The Sunset Limited Is Dead? Long Live The GULF WIND!

[Ocklawaha]

Yesterday/ 3-30-10,  From the TU Blog Section:

Submitted by Larry Hannan on March 30, 2010 - 11:28pm On the Road

No one advocating for the return of the Sunset Limited from Orlando to New Orleans was at Cocoa City Hall last Friday.

The meeting showed that there is significant interest in train service on the Florida East Coast tracks from Jacksonville to Miami. It doubled as an unspoken funeral service for the Sunset Limited.

Officials from all the major cities on the Florida East Coast from Jacksonville to Stuart were at Friday's meeting. Senior members of Amtrak, FEC and the Florida Department of Transportation also expressed their strong interest in moving forward with train service.

There are about 268 million obstacles to getting trains on the FEC tracks. But there's also a will to get something down. Flagler County showed up in force to express anger over the lack of a train station within its county.

There has been nothing similar with the Sunset Limited. Tallahassee, Mobile and other cities are not passing joint resolutions calling to bring the service back. FDOT officials aren't coming to meetings with Amtrak.

I've done a couple of stories on the Sunset, and was vaguely thinking of doing another update on where it stood. But I don't see the point now.

The Sunset Limited was canceled after Hurricane Katrina damaged the tracks in 2005. Lip service has been paid to bringing it back. But it's not happening.

Good! I'm glad to see this stupid train simply go away. Why? Because a transcontinental train From Orlando - Jax - New Orleans - Houston - Los Angeles, is an idea born of "Airplane Think". End point to end point, with no consideration for anything in between. Trains can't and don't operate successfully that way. This train was more about Mickey I, and Mickey II, then anything logical. It came about because the Amtrak Planners couldn't find Jacksonville on a map of Duval County. As a result it ran through the dead of night between Jax and New Orleans. Since it was the ONLY train in the panhandle, Southern Alabama, and Southeast Mississippi, the genius conclusion was that this area just won't support a train. BULL SHIT! Had that train ran between Jacksonville and New Orleans on a schedule that would have found it's potential passengers awake, it would have sung a song of nascent success.

This is where the old GULF WIND comes into the picture, a daily train that runs between Jacksonville and New Orleans with connecting services beyond both JAX and NORL.  If Amtrak and FDOT, ALDOT, MSDOT, LADOT and the USDOT, had had any sense, they would have spotted this long before Katrina crippled the line (just long enough to give Amtrak an excuse to breach their good faith contract).  If Tallahassee, Montgomery, Jackson and Baton Rouge, could ever get their acts together we could see something come of this route yet. Daytime along the Panhandle and Coast, and maybe even an eventual extension from New Orleans, for a late arrival in Baton Rouge, and a morning arrival in DALLAS. Yeah, it COULD be done. But the new money flowing to Amtrak was released because the local politico's insisted that the "SUNSET" be studied and/or reinstated. Why the SUNSET? Because these people are lemmings incapable of independent thought.

Nope, these rocket scientists want to roll into Jacksonville at 8 am, right alongside the Southbound New York - Miami, Silver Star.  The planners then intend to send both trains to Orlando, 20 minutes apart, 120 wasted miles.
Why the hell do these people think trains have the ability to make up or break up their consists? Take those cars all the way to Miami or Tampa via the connecting train, and we'd have our service back.


OCKLAWAHA

[CS Foltz]

Ock...........I would swear on a stack of Bibles those Idiota's work for CUTR or JTA!

[LPBrennan]

It should be remembered that the original Gulf Wind was also an overnight train to New Orleans, but was complemented by the nameless Passenger, Mail & Express (SAL numbers 36 and 37) which was a daylight train- at least, in Florida! The Gulf Wind (SAL numbers 38 and 39) took about 15 hours (or more) for the trip, the coach-only 36 and 37 took 25 to 30 hours; all these times depended on the L&N connections at Flomaton, Alabama. In 1954, the Wind's through cars were added to the L&N's Pan-American/Crescent to New Orleans; the local's to the Piedmont. The local was a grim train between here and Flomaton: You'd better've packed a box lunch. Of course, there was nearly an hour's wait at Pensacola.

On Good Friday, 1970, two friends and I took the Wind to New Orleans and spent a day there before heading back to Jacksonville.* It was still daily but no sleeper, with a waiter-in-charge diner-lounge only going as far as Chattahoochee. We were added to the Pan-American from Louisville, and I remember eating a wonderful breakfast in the L&N diner as we came into Mobile. (Best red-eye gravy I've EVER had!) By then the Pan was the only train on that line- the Crescent and Piedmont were memories.

Shortly after, in the waning days, SCL agreed to re-instate the sleeper on the train if it were permitted to become a thrice-weekly service. (Thrice-weekly- the curse of Amtrak, since you can't rely on an easy return connection.)

In a better if not perfect world, I'd like to see the coast-to-coast Sunset back, and daily, too, with a daily day-train to Pensacola.

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* Nothing to do with this thread, but the "heading back to Jacksonville" turned into a nightmare which is quite a story in itself!

[tufsu1]

Ock...........I would swear on a stack of Bibles those Idiota's work for CUTR or JTA!

how 'bout a bet...I could use some money