![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785151163_735_TOS-L-NEW-orange-mayor-candidates-2026_1.jpg\")
The race is set with four candidates for Orange County mayor, including, from left, businessman Chris Messina, former Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy, Clerk of Court Tiffany Moore-Russell and County Commissioner Mayra Uribe.<\/p>\nBuses in Orange County take too long to get people to work, the region\u2019s commuter rail line doesn\u2019t go to the airport or run nights and weekends, and residents from Maitland to Hunter\u2019s Creek complain about time spent stopped in traffic on roads and highways.<\/p>\n
The four candidates for Orange County Mayor agree that transportation systems here need work, and all believe they have the plan to fix them. But their roadmaps to do so are very different \u2013 ranging from embracing bus\u00a0express routes to employment hubs, to increasing investment overall, to even scrapping buses altogether.<\/p>\n
The topic will be a key motivator for voters in the Aug. 18 nonpartisan election, when all voters can choose among Chris Messina, Tiffany Moore Russell, Stephanie Murphy and Mayra Uribe. If no one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, then the top two will advance to a runoff on Nov. 3.<\/p>\n
All four candidates agree that Lynx, the regional bus system, needs drastic improvements. It currently has a $217 million budget \u2013 about $102 million of which comes from the county \u2013 and provides 67,000 rides daily across Orange, Osceola and Seminole, with some routes dipping into Lake and Polk.<\/p>\n
Moore Russell and Uribe back the grassroots STAR Plan, which would expand rapid bus transit on eight of the county\u2019s busiest corridors, funded by property tax collections from rising property values in those areas.<\/p>\n
The outes include Colonial Drive, Semoran Boulevard, the proposed Sunshine Corridor between Orlando International Airport and the Orange County Convention Center, Orange Blossom Trail, International Drive, Silver Star Road, Kirkman Road, and SunRail. The county is tentatively slated to discuss the idea, created by the Sunrise Movement, a Gen Z climate-advocacy group, on Sept. 29.<\/p>\n
Moore Russell said she likes the idea because it would get people from neighborhoods to employment centers more quickly. \u201cIt\u2019s very intentional about trying to get people to where the jobs are,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Uribe said the plan would be helpful toward her goal of speeding up bus routes and making them a viable option for working people. \u201cYou should be able to get on the bus and get to where you\u2019re going in 45 minutes,\u201d Uribe said.<\/p>\n
Murphy said the Lynx system needs a strategic redesign, to better align routes with people\u2019s needs and to shorten the amount of time it takes people to get to work. She said the service needs better coordination with neighboring counties to address funding concerns.<\/p>\n
All four candidates favored Lynx offering service with smaller buses, which could lower capital costs.<\/p>\n
Messina goes the furthest on that point, arguing Lynx should scrap its model of large buses on fixed routes and instead replace them with vehicles similar to the ones used by ACCESS Lynx, which provides service to passengers with disabilities.<\/p>\n
Those smaller buses could be used for more efficient point-to-point offerings, similar to what Seminole County does with its Scout pilot rideshare program. Doing so, Messina said, would reduce capital and operating costs as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve talked to people at bus stops that are waiting a half hour that take a two-hour ride from Pine Hills to the airport,\u201d said Messina. \u201cThat\u2019s an enormous prosperity tax on somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orange County doesn\u2019t have a dedicated funding source for transit, long a sore spot in trying to build a more robust system.The candidates have different approaches to that issue as well.<\/p>\n
Moore Russell said she\u2019d consider a push for a sales tax proposal to fund needed improvements. While similar efforts by outgoing Mayor Jerry Demings failed, she said she\u2019d seek to put together a plan that would allow taxpayers to better understand the benefits.<\/p>\n
Murphy said she\u2019s \u201copen to a dedicated funding source,\u201d but said she\u2019d first want to make sure the county\u2019s $8 billion budget couldn\u2019t be better allocated to pay for transportation. She noted roughly half of the county\u2019s sales tax is paid by tourists \u2014 but said county leaders need to be cognizant of residents grappling with growing costs before considering any hikes.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now I think people are struggling with affordability, so I think we have to be really mindful of where people are in this moment when we move forward,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The race is set with four candidates for Orange County mayor, including, from left, businessman Chris Messina, former Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy, Clerk of Court Tiffany Moore-Russell and County Commissioner Mayra Uribe.<\/p>\n
Uribe said she favors lobbying Florida lawmakers to allow the county to spend Tourist Development Tax dollars, which currently must to used to promote tourism, on transportation, which would benefit both residents and visitors.<\/p>\n
Three of the candidates \u2013 Murphy, Uribe and Moore Russell \u2013 agreed that more investment is needed to make SunRail a viable option for commuters. The proposed Sunshine Corridor would extend the rail line to the airport as well as to the tourist district.<\/p>\n
Murphy said the county should focus on making SunRail a useful transit option for people, rather than trying to create a system that\u2019s profitable. Most rail systems, she said, are public services and don\u2019t always make a profit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have talked about rail and making our rail systems work for working people, and right now we\u2019re not quite there yet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Uribe said the county should prioritize night and weekend service for SunRail.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re subsidizing it every year \u2026 so why don\u2019t we make it work for us?\u201d she said. \u201cYoung people want to use public transit, but it has to work and it has to connect. It has to be reliable and it has to be there when you need it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moore Russell also said the county should push to expand the railway to offer night and weekend service.<\/p>\n
Messina said that he believes SunRail would require too big a subsidy to become a viable solution, though he said he\u2019d be all for it if it could become profitable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re one technological innovation away from having a really good rail system,\u201d he said, noting he wasn\u2019t sure what that would be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buses in Orange County take too long to get people to work, the region\u2019s commuter rail line doesn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2811,28,114,266,115,1335,139,141,140,99,109,1798],"class_list":["post-353535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-election","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-politics","tag-social","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}