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Florida Hospital employees get up close look at SunRail train cars

ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida Hospital employees got an up close look at the brand new SunRail train cars Thursday.

One of the double-decker cars pulled into the Florida Hospital Health Village Station Thursday morning.

"I think its wonderful, really wonderful. It's going to help a lot of people with the commute and stuff like that. So, it's a great benefit for the city," said Florida Hospital employee Veronica Scervin.

SunRail will be taking its first passengers in less than a month and some businesses and local governments are going the extra mile to convince people to ride.

The first phase of SunRail will run from DeBary down through downtown Orlando, and end in Belle Isle.

Channel Nine's Racquel Asa found out Florida Hospital is willing to pay a portion of the ticket for its employees.

Hospital officials said they expect about 500 employees in the first year to buy SunRail passes.

The hospital said it's cheaper to pay 25 percent of an employee’s annual SunRail pass than it is to build additional parking, especially with an extra 18,000 people expected to be hired at the hospital within the next decade.

"A parking garage space costs about $13,000 a space, and so instead of spending that much money on parking garages, we can use that money to better the health of our community," said Jody Barry with the Florida Hospital.

A 25 percent discount on a monthly card that takes employees to all three counties adds up to about $8,400 for employee Margie Leinberger.

She said she plans to buys hers as soon as she can.

It'll be a quarter of the amount of she spends on gas driving 62 miles from Deltona to Orlando.

"I have to fill up every week and it costs close to $100. That's $400 a month," Leinberger said.

The city of Orlando is willing to pay 50 percent of a monthly fare for employees until the end of the year.

Orlando Regional Medical Center is also offering a 50 percent discount for the first 100 employees who sign-up.

Orange County wants to offer a discount too, but it's still working out the details.

The Florida Hospital incentive is permanent.

For riders who don’t get any incentives to ride the commuter rail, a monthly pass that gets through Orange, Seminole and Volusia counties cost $112.

SunRail officials will offer another tour of the new Lynx Central station from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday.