Question: is it possible to take Amtrak between Tampa and Lakeland?

[neroden]

@neroden, did you get all of that? Can you fit it all on your PDF Schedule?

Heh. I think it amounts to "If you book your ticket a station shortly before Lakeland to Tampa and board at Lakeland, the conductors will let you on." I'm not sure whether I should, in fact, note this in the schedule.

The rest of the details actually pop out of the data automatically and are in the PDF schedule.

 

[Amtrak709]

Heh. I think it amounts to "If you book your ticket a station shortly before Lakeland to Tampa and board at Lakeland, the conductors will let you on." I'm not sure whether I should, in fact, note this in the schedule.

The rest of the details actually pop out of the data automatically and are in the PDF schedule.

I wonder how many passengers actually travel Lakeland to Tampa and/or return. Probably not too many. The change in the Silver Star's schedule occurred in November 2004--Star used to be two sections: JAX to TPA via DLD and ORL + JAX to MIA via Ocala and Wildwood. Changed to one section JAX to MIA via Auburndale to TPA with the two separate stops in Lakeland both inbound and outbound from TPA. If the Lakeland to Tampa issue has been a significant quirk for 18 years, do yo think Amtrak could have addressed it as necessary? I would bet that there are only a handful of Amtrak railfans like me who noticed it--although it has gotten a lot of attention on this forum thread recently.

 

[Qapla]

One of the real disappointments in many of these city pairs is that they only work one-way.

I can take a day-trip to Tampa from JAX - but, someone in Tampa cannot take a day-trip to JAX.

I would like to be able to take the train to Savannah for a day-trip but that is not possible with Amtrak's current schedule. The same holds true of the Lakeland-Tampa connection ... even if you can do a workaround - it doesn't work in the other direction.

 

[McIntyre2K7]

Correct. I would love to go to the Orlando theme parks for the day and not worry about driving on I-4. Not going to lie, I wish Amtrak could expand and start with the Florida services first. Someone at Amtrak should convince the State of Florida by running a train from Waldo or Ocala (I'm not 100% sure) to Tallahassee for the UF/FSU game. The station in Tallahassee is just a mile away from Doak.

Or they could do one for the USF/UCF game since it will be the last one played for a while. That could have a stop in Lakeland.

 

[jis]

That is why we are trying to get FDOT to engage with Amtrak to work towards two additional intra-Florida round trips. For a short while there was one intra-Florida round trip supported by FDOT. It was v1 of Silver Palm, but it was discontinued after a few years.