Amtrak service between New Orleans and Florida

[Caesar La Rock]

ORLANDO, Fla. — Editor’s note: This story is available as a result of a content partnership between WFTV and the Orlando Business Journal.

A bill in the Florida Legislature could set the stage for the return of an Amtrak service which has not been directly connected to Orlando since 2005.

House Bill 833 and Senate Bill 966 look to allow the state to join the Southern Rail Commission, a group of states which advocates for the expansion of passenger rail in the Southern U.S. The Sunset Limited service ran a segment from New Orleans to Orlando until Hurricane Katrina wiped out rail infrastructure in 2005, leaving the route as only servicing New Orleans to Los Angeles.


Florida Reps. Yvonne Hayes Hinson (D-Gainesville) and Daryl Campbell (D-Fort Lauderdale) filed the house bill, while Florida Sen. Tracie Davis (D-Jacksonville) introduced the senate version.

https://www.wftv.com/news/local/how...rlando-may-return/S6SD525Y4RDSJB6K6LELEK4HSE/

P.S. This was the only article I could find that wasn't behind a paywall. So this is interesting, the state could end up joining the SRC.

 

[Cal]

Highly doubt it will pass, but we'll see. Even if it does, I think there's a lot of obstacles to restore service between NOLA and Florida. Other corridor routes and connections to Atlanta (if even possible) would probably take precedent.

 

[George Harris]

This subject has been covered extensively in other threads.

 

[Cal H]

Thanks for sharing the info with us. Seems like the advocacy group by itself would be harmless enough (to the FL legislature), but maybe there would be costs associated with it - to perform studies or hire a lobbyist? Keep us posted on the outcome of these bills please.

 

[Caesar La Rock]

A few things. I personally have my doubts too as I've lived in this state for 30 years and I've heard all kinds of rail proposals planned and go the way of history. Going the way of what ifs. However, I am a lot more open minded and willing to see what this state can do.

Train service between New Orleans and Florida has been discussed to death everywhere I've read about it. We already know the issues faced with the Sunset east of New Orleans. Having said that, if and that's a major if, something runs east of New Orleans to Florida, it'll very likely be a separate daily train that'll have nothing to do with the Sunset.

No one wants to deal with a tri-weekly train from New Orleans to Florida again, and even the two remaining tri-weekly trains, everyone wants those to run daily, so that's settled.

We're also not in the year 2005 or the 2010s for that matter. The fact that anyone in Tallahassee wants in on the Southern Rail Commission is a sign of attitudes changing, and that's a good thing for Amtrak, especially with the current political landscape. As the old saying goes, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once and while. Let's wait and see how this plays out.