New train (40-41 Floridian) between Miami and Chicago via Washington DC

[Seaboarder3023]

Back in legacy RR days there was a big demand for west coast Florida service from the Midwest. IMO switching Meteor to serve Tampa would be a mistake.
What might be better is terminating the Palmetto at Tampa. Of course what would be even better is a connection at Lakeland for service to Ft. Myers and later south. ACL & SAL both had connections to those locations and the west coast tourist attractions + populations have just boomed since then.

I'm still of the crowd that believes they should just bring back separate east and west coast sections. If you aren't gonna bring back the pre-94 routing on the S-Line, split the Meteor in Auburndale, otherwise split it at Jacksonville. With Brightline now serving Orlando-Miami, I would think that leg on the Meteor would be less traveled now. Ocala-Lakeland-Miami EC section, Orlando-Lakeland-Miami WC section. Of course the logistics would have to be worked out with trackage rights, but splitting this train isn't a new idea. After all, this train was split up daily for 50 years. Even so, you could just bring back the Auburndale split to make it easier, but you serve less areas and performing that maneuver on the mainline instead of in the confines of the station is probably less desirable for dispatchers and crew alike. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[jis]

The first article in this RPA Hotline Issue contains a very good explanation of the equipment situation that motivated the creation of the Floridian:

https://mailchi.mp/narprail/hotline1369

The second article contains good info about the Floridian itself.