Stimulus to bring Amtrak to Florida's east coast?

[TampAGS]

Interesting article in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel:

Amtrak may return passenger service to South Florida's most eastern tracks...

The Florida Department of Transportation has applied for federal stimulus money for railroad projects to bring Amtrak service to the Florida East Coast Railway.

 

...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beac...0,3555172.story

Will $70 million in funding bring Amtrak service to Stuart, Fort Pierce, Vero Beach, Melbourne, Cocoa Beach, Titusville, Daytona Beach and St. Augustine by 2012?

 

I, for one, hope the Florida DOT's application beats out the other 277 it is up against.

 

[Amtrak839]

Interesting article in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel:

Amtrak may return passenger service to South Florida's most eastern tracks...

The Florida Department of Transportation has applied for federal stimulus money for railroad projects to bring Amtrak service to the Florida East Coast Railway.

 

...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beac...0,3555172.story

Will $70 million in funding bring Amtrak service to Stuart, Fort Pierce, Vero Beach, Melbourne, Cocoa Beach, Titusville, Daytona Beach and St. Augustine by 2012?

 

I, for one, hope the Florida DOT's application beats out the other 277 it is up against.

I hope so, too. Florida was where I was first exposed to Amtrak, so even though I don't live there, I'm interested in the rail service there. Perhaps the new Viewliners would allow for a Silver Palm to run to Miami by way of the FEC.

 

[jmbgeg]

Interesting article in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel:

Amtrak may return passenger service to South Florida's most eastern tracks...

The Florida Department of Transportation has applied for federal stimulus money for railroad projects to bring Amtrak service to the Florida East Coast Railway.

 

...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beac...0,3555172.story

Will $70 million in funding bring Amtrak service to Stuart, Fort Pierce, Vero Beach, Melbourne, Cocoa Beach, Titusville, Daytona Beach and St. Augustine by 2012?

 

I, for one, hope the Florida DOT's application beats out the other 277 it is up against.

Kind of off-topic, but is there an Amtrak route to South Florida (Miami/Ft Lauderdale) from the west other than through D.C.? Say from LAX or the Bay Area.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Interesting article in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel:

Amtrak may return passenger service to South Florida's most eastern tracks...

The Florida Department of Transportation has applied for federal stimulus money for railroad projects to bring Amtrak service to the Florida East Coast Railway.

 

...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beac...0,3555172.story

Will $70 million in funding bring Amtrak service to Stuart, Fort Pierce, Vero Beach, Melbourne, Cocoa Beach, Titusville, Daytona Beach and St. Augustine by 2012?

 

I, for one, hope the Florida DOT's application beats out the other 277 it is up against.

Kind of off-topic, but is there an Amtrak route to South Florida (Miami/Ft Lauderdale) from the west other than through D.C.? Say from LAX or the Bay Area.

Im not sure if you are joking(tend to think so :lol: )but you could ride to ATL on the Crescent from NOL

and catch a bus to Savanah or other stops on the Silver trains and this would buypass WAS! Of course

the traveler and other members will say this defeats the purpose but you could also fly(ugh) and do the same!

 

[jmbgeg]

Interesting article in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel:

Amtrak may return passenger service to South Florida's most eastern tracks...

The Florida Department of Transportation has applied for federal stimulus money for railroad projects to bring Amtrak service to the Florida East Coast Railway.

 

...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beac...0,3555172.story

Will $70 million in funding bring Amtrak service to Stuart, Fort Pierce, Vero Beach, Melbourne, Cocoa Beach, Titusville, Daytona Beach and St. Augustine by 2012?

 

I, for one, hope the Florida DOT's application beats out the other 277 it is up against.

Kind of off-topic, but is there an Amtrak route to South Florida (Miami/Ft Lauderdale) from the west other than through D.C.? Say from LAX or the Bay Area.

Im not sure if you are joking(tend to think so :lol: )but you could ride to ATL on the Crescent from NOL

and catch a bus to Savanah or other stops on the Silver trains and this would buypass WAS! Of course

the traveler and other members will say this defeats the purpose but you could also fly(ugh) and do the same!

Sounds like Spokane/Chicago/Washington/Ft. Lauderdale would be the easiest train route for me.

 

[jis]

Kind of off-topic, but is there an Amtrak route to South Florida (Miami/Ft Lauderdale) from the west other than through D.C.? Say from LAX or the Bay Area.

Notionally yes, but practically no.

eg.

1. LAX -(Sunset Ltd)- NOL -(Crescent)- Charlotte NC -(Carolinian)- Rocky Mount NC -(Silver Meteror)- Florida

2. LAX -(Sunset Ltd)- NOL -(Crescent)- Charlotte NC -(Carolinian)- Raleigh NC -(Silver Star)- Florida

 

[MattW]

Who knows, with a third line down into Florida, Georgia may capitalize on this and run a train at least ATL-JAX or perhaps ATL-MIA via the FEC route.

 

[jphjaxfl]

Who knows, with a third line down into Florida, Georgia may capitalize on this and run a train at least ATL-JAX or perhaps ATL-MIA via the FEC route.

Georgia has been talking about lines from Atlanta to Athens and Atlanta to Macon for 15 years or more. Nothing has happened. There would need to be some serious upgrades to tracks for Atlanta to Jacksonville so trains can travel fast enough to compete with automobiles.

 

[Philzy]

Interesting article in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel:

Amtrak may return passenger service to South Florida's most eastern tracks...

The Florida Department of Transportation has applied for federal stimulus money for railroad projects to bring Amtrak service to the Florida East Coast Railway.

 

...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beac...0,3555172.story

Will $70 million in funding bring Amtrak service to Stuart, Fort Pierce, Vero Beach, Melbourne, Cocoa Beach, Titusville, Daytona Beach and St. Augustine by 2012?

 

I, for one, hope the Florida DOT's application beats out the other 277 it is up against.

Wow, wouldn't this be nice? Would be a great way to get people used to riding the rails again in Florida to the larger cities and take some traffic off I-4 and I-95, and would sure help ridership for the FHSR once that gets going.

Awesome Article, thanks for Posting TampAGS

 

[guest]

Im not sure if you are joking(tend to think so :lol: )but you could ride to ATL on the Crescent from NOLand catch a bus to Savanah or other stops on the Silver trains and this would buypass WAS! Of course

the traveler and other members will say this defeats the purpose but you could also fly(ugh) and do the same!

Yes it does defeat the purpose. I would rather fly than take a bus and if I am already going to fly from Atlanta then I might as well just fly all the way to Miami and not just Jacksonville or Savannah.

Another option is if they would just do something about connecting Atlanta to Raleigh directly on a day train. Then connections could be made with the Silvers and you wouldn't have to go all the way up north to get to Florida. Tracks are already ready, stations are already built.

 

[pennyk]

It would be nice to be able to get to Atlanta from Orlando by train without having to go through Washington DC. The last time I rode an airplane (4 years ago) was to attend a conference in Atlanta (from Orlando).

 

[Amtrak OBS Gone Freight]

Interesting article in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel:

Amtrak may return passenger service to South Florida's most eastern tracks...

The Florida Department of Transportation has applied for federal stimulus money for railroad projects to bring Amtrak service to the Florida East Coast Railway.

 

...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beac...0,3555172.story

Will $70 million in funding bring Amtrak service to Stuart, Fort Pierce, Vero Beach, Melbourne, Cocoa Beach, Titusville, Daytona Beach and St. Augustine by 2012?

 

I, for one, hope the Florida DOT's application beats out the other 277 it is up against.

Kind of off-topic, but is there an Amtrak route to South Florida (Miami/Ft Lauderdale) from the west other than through D.C.? Say from LAX or the Bay Area.

I have a wonderful idea!

It will require you to go on a VERY IMPORTANT mission! Your task is to find the means necessary to create a "time machine" where we can go back into time to say oh around 1994 or so when the "Sunset Limtited" was a LAX-NOL-MIA-NOL-LAX train! And then cause the train not to be cut back to ORL when that happened and initiate an immediate return of the train after Katrina when CSX gives the go ahead!!! It would be greatly appreciated if you might be able to help us out with that!

Just kidding.... I guess I am whipping a dead horse, so back to reality..... but it sure would be nice!

OBS gone freight...

 

[TampAGS]

Wow, wouldn't this be nice? Would be a great way to get people used to riding the rails again in Florida to the larger cities and take some traffic off I-4 and I-95, and would sure help ridership for the FHSR once that gets going.
Awesome Article, thanks for Posting TampAGS

My pleasure, Philzy. Thanks for your comment!

 

You're right in that this would be a really great way of getting cars off our highways. I know visitors to Florida (particularly international visitors) bemoan the lack of rail here and would much rather take the train than have to drive.

 

Amtrak could really capitalize on finally having real service to Daytona Beach. Besides being a year-round tourist destination, there are four major events there during the winter and spring months each year that draw enormous amounts of people in from out of town.

• Speed Weeks (NASCAR's season opens with the Daytona 500.. HUGE crowds, mostly from the southeast)
  
• Bike Week (ok... so there's one preferred method of travel here, and it's not Amtrak)
  
  
• Black College Reunion (seems to have lost support in recent years.. train service could turn that around)
  
• Spring Break (It's not the top destination it used to be, but Daytona still gets a LOT of spring breakers)
  

At least three of the above potentially would have attendees eager to take Amtrak directly into Daytona as opposed to the expensive, inconvenient Thruway "Motorcoach" taxi-cab from DeLand, or a long boring drive down I-95.

It would be nice to be able to get to Atlanta from Orlando by train without having to go through Washington DC. The last time I rode an airplane (4 years ago) was to attend a conference in Atlanta (from Orlando).

Yes, that would be very nice, indeed. Unfortunately, such a route has yet to materialize.

 

I'm not sure about Orlando, but Atlanta is the 5th top market for travelers departing from Tampa International Airport (a route that I, myself, used to frequent). Atlanta-based Delta is the 2nd ranked carrier serving TPA. I would imagine that the MCO-ATL market is pretty heavily traveled as well. It is long overdue that travelers once again have the option of going by rail when moving between Atlanta and Central Florida.