Metro Jacksonville

Jacksonville leaders optimistic about rail prospects
Project would upgrade Jacksonville commuter lines, entice tourists.
Posted: March 15, 2011 - 12:00am


MAITLAND - There is almost no passenger rail service in Florida. But when the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held a hearing in this Orlando suburb Monday morning, the vast majority of discussion focused on getting passenger trains into the state.

"I'd say they talked about rail for about 90 percent of the meeting," said Martin County Commissioner Doug Smith.

That was fine with Smith, who attended the meeting in the hopes of getting support for Amtrak service on the Florida East Coast rail line between Jacksonville and Miami.

It also pleased officials with the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, who hope a focus on rail will free up federal funds to construct a commuter rail line in Jacksonville and turn the Prime Osborn Convention Center into a multimodal transportation facility.

Money could soon be coming for all of these projects because U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., became chairman of the transportation committee this year. Monday's hearing was in Mica's district, which stretches from Orlando to St. Augustine.

Mica said Monday he wants to pass a transportation bill by the end of 2011. The legislation would fund transportation projects for the next six years.

Amtrak has passenger service from Jacksonville to Miami via CSX tracks on its Silver Star and Silver Meteor trains. But the Silver Meteor goes through Orlando and takes nine hours, and the Silver Star takes almost 11 hours through Tampa.

The Florida Department of Transportation estimates that Florida East Coast tracks, which roughly parallel Interstate 95, could take an Amtrak train from Jacksonville to Miami in six hours, about the same as driving.

The project would cost about $250 million, with the state and federal government splitting the cost if the federal government agrees to the arrangement.

The money is necessary to upgrade tracks so the passenger rail wouldn't interfere with Florida East Coast freight operations. New stations would also be built in St. Augustine and Daytona Beach. Local officials believe this would entice more tourists to come to those towns on the train.

While the East Coast route came up multiple times during Monday's meeting, the Central Florida focus meant JTA's projects were never mentioned.

But authority officials still liked what they heard.

Getting the East Coast route running strengthens the authority's argument for rail, and the multimodal center at the Prime Osborn, said Brad Thoburn, JTA director of strategic planning.

The authority needs about $50 million for the first phase of the project, which would run from Bay to Forsyth streets and include a new Greyhound station, 200 parking spaces, 8,000 square feet of retail space and a four-story building housing most regional transportation offices.

That portion of the project is just about shovel ready, said Steve Arrington, JTA director of resource management.

The entire project is expected to cost $180 million and would include the new Amtrak station, a 1,800-parking-space garage and possibly future commuter and high speed rail.

If the East Coast route became available, the Amtrak station could move into the first phase, authority officials said.

JTA plans three commuter rail lines that would begin downtown at the Prime Osborn. Two would use CSX tracks - one north to Yulee, one south to Green Cove Springs - and the third would go southeast on Florida East Coast tracks to St. Augustine.


http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2011-03-15/story/jacksonville-leaders-optimistic-about-rail-prospects

No word on timeline?  My guess, if we're lucky, we're still a good decade away (give or take a few years in either direction depending on DC & the state) away from a commuter rail line actually being in operation locally.

Well you have to like the tone of this article.  I do hope that the commuter lines will be thought of as passing through the Prime Osborn in stead of terminating there. Line one Green Cove Springs to Saint Augustine via Downtown. Line two Saint Augustine to Yulee via downtown. Just to keep the transfers down. I hope our next Mayor will help the JTA push this.

Quote from: thelakelander on March 15, 2011, 09:27:57 AM
No word on timeline?  My guess, if we're lucky, we're still a good decade away (give or take a few years in either direction depending on DC & the state) away from a commuter rail line actually being in operation locally.

Let's hope the Amtrak line is quicker.  If the timing works our you could have quasi commuter rail St. Augustine to downtown.  Then maybe we could locally reopen the Green Cove Springs Amtrak station.

from what I hear, the cities along the coast will be filing a joint application to try and get some of the $2.4B in high speed rail $ Gov. Scott just returned...applications are due April 4th to USDOT.

Keep in mind FDOT has submitted applications for Amtrak/FEC twice before so much of the data is already available...as I said in another thread, this may be the only good thing to come out of a really bad decision

Hopefully the JTA can get in on that. Doesn't the 2.4 bil have to go for 150mph HSR?

It seems far-fetched that the US DOT would want to use any of that $2.4 billion for upgrading the FEC.  Scott has screwed them once, why give him a chance to screw them again?

It's far more likely that the diverted funds will go either through the Carolinas, or into the Midwest via Atlanta.  Either route would benefit Jacksonville.  I don't know the details about either option, but they both make sense from a national perspective, and neither of them would be directly under the thumb of our governor.

Quote from: JeffreyS on March 15, 2011, 09:41:08 AM
Hopefully the JTA can get in on that. Doesn't the 2.4 bil have to go for 150mph HSR?

90mph or above. My wild guess is that California will win most of the money.  Its the only remaining HSR shovel ready plan that isn't an upgrade of conventional intercity rail.

It is either HSR or Intercity Passenger service. The Jax to Miami service could reach speeds up to 90mph. What would be different in this application is the addition of track work and modifications to Jax Terminal to support the relocation of Amtrak from Clifford Ln to Downtown.

If the requirement is only for 90mph and above we should apply to upgrade all of our Amtrak line plus , FEC, and Jax to N.O.. That would be the better use of the money than the original HSR plan.  I was sure the Fed was requiring higher speeds than that.

New Orleans? About the same chance as a snowball in hell... The route from LA to JAX was excellent, but the mandate that it was originally an extension of the Sunset Limited screwed the pooch. Even though Amtrak was able to add a long budding suburban-urban district New Orleans-Pensacola, the Pensacola-Jax-Orlando (and originally Miami) idea was STUPID. My old friend the late great Walkin' Lawton made sure it got funded and we paid millions to CSX to "up grade the line and signal some stretches that were dark (unsignaled) territory," in order to allow passenger train speeds.

I suspect the problem on this end was merely another case of a rat in the corn flakes...MICKEY, wanted a connection from LA to MCO, so all logic and reason flew out the window. (gee, sort of reminds me of another stupid ORLANDOCENTRIC idea from FDOT).

Amtrak cut all connections with the midwest from Florida under the Jimmy Carter massacre of 1979. There is a great and well used train (which also desperately needs a complimenting sister) from Chicago to New Orleans. We COULD HAVE HAD a great "temporary" replacement for direct service via a connecting through car from Chicago via New Orleans. The old running mate of the City Of New Orleans was "The Panama Limited" and between those two trains it's easy to "imagineer" a new schedule and/or train CHI-NOL and a good schedule between NOL-JAX.


Bottom line is AMTRAK itself wanted out of the dumb previous arrangement, but a Chicago through car and Jacksonville as a Terminal with connections north and south.

OCKLAWAHA