Jacksonville - Miami Rail Project Still Moving Forward

[thelakelander]

Does anyone else agree? I'd like to hear from all of you on this one as I'm soon meeting with AMTRAK.

Good point for travel between the major markets.  I still believe the majority of potential riders using this service won't be going non-stop from Jax to Miami.  Instead you'll have Jax to St. Augustine, Daytona to Melbourne and Stuart to Miami type trips.  So I would be more interested in travel times that connect smaller outlying communities with the major cities.  If scheduled right, I could see such a corridor service also having the benefit of being used for limited commuting purposes between cities along the coast.

[JeffreyS]

I used trains as my hotel a few times when I did the back pack thing in Europe it was a great way to travel.

[Ocklawaha]

That is exactly why I'm pushing for a Florida overnight service. Any train that leaves New York in the early morning will enter JAX around 11pm to Midnight. Most of our train traffic has passed through southbound in the early morning HERE, meaning it left New York in the afternoon or evening of the day before. These trains roll through the night in Virginia and the Carolinas. With one train running a complete 12 hour flipped schedule, our southbound departures might look more like 11pm and 11am, rather then 8am and 9am. With only two surviving trains in our whole state, it only makes sense to spread the assets and stretch those dollars to cover as many passenger needs as possible. Are we agreed then that 2 trains with a 12 hour spread is superior to 2 trains running back to back?


OCKLAWAHA

[CS Foltz]

I agree Ock! More bang for the buck but what do I know........I just get to pay for them!

[LPBrennan]

Too many bad decisions by and about Amtrak to devote much time to this topic tonight. It's late and past my bedtime. Still...
Outside of the Northeast and a few- too few!- other corridors, Amtrak's idea of "service" has been a train a day... or three a week. Economically, this piles the entire cost of the infrastructure on one train, instead of spreading it out. It limits the choices to the traveler, especially when making a connection with a thrice-weekly train. Since its inception, with Paul Reistrop at the helm, who thought in airline, endpoint-to-endpoint terms, Amtrak ignored the possibilities of connecting trains. In those days it made some trains "limited stop" trains: I recall the "Florida Special" in '71-'72 as being "Non-stop" from Richmond to Jacksonville.
The multitude of destinations is a strong point that should have been exploited. I was on the "Sunset" once and chatted with a woman who got on in Palatka, going to see her grandchildren in Pensacola. It was too far and fatiguing for her to drive, there was no reasonable bus schedule, and you can't fly between the two.
As for expanding routes... well, there was no money and no equipment and no foresight or marketing or... Lost opportunities abound. Imagine a train or two between Chicago and Bramson, Missouri? A family-friendly destination with a family-friendly means of getting there. How long did it take to add Boston-Portland service... and no further than that? And no North-South connection in Beantown? Jacksonville-Atlanta? Or on to Chicago- a re-incarnated Dixie Flyer? Just look at the laughable national map! What holes exist?
Shoot... I gotta go. More rant later...

[CS Foltz]

No rant LP when it is the truth! I would swear on a stack of bibles whatever hocky puck is running Amtrak was trained in the City of Jacksonville at one of those high paying AMIO positions! They have about the same vision and plan which equates into nothing!

[LPBrennan]

Back in 1979, when Amtrak was holding "hearings" on the fate of the Floridian, I attended the one here- in the old Hilton, I believe. After the presentation, the public was invited to speak for five minutes each. I spoke with only a few notes on an index card. I said if Amtrak's policy had been to deliberately discourage patronage on the Floridian, they would have done exactly what had been done with the train since its inception. Its schedule and route varied frequently, often flopping twelve hours from timetable to timetable. The ride became longer and longer. The equipment was the oldest in Amtrak's roster. (I have copies of Wayner's publications and had roof of that.) When I finished, I was roundly applauded by the audience- most gratifying- and received a mention in the T-U's piece the next day.

We` all knew it was futile and the alleged hearings were strictly pro forma. The Carter administration had made up its mind and the Floridian and other trains fell to the ax. It's odd... Republicans have a reputation for criticizing Amtrak, but more damage was done to the system by Jimmy Carter than anyone else. Aside from the idiotic way it was set up in the first place, of course. A toothless, bootless underfunded agency whose purpose, of course, was to save PennCentral from the burden of passenger service, run the thing for five years or so, then kill the long-distance train altogether, while weeping crocodile tears over our inability to save it. I suppose Carter was merely carrying out the unstated purpose, which had been de-railed (heh) by the Arab oil embargo. i guess he felt the annoyance had been prolonged a few years.

I wish there were a good answer to the problem. Roads, canals, airports- all transportation is subsidized: The amazing thing is that rail lasted as long as it did with as little subsidy as it had. Only when the subsidies provided the roads and airports proved overwhelming after World War II did the railroad industry falter so badly under the rules and regulations that handicapped it.

[thelakelander]

• City Council member Glorious Johnson is sponsoring a bill that would encourage the re-establishment of Amtrak passenger rail service between Jacksonville and South Florida.

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/citynotes.php?id=530876

[stjr]

• City Council member Glorious Johnson is sponsoring a bill that would encourage the re-establishment of Amtrak passenger rail service between Jacksonville and South Florida.

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/citynotes.php?id=530876

After her quote about avoiding controversy with the Human Rights Commission appointment, I wonder how credible she is at promoting anything other than herself.

[tufsu1]

I don't think one has to wonder

[Jaxson]

Makes you wonder why the good ol' boys wanted her on the city council instead of Ju'Coby Pittman...  LOL