Someone is smoking something. A train that runs with MSP of 90 or less upto WPB and then 110 or less to Cocoa and the balance 40 miles at 125mph, is not going to average 100mph. And there are no trains in the world that average 200mph over any significant distance, since generally their MSP is around 200mph.
Because a certain mouse ate Florida?
When I go into NYC from Central Jersey I am typically not counted as a tourist. But when my friends in Melbourne FL go to Orlando they typically get counted as a tourist and they happen to do so dozens of times a year. It all depends on how one counts things.
Well, the mouse did take a big bite out of central Florida. Found this Orlando Sentinel news article from May, 2011 where the Mayor of Orlando announced 51.5 million visitors in 2010. NYC & Mayor Bloomberg claimed 48.7 million in 2010. Article is amusing because of the discussion on the sniping between NYC and Orlando contesting who is getting the most visitors. Orlando includes a very large area in central FL, NYC counts day-trippers for example. The visitor count is nothing more than an educated guess estimate anyway based on whatever criteria they want to use and I would expect polling the hotel chains, resorts, airports, businesses who may double or triple count some visitors.
If the FEC serves Orlando Airport, they would probably set up a baggage handling service to transfer bags directly between the airport and the trains in Orlando. Fly to Orlando, take the train to Ft. Lauderdale or downtown Miami and get your checked bags at the station. If the FEC is planning to serve the cruise ship business and the resorts in Orlando, yea, baggage cars or secured baggage storage areas on their trains and baggage handlers will have to be part of their operation.
I'm actually wondering if the FEC folks have talked with Disney/Universal about making their shuttles available to train passengers in some fashion. Failing that, I'm wondering if the FEC might end up doing some sort of analysis on helping out with local funding for this and/or the North/South Light Rail line so as to boost ridership. If they do eventually head west, it might also be possible to get them to consider some sort of transfer station in the Orlando area that would link them to SunRail.
If the FEC people haven't talked to Disney, Universal, and other resorts in the Orlando area, I would think they would have to before getting the funding committed for building the 40 mile extension to Orlando. I assume all of the resorts run shuttle services to the airport, so if the FEC builds a station at the Orlando airport, having the shuttles stop at the FEC station should not be a big deal. Or people walk from the train station to where the shuttles are.
Well, I am working towards moving to Florida myself, to the Melbourne area.They could stand around lobbying for more local public transit options of course!
I'm surprised you haven't suggested that yet to them! :lol:
Of course, they can't yet take the FEC to Orlando. So you'll have to start pressuring & training them now.
) I spent a few days on the Treasure Coast recently and the mood there was that it was of no benefit to them.hboy: : There are a huge number of grade crossings along the existing FEC. I think there is going to be pushback from local communities about running trains at the speeds the FEC seems to imply in their literature.I thought this paragraph was particularly interesting: (emphasis added}
Umm... :unsure: Really? :blink: What was Amtrak formed from? :giggle:
SOM is, as the press release says, a well-established, solid firm. They should do a fine job with a touch of class, though perhaps not with the panache of a starchitect like Calatrava.
That's good to hear. My main concern is always that you get "well established kooks", so to speak...firms that have been around for a while but that throw out some strange designs (such as some of the World Trade Center replacement proposals, including several versions of what was ultimately chosen).
If they were really after the 'local' business north of West Palm, they would sacrifice total run time for at least a couple of intermediate stations. Are there 'locals' in South Florida who will use it to get to Orlando and vise-versa? Sure, but having NO stations between West Palm and Orlando is a long stretch of track. It certainly doesn't fill the need for better non-automotive transportation options up and down the east coast of Florida.
The service is designed to be for travel only from MIA/FLL area to Orlando. It is not designed for local use and it will hardly be used as such for that reason. It is sort of like the Amtrak plan for the Super Express service on the NEC serving only Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Boston. Not meant for local travel. Fortunately NEC has lots of other options, and will have even more options going forward. Unfortunately, apparently Florida will have no other options. So people will just continue to use cars.
Yes and no. It depends on what happens with the Amtrak FEC plans in particular. I know there's also substantial speculation on a Cocoa station (either now or once the project starts moving along...it is probably going to be necessary if they extend the plans to Jacksonville). A distinct possibility is that FEC does the longer-distance travel while Amtrak handles the local stuff on both Silvers running down the corridor and/or an added corridor train or two. I'm willing to speculate that FEC doing service to Orlando might actually help Amtrak in this regard. Of course, God help everyone involved if Amtrak's operations on the line are substantially profitable...if I had to guess, Silvers aside that will trigger a real food fight since FEC is going to want those profits for themselves and you'll at least get a war over access fees.
It is not necessary or even desirable that all trains make all stops. If you look at the Taiwan high speed railway as an example, 210 miles end to end: Every hour there is a one-stop train, an all stops north of Taichung, no intermedate stops south, an express to Taichung, then all all stops south, then an all stops train. The fastest, 1:35, the slowest 2 hours flat.
I agree. However, FEC plans at present do not call for such. They mention only three stops for whatever service. That is what I was commenting on.
My understanding with the FEC's plans is that they have been looking into Cocoa as an additional stop. This may or may not happen in the short term; if they are serious about the Jacksonville extension (which is suggested in the plans), I think it will be inevitable so as to allow transfers between ORL-MIA trains and MIA-JAX trains (especially since I suspect that running lots of ORL-JAX trains in addition to the other two sets might be inefficient...not that there won't be any, but I don't think there would be the business for a dedicated hourly service on both lines at the moment).
A capable outfit manages such things by managing inventory. Not by simply not stopping at all.
