High-Speed Rail is the Tim Tebow of Florida Transportation

buckethead · September 22, 2009, 07:51:12 AM

I am heading to tampa soon. It would be so great if I some other option than having to fly directly, all the way to Tampa.

It would be so nice if I could just Fly to Orlando, then take a lovely fast train the rest of the way onto Tampa's airport! I wouldn't have to worry about sitting in that same old airplane seat for an extra 14 minutes because I took a direct flight. It seems a no brainer to fly to Orlando, get my bags, take them to the boarding station, pay another fare, then enjoy the remainder of my trip to Tampa.

You Jacksonvillains should be happy to contribute to such an awesome system. Maybe one day, many years from now after the brilliance of this system shines through, you will get a run added near your area.

How much time could you save in time spent searching for direct flights?

CS Foltz · September 22, 2009, 08:07:12 AM

Gee big guy...........you could always have the fun of the drive?

buckethead · September 22, 2009, 08:14:48 AM

Quote from: CS Foltz on September 22, 2009, 08:07:12 AM
Gee big guy...........you could always have the fun of the drive?

Again, that would be too direct. People should get past the old "flat world" notion that travelling directly to your destination is the best way to go. If we had HSR (MCO-TPA) think of all the possibilities!

Fly to Tampa, train to Orlando.
Drive to Orlando Fly to Tampa, Train to Orlando.
Fly to Orlando, rant a car to Tampa, Train to Orlando.

These are but a few of the virtually unlimited possibilities! Think of the FUTURE!

CS Foltz · September 22, 2009, 08:17:59 AM

I agree there are options! One better would be to train from Jacksonville to Tampa but that doesn't appear viable for the future. I sure am glad I don't have to go that way! I4 is a pain in the butt at rush hour!

buckethead · September 22, 2009, 08:22:16 AM

I hope the parody is clear.

CS Foltz · September 22, 2009, 08:24:36 AM

Yes Sir it is!!! Tongue in cheek humor is appreciated! I wonder if the US Mail has an express package system over the same route? That would be even cheaper............you could mail yourself! Yuk Yuk!

tufsu1 · September 22, 2009, 08:31:11 AM

CS....what makes you think that both end points are at an airport?

The endpoint in Tampa will be downtown....unless itis extended over the Bay to Pinellas....and then it will end in the mid-County Gateway area.

buckethead · September 22, 2009, 08:32:44 AM

Then how am I going to get to TPA form MCO?

CS Foltz · September 22, 2009, 08:37:24 AM

Map showed Orlando end at the Airport........where exactly not sure since map is not too difinitive. Tampa end showed at airport end there also.........or is the map incorrect?

CS Foltz · September 22, 2009, 08:45:37 AM

See reply #87 from lakelander............map is not to scale but close enough to assume airport connections at either end..............so is the map correct?

tufsu1 · September 22, 2009, 01:08:42 PM

the map is coprrect....the ORL end is at the airport....but the Tampa aiport (plane symbol) is 5 miles from the downtown end point....it is just a map scale issue.

CS Foltz · September 23, 2009, 07:16:29 AM

OK...........much thanks for the correction big guy! But it still does not compute as a model! I still think that there are better places to set up a trial system. There are connection issues at either end that would prohibit expansion into a full fledged mass transit system that would be statewide!

tufsu1 · September 24, 2009, 03:47:14 PM

Here's a report on how HSR should be phased in around the country

http://www.infrastructurist.com/2009/09/17/heres-how-we-should-build-out-a-high-speed-rail-network/

Ocklawaha · September 24, 2009, 05:50:06 PM

Quote from: CS Foltz on September 22, 2009, 06:36:43 AM
Nice to know that this system will start and stop at Airports at both ends! If you have not been to Orlando of late...........I have to ask - How do you go down I4 to get to the airport? My point is that if I4 is such a bear to travel during rush hour how do you get to the southeast side of Orlando to make it to the train? Does this mean that more Airport access roads will have to be built.....not to mention parking both long and short term? This setup will complicate things unless your flying in and then you need to be going to either end by getting on at either end.............this makes sense?

That's just the tip of this iceberg. Here's your answer from one who did 10 year's (yeah it was that bad) in Seminole County.

From downtown Orlando, one can take I-4 south to Orange Blossom Trail, hence through 632 stoplights down to Sand Lake Road, Left on Sand Lake, until it merges with the 528 tollway, the first exit to your right is Semoran, or SR436 which leads into the Airport Property.

or

From downtown Orlando, one can take the East/West Tollway, Eastbound, and a couple of bucks later, come to SR436 turn right and 332 stoplights later, you pull into OIA.

or (if your blessed to live North of Orlando in the burbs)

You can get on I-4 and travel (sometimes 55 mph) into downtown Orlando, then make your choice. But the REALLY blessed can get on the 417 Tollway in Lake Mary, and zip around the whole East Side of the City, until you come to the 528 Tollway, West to the Airport - BUT - You better have about $8.00 in cash or a Florida Turnpike SunPass.

Fact is, as planned it does not serve a single highly populated area until it dumps you out in the middle of a freeway interchange a mile or so from the Tampa Union Station (which they don't plan to use - After buying it for this purpose years ago). The worst part for not just Jacksonville but Miami, West Palm Beach, Daytona Beach and especially Ocala, Gainesville, etc... Is Florida MIGHT and I am serious about that "MIGHT" get some funds to move forward, but this project is going to over spend it's headlights so fast the State DOT won't know what hit them. Not to mention having the fast lanes of I-4 tied up with construction for XX years. There simply will not be the funds, or the will, to spend another dime ANYWHERE else in this State. Talk about a Sky-Highway, meet the mother of all failed adventures.

Can't you just hear the talk now, "We'd love to help Jax, but if we just add 4 miles to the Orlando, HSR into downtown, and that Billion dollar Tampa LRT connection... Well... You'll understand..."

OCKLAWAHA

CS Foltz · September 24, 2009, 07:51:26 PM

I understand Ock...........like I have said before.......If Mickey wants a railroad, then let Mickey build it! Orlando is not the area to set anything up for a trial run. Makes me wonder just who funded the survey that says that part of the world is the best place for setting this up and just how it was worded? I know that questions can be slanted to produce answers one is looking for but still............I have to question who?