The route from New Orleans passes through Jacksonville before turning south to Orlando.
True, but I wasn't sure which would be the ideal stop based on Amtrak revenue and/or passenger preferences.
It has to go somewhere to get serviced and turned. The Sanford shops north of Orlando will handle that.
If it gets built before sea level rise floods that coastline. At the current rate.... I'm thinking not.
On the one hand it throws a monkey wrench in the works since there would likely be yet another operator on the route in question. On the other hand, I rather suspect that a Class II/III railroad is probably more likely to be friendly towards the guaranteed paycheck that Amtrak would offer (a daily Sunset East over perhaps 300 miles of track would offer about 219,000 train-miles; multiply as appropriate to sort out the annual paycheck) with virtually no cost towards the railroad in question than CSX has been. If it came with, say, $50-100m in track improvements and the like then I'd be hard to see the railroad in question turning it down. The only real risk on that side is that Amtrak might have to pick up more of the maintenance bill than they would otherwise.
CSX, 2017: "That stretch is vital to our system. Putting any Amtrak trains on it will seriously disrupt our freight operations. We'll need a Billion for upgrades to avoid harm to our core business."
The quotation marks used above imply these are actual statements (verbal or written) by CSX. If so, the source should be given. If not, they should be deleted.
Actually, I don't recall an exact amounted demanded by CSX, or where they wanted to spend it. I just heard that they asked so much altogether that it seemed to stop the discussion. But the dark, unsignaled stretch (where the new train is to run overnight) lies between Pensacola and Tallahassee. My hunch is that's where a lot of money could be spent.
US-98 has become so congested from P'cola eastward that it's just not viable for transportation any more. Sections that used to be open highway are now urban sprawl with a stop-light every 1/4 mile. Going from P'cola to say, Port St. Joe, I'd never consider going 98. Rather, I'd take I-10 then down SR-71 through Blountstown and Wewahitchka, even though that's a much longer route. US-98 is just that bad.
There are DMUs available now that are not banned.
It certainly would seem more efficient that dragging a typical Amtrak consist on what amounts to a 4-hour (145 mi) commuter run. Since the proposal cited in the Sun-Herald (above) is for two trains per day, one of them could be a FRA-compliant DMU. The other could be the extension of CONO.
