I looked through the above-linked Progressive Rail article, and what struck me was this quote.
For example, current federal regulations require that passenger trains run on schedule at each station at least 80 percent of the time. During the last year of Amtrak's Gulf Coast service, trains ran on time only 7 percent of the time, Dech wrote.
In addition, there are 17 drawbridges along the route where essential maritime traffic gets priority over trains.
So I decided to trace the route and find out what's going on. I went from Orlando (actually, Sanford) to New Orleans, using an old train route guide, Wikimapia, and Google Maps. Some take-aways:
- The route is almost 80% single-track.
- There are only two drawbridges at most between Pensacola and Orlando: on Backwater River in Milton and (possibly) St. Johns River south of Jacksonville.
- Most of the drawbridges are shared among Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Ick, what a mess!
I get the feeling CSX has reassigned the slot given to the Sunset East. They repaired the tracks and bridges for functional freight traffic, but in doing saw how much investment was needed to get that 80% on time and got spooked. From my trace, it looks like they need to double-track the route and rebuild a ton of bridges
at least to hit that 80% mark. CSX more likely would want to build new track in easier-to-manage areas and rework the bridges to provide the service... and would love not to pay for doing it.
I think a Pensicola to Orlando service would work and be on time ("Gulf Coastal"), maybe Atmore to Orlando. But anything else needs improvement, and I'd have to side more with CSX.
Here's my notes on the trace:
Code: Select allOrlando
Sanford
Deland
= St Johns River?
Jacksonville
> CSX Honeymoon Wye/Railyard, take branch next to US 90
Lake City
Madison
Tallahassee
Chipley
Crestview
= Blackwater River, Milton (turntable draw bridge)
= Mulatto Bayou
= Escambia Bay
Pensacola
--- FLORDICA/ALIBAMA ---
Atmore
= Tenshaw River?
= Big Lizard Creek
= Big Briar Creek
= Little Briar Creek
= Mobile River !!!
= BigBayou Canot
= Catfish Bayou
= Bayou Sara !!!
= Chickasaw Creek mouth/St. Louis Beach !!!
= Threemile Creek
Mobile
--- Alabama/MS ---
Pascagoula
= Pascagoula River (TWICE!!!) !!!
= Biloxi Bay !!!
Biloxi
Gulfport
= Bay St. Louis
Bay St. Louis
--- MS/LA --
= Pearl River
= Rigolets (tons of bridges!)
= Chef Menteur Pass
= Almonaster Bridge !!!
NEW ORLEANS Union