Seaboard92
Engineer
As we all know one of the largest gaps in the system is the Midwest-Florida gap. And one of the largest cities without service is Nashville, TN. And up until 1979 we had service between Chicago-Bloomington-Lousiville-Nashville-Birmingham-Montgomery-Cordele-Jacksonville-South Florida. Bad time keeping due to deteriorating track conditions and equipment failures are part of the reasons the route was cut during the Carter cuts. Now the track is being maintained better in the Midwest, and the equipment is standardized, even though we lack sufficient equipment.
Market
Currently there are 20 planes scheduled to fly from Chicago to Orlando today, 12 from Chicago-Miami, 21 Nashville-Chicago, 11 Nashville-Atlanta, 44 Atlanta-Chicago, 26 Atlanta-Orlando, and 55 Atlanta-Miami. Greyhound operates no buses direct from Chicago-Orlando or Miami. The rail market goes via the Capitol Limited and Silver Meteor two nights on the train. The strength of the airline market tells me that this is a strong market end to end for those who don't like to fly, or travel via Washington. And an even stronger market with the intermediate cities along the route.
Routes
1. Chicago-Danville-Terree Haute-Evansville-Hopkinsville-Nashville-Chattanooga-Atlanta-Cordele-Waycross-Jacksonville-South Florida
Would bring service to western Indiana which hasn't seen service since the train has been cut. Lets put our stops at Momence, IL (Kankakee), Danville, IL, Terree Haute, IN, Vincennes, IN, Evansville, IN, Madisonville, KY, Hopkinsville, KY, Nashville, TN, Murfreesboro, TN, Chattanooga, TN, Dalton, GA, Marietta, GA, Atlanta, GA, Manchester, GA, Cordelle, GA, Waycross, GA, Jacksonville, FL, then the Silver Meteor stations. This route would have a population of about 18,684,588 people in the metro area of each station for just the new stations (Including Chicago, and Atlanta for a new route). When added to Florida the number should push another seven million people alongside this route. That's a large amount of people. And cities such as Nashville, and Atlanta benefit from this. Two major cities that are very similar on one route. If we kept to a daylight schedule south of Atlanta so leaving at six am roughly. Lets budget six hours for the train to make it from JAX-ATL as the Dixie Flagler took six hours for it's run. I really hope it could make the run faster. It would leave JAX at noon and get to Miami around nine or ten at night, which isn't bad, and would be great for the intrastate Florida market. North of Atlanta lets budget six hours for the train to arrive in Nashville. So the southbound would leave around midnight, and the northbound around six am. Roughly arriving into Chicago northbound at around two PM which is a close connection. Departing Southbound around Two PM as well. If a person pushed the departure back to accommodate Western Trains one would put Nashville after midnight, and could lose a strong intermediate market. But one could gain a thru market that could offset that loss.
Or if one would rather service Atlanta-Nashville-Chicago intermediate markets. One could have the Northbound take the Silver Star's time slot north from Miami, and run thru GA in the middle of the night. To service all the cities during the day. And leave Chicago at Eight AM to put the Atlanta-Jacksonville segment in the night to focus on intermediate. Of course the lines would need to be upgraded for passenger service.
2. Chicago-Indy-Louisville-Nashville-Chattanooga-Atlanta-JAX-Silver Meteor
I will work on this when it's not 2 AM.
3. Chicago-either of the above options-Birmingham-Montgomery-JAX
I will work on that again when it's not 2 AM.
I'm thinking this train should have fairly strong intermediate ridership, as well as fairly strong End Point (Chicago-Florida) traffic. And for a consist I would recommend something similar to the Silver Meteor. Three sleepers, a diner, a lounge, and four to five coaches. With the Viewliner II's coming on line soon, and the Horizons getting freed from corridor service. I could see the equipment being available sometime in the near future.
What do you guys think about this. I'll finish the other routes sometime in the morning.
Market
Currently there are 20 planes scheduled to fly from Chicago to Orlando today, 12 from Chicago-Miami, 21 Nashville-Chicago, 11 Nashville-Atlanta, 44 Atlanta-Chicago, 26 Atlanta-Orlando, and 55 Atlanta-Miami. Greyhound operates no buses direct from Chicago-Orlando or Miami. The rail market goes via the Capitol Limited and Silver Meteor two nights on the train. The strength of the airline market tells me that this is a strong market end to end for those who don't like to fly, or travel via Washington. And an even stronger market with the intermediate cities along the route.
Routes
1. Chicago-Danville-Terree Haute-Evansville-Hopkinsville-Nashville-Chattanooga-Atlanta-Cordele-Waycross-Jacksonville-South Florida
Would bring service to western Indiana which hasn't seen service since the train has been cut. Lets put our stops at Momence, IL (Kankakee), Danville, IL, Terree Haute, IN, Vincennes, IN, Evansville, IN, Madisonville, KY, Hopkinsville, KY, Nashville, TN, Murfreesboro, TN, Chattanooga, TN, Dalton, GA, Marietta, GA, Atlanta, GA, Manchester, GA, Cordelle, GA, Waycross, GA, Jacksonville, FL, then the Silver Meteor stations. This route would have a population of about 18,684,588 people in the metro area of each station for just the new stations (Including Chicago, and Atlanta for a new route). When added to Florida the number should push another seven million people alongside this route. That's a large amount of people. And cities such as Nashville, and Atlanta benefit from this. Two major cities that are very similar on one route. If we kept to a daylight schedule south of Atlanta so leaving at six am roughly. Lets budget six hours for the train to make it from JAX-ATL as the Dixie Flagler took six hours for it's run. I really hope it could make the run faster. It would leave JAX at noon and get to Miami around nine or ten at night, which isn't bad, and would be great for the intrastate Florida market. North of Atlanta lets budget six hours for the train to arrive in Nashville. So the southbound would leave around midnight, and the northbound around six am. Roughly arriving into Chicago northbound at around two PM which is a close connection. Departing Southbound around Two PM as well. If a person pushed the departure back to accommodate Western Trains one would put Nashville after midnight, and could lose a strong intermediate market. But one could gain a thru market that could offset that loss.
Or if one would rather service Atlanta-Nashville-Chicago intermediate markets. One could have the Northbound take the Silver Star's time slot north from Miami, and run thru GA in the middle of the night. To service all the cities during the day. And leave Chicago at Eight AM to put the Atlanta-Jacksonville segment in the night to focus on intermediate. Of course the lines would need to be upgraded for passenger service.
2. Chicago-Indy-Louisville-Nashville-Chattanooga-Atlanta-JAX-Silver Meteor
I will work on this when it's not 2 AM.
3. Chicago-either of the above options-Birmingham-Montgomery-JAX
I will work on that again when it's not 2 AM.
I'm thinking this train should have fairly strong intermediate ridership, as well as fairly strong End Point (Chicago-Florida) traffic. And for a consist I would recommend something similar to the Silver Meteor. Three sleepers, a diner, a lounge, and four to five coaches. With the Viewliner II's coming on line soon, and the Horizons getting freed from corridor service. I could see the equipment being available sometime in the near future.
What do you guys think about this. I'll finish the other routes sometime in the morning.