ORLANDO, Fla. — LYNX is moving ahead with plans to build an operations facility in Osceola County.
During a LYNX Board of Directors meeting Thursday, members approved purchasing about 21 acres of land along Osceola Parkway and Bill Beck Boulevard for $13.5 million.
What You Need To Know
LYNX is moving forward with plans to expand in Osceola County
A $13.5 million purchase was approved to acquire 21 acres of land for a Southern Operations and Maintenance Bus Facility
LYNX currently leases a facility from the city of Kissimmee, but the agreement is scheduled to expire in 2031
An operations facility already exists in Orange County
Preliminary plans for the Southern Operations and Maintenance Bus Facility show that it will be able to accommodate 153 buses — either 40 or 60 feet long — and support different fuel types, like natural gas and electric.
LYNX leases a facility from the city of Kissimmee with a 41-bus fleet. According to the Board of Directors agenda, the lease with the city ends 2031.
This isn’t the first operations center the agency will build. The LYNX Operations Center in northern Orange County holds 245 buses. It was built to park 40-foot buses, though, so it is not designed for newer 60-foot vehicles. The facilities are also a central hub for customer service, behind-the-scenes operations and bus operators.
“Our current facility, the Lynx Operations Facility, was built in 2007. So it has outgrown its design capacity,” Lynx Chief Development Officer James Boyle said. “(The new facility) is going to allow us to move some of those busses down to Osceola County, which frees up space at the current Lynx Operations Center, but then allows us to grow, down in Osceola County… So that will allow us to have a bigger fleet down there and also meet the future travel demand.”
According to LYNX data, staff recorded more than 21 million passenger trips in Fiscal Year 2025. The organization’s Fiscal Year 2026 annual budget book says Osceola County’s population increased by nearly 45% in 10 years. Major growth in LYNX’s tri-county service area — which includes Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties — is expected.
“Some of our best routes are in Osceola County,” Boyle said. “We get some of the routes that have a couple thousand riders a day on each. So we fully anticipate that that growth will continue on our routes, in southern Orange County and also in Osceola County.”
The LYNX FY26 annual operating budget exceeds $217 million.
(Photo courtesy of LYNX)