before voters in the fall.
The announcement was notable because Disney is under fire for its insistence that a proposed bullet train connect its resort with Orlando International Airport with no stop at the Orange County Convention Center.
The announcement came hours before private companies' proposals to build a high-speed rail system were opened in Tallahassee.
Disney opposes a convention center stop because it fears losing tourists to the International Drive area, which includes competing theme parks SeaWorld and Universal Orlando.
Disney has said if the bullet train includes a convention center stop, it won't permit a station at its resort.
Orange County Chairman Rich Crotty says a bullet train station should be near the convention center, one of Orange's biggest economic engines.