Metro Jacksonville

In the height of the storm of railroad consolidations and spin offs that eventually led to CSX, the company pulled the plug on the old Seaboard Air Line speedway between Richmond and Raleigh. Amtrak inherited the Silver Meteor, the Seaboard's flagship train in 1971. After the line was changed, the meteor had to suffer the indignity of operating over former rival Atlantic Coast Line track. Now after all of these years and all of this abandonment insanity, comes an announcement that the old Seaboard is to rise again. Will the Silver Meteor please phone home?

QuoteThe North Carolina Department of Transportation and Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation have released a report announcing their recommendations for the route that the Southeast High Speed Rail (SEHSR) corridor will follow between Richmond, Va. and Raleigh. The project will include a total of about 162 miles of high speed rail.
In Warren County, the corridor will run from the Virginia state line, through the town of Norlina, and on to areas south of the town, where the rail line will reach Middleburg and, eventually, North Carolina's capital city.
The report, which will be presented as a recommendation to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), follows a series of eight public hearings held in North Carolina and Virginia in July 2010, including one at Northside Elementary School in Norlina that drew a crowd of 250.
In addition to questions and comments at the public hearings, citizens were invited to provide their comments through letters or email, a project telephone hotline or an Internet survey form. Over 1,850 individuals and 50 organizations submitted comments.
Out of 979 respondents who indicated whether they supported or opposed the SEHSR project, 598, or 61 percent, supported it, 368, or 38 percent, opposed it, and 13, or 1 percent, expressed conditional approval, such as if a certain route alternative were selected.
The report describes the routes that were considered in areas between Richmond, Va. and Raleigh, factors that influenced the decision about the recommended route, and why the recommended route was selected. Warren County is covered in sections L-N.
After the FRA approves the recommendations, a final Environmental Impact Statement is expected to be published in early 2013. The FRA also will release a record of decision, which will be followed by additional public hearings on the project.

SOURCE: <http://www.vancnews.com/the_warren_record/news/article_b6cdb1ba-57de-11e1-bed9-001871e3ce6c.html>

Ock,  That has to be the saddest rail picture you have ever posted!   :(

Nope, the saddest picture is the abandonment of the Sunset Limited from Sanford, FL to New Orleans, LA.

And the Gulf Wind, which I used to ride to New Orleans every summer when I was a kid.

Quote from: mtraininjax on February 16, 2012, 08:55:06 PM
Nope, the saddest picture is the abandonment of the Sunset Limited from Sanford, FL to New Orleans, LA.

Actually I'd celebrate the idea of the train being cut between Sanford and Jacksonville because it is redundant. Those passengers should have ridden through cars cut in and out of our NYC-MIA trains at Jacksonville. And while we could use additional train service between here and Central Florida, our 'A' line corridor schedule should not be dictated by the trains arrival time in New Orleans, Houston or El Paso. We need very little effort to maintain our railroad hub status and just a little lobbying for common sense operations would keep that from being given to Orlando.

OCK