Amtrak Florida Service

or expansion so there is a train running at a reasonable time

As aware I know Amtrak has contracts with several states to run train system with Amtrak trains. Would you think Florida would be the next state should do the same? Would it called Amtrak Florida? or what?

I would like to see several routes that Amtrak Florida should run:

JAX - ORL
JAX - TPA via Ocala
TPA - ORL
ORL - TPA
TPA - MIA
ORL - MIA
MIA - ORL
MIA - TPA
JAX - TAL
TAL - PES

The hours shall operate between 5am until 11pm daily with at least 8-10 daily trips (like Keystone) and affordable fare so people can be able to travel. I also would like to have a new station near Disney so people can go there directly rather than driving up.

I know this will require billions of dollars, new stations to be built, new tracks, new rail equipments and such. I am sure if this will go ahead, the timeframe would be maybe 3 years to get up/running? You think?

Seriously, Florida NEEDS a statewide rail system.

Unfortunately, "We the People"of Florida do not agree. After having passed by referendum an initiative authorizing, but not funding, a State wide high speed rail system, "We the People" decided that such a system would be costly and not provide much in the way of benefit. Therefore, the People, through their elected Representatives and Chief Executive, repealed by means of enacted legislation, the initiative.

Consideration of any locally funded Florida intrastate service, even conventional Diesel locomotive hauled trains operating at speeds less than 80mph, is constrained by existing State law requiring that any County desiring rail passenger service, must establish a permanent funding base by means of excise taxes, i.e. "Sales Tax' or Motor fuel Tax. I'm not sure if ad valorem taxation, i.e. Real Estate and tangible or intangible Personal Property, can also be used as such, but even if they can be, it still does not upset the requirement of a local-level funding base. As a result initiatives must move forth "County by County'. While it would appear that Tri-Rail patronage could be enhanced by a Northward extension along the FEC to Stuart or even Northwesterly along the Amtrak/SAL route to Indiantown, Martin County has refused to impose any taxes that would qualify for a funding of Tri-Rail. Therefore, Tri-Rail remains constrained to the three original participating counties of Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade. The Central Florida initiative through Orlando, which is "in the works", includes only Orange and Osceola Counties, and is controlled by the same provisions affecting Tri-Rail.

Regarding a Federally funded Florida intrastate initiative, I simply do not foresee such. True, there is Federally funded Amtrak intrastate service with the Empire Corridor, but such is an exception and represents first the overwhelming need for intercity rail passenger service as well as the "clout' that the New York caucus can bring to bear in Wash. It also helps that New York is still, even if not as overwhelmingly as in the recent past, a 'credit State'; they put far more in to the "Feddytrough" than they ever take out.

And you wonder why I dislike going to Florida. Nothing says "awesome spring vacation" like getting stuck in traffic while the golf course or beach is a short distance away.

Tadman wrote:And you wonder why I dislike going to Florida. Nothing says "awesome spring vacation" like getting stuck in traffic while the golf course or beach is a short distance away.

There ought to be a Florida Railways for trips within the state. I would love to rush past the slow moving traffic, especially in the Orlando Tampa area. But it seems not enough people agree.

It needn't be any faster than 100 mph for local traffic.

The mentality in this state seems to be tilted toward airports and highways but in reality, the existing railroad physical plant
could do just as good of a job for travel in the corridors which could be easily established. Miami-Jacksonville via the FEC
should be number 1 followed by Tampa - Orlando - Jacksonville, Miami - Tampa and probably some more as well.
Unfortunately the state government leaders and especially former governor Jeb Bush who was responsible for killing the
high speed rail proposal have not responed to the potential for an intercity passenger service. I do not necessarily thing that
high speed is necessary although the Florida East Coast is probably capable of pretty high speeds in its present condition.
You could operate very good and effective service at speeds of around 90 or 100 MPH.
Noel Weaver

It sure would be nice to see something down the west coast to Fort Myers, although I don't think I'll ever make that trip again in this lifetime......

I personally don't even think it would need to be HSR. Stops along the FEC would be plentiful enough to keep the avg speed down, so even 90mph max speed would be good enough I think. It would certainly cut down on the cost of a regional system for Florida. Let HSR come later, stopping only at the major cities.

NIMBYkiller wrote:I personally don't even think it would need to be HSR. Stops along the FEC would be plentiful enough to keep the avg speed down, so even 90mph max speed would be good enough I think. It would certainly cut down on the cost of a regional system for Florida. Let HSR come later, stopping only at the major cities.

Yes, I agree with you on this one, what we need is a basic corridor type operation between the big cities to take the load off
the highways and airports. Corridor trains will not be able to stop at every point in order to make a decent run and be
competetive with other means of transportation.
I still think it will be a miracle if the state gets involved in this, they would rather expand the airports taking much private
land in the process and adding lanes to the expressways which will cost much more than a corridor rail operation.
Noel Weaver

transitrider wrote:Seriously, Florida NEEDS a statewide rail system.

The same could be said for Gerogia. And Texas. And New England...

transitrider wrote:I also would like to have a new station near Disney so people can go there directly rather than driving up.

As a long-time on-again, off-again resident of the Sunshine State, let me give you my solemn assurance the number of 'dead bodies' to overcome to give The Mouse anything shall be wide and varied. The Mouse is only interested in schemes that benefit themselves to the exclusion of all others.

Agree Mr. Carleton, that if the Orange/Osceola passenger rail iniative moves forth, it is my understanding that there will be a station near Mickey's kingdom. However, in common with other similar mass transit models such as "train to the plane', most of the patronage will be that of workers commuting to their jobs.

While I have yet to use Tri-Rail for anything other than a joyride in this life, it appears that passengers I've noted boarding or alighting at the three airport stops appear to be largely ground workers, although I will not state home based flight crews never make use of such (if away from home, the airline owes their crews a ride from their hotel to the airport).

However, I cannot imagine a family destined to, say, Delray Beach, boarding the Tri Rail shuttle at KPBI (my use of four letter ICAO airport codes is quite intentional; too much confusion between Amtrak stations and the three letter IATA codes), then traveling there by Tri Rail - and of course laden with twice as much junk as they could ever need on their journey (and fattening up an airline's coffers by $100 or more).

Even though Florida auto rentals "ain't cheap no more" (I can recall renting an auto down there for a week for what I paid per day on the trip two weeks ago) and with Delray's quite compact downtown, a family could stay at, say, the Marriott @ A1A and Atlantic and have a perfectly full vaction without an auto. But i simply cannot envision any family doing that.

Gilbert B Norman wrote:Agree Mr. Carleton, that if the Orange/Osceola passenger rail iniative moves forth, it is my understanding that there will be a station near Mickey's kingdom. However, in common with other similar mass transit models such as "train to the plane', most of the patronage will be that of workers commuting to their jobs.

The proposed Central Florida commuter rail program, now dubbed SunRail is well east of I-4, not too close in proximity to The Mouse. The southern portion of the route, the part that would be closest, is slated to be the last part completed. The House of the Mouse is not even shown on the system map, and I would bet that's not an oversight.

I live in Tampa and Amtrak was suppose to talk to the state of Florida about statewide rail service there.that was last year.Never heard anything more about it.

coco60 wrote:I live in Tampa and Amtrak was suppose to talk to the state of Florida about statewide rail service there.

Money talks. No money, no talking. And "no money" certainly epitomizes the Sunshine State these days. So it goes when one mislabels ‘tourism’ as an ‘industry.’

D.Carleton wrote:

coco60 wrote:I live in Tampa and Amtrak was suppose to talk to the state of Florida about statewide rail service there.

Money talks. No money, no talking. And "no money" certainly epitomizes the Sunshine State these days. So it goes when one mislabels ‘tourism’ as an ‘industry.’

The money is there. It's being put in the wrong place. Building new mega-highways and expanding current ones. My county (St. Johns, which includes the city of St. Augustine, 30 miles south of Jacksonville) alone is turning tiny roads that used to serve farms into giant 6 lane highways. They've already built part of one, and we're expecting around 3 more. That's a lot considering what this place looked like only 5 years ago. If the point can be made across to the State that an Amtrak train on the FEC can make the trip between Jacksonville and Miami faster than I-95, then I believe there might be some reconsideration.