Metro Jacksonville

The comment "make a well connected urban village" caught my attention.

Per Miami Today

http://www.miamitodaynews.com/news/130509/story4.shtml (http://www.miamitodaynews.com/news/130509/story4.shtml)

  Florida East Coast Industries' All Aboard Florida railway station in Miami will be built on land historically owned by the company in Downtown.
   "The land was the original site of the old Miami Grand Central Station from the days of Flagler," said Michael Reininger, president and chief development officer for All Aboard Florida.
   The station site, just under 10 acres, is currently a series of surfaced parking lots that are to be redeveloped as part of the terminal station for Downtown Miami.
   "Ten acres is a pretty significant area of Downtown," Mr. Reininger said.
   "The station that we are building goes across several blocks of the Downtown area and really becomes the completion of that neighborhood redevelopment."
   The project is still at the design stages of the station and no other locations are planned to open in Miami, Mr. Reininger said.
   "We hope to break ground probably late this year," he added.
  "We'll turn that neighborhood into a very connected urban village, and we'll become a very significant intermodal kind of facility that will link our infrastructure and transportation uses with many of the other existing transportation uses, like the Metrorail and Metromover station, which exist adjacent to the station," he said.
   Fares are not determined at the moment, Mr. Reininger said, but he said they will be "highly competitive" compared with other transportation alternatives.
   "We are certainly developing this new business as a competitive business and we know that we'll be competing with other modes of transportation that are available, like air travel and cars."
   Miami Today previously reported that the project is to provide convenient and cost-effective travel by connecting South and Central Florida through a 230-mile route of combined existing and new railroad tracks, and will also offer travelers "an escape to highway congestion and costly delays" by offering 13 to 16 daily departures from each of the two terminuses â€" Orlando and Miami.
   Each train is to have the capacity to carry 400 passengers.
   The privately-owned intercity rail system's amenities and services are to include WiFi internet service, gourmet meals, beverage service, comfortable seating, luggage accommodations, reserved business and coach service seating, and online reservations.

(http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa111/Ocklawaha/RAILROAD%20Depots%20and%20Stations/ScreenShot2013-05-09at115155AM_zps43aa071b.png)

This could be the best news Florida has had since Henry Flagler walked down the muddy, run-down streets of St Augustine.

QuoteMiami rail station to rise this year

By Blanca Venegas
    Florida East Coast Industries' All Aboard Florida railway station in Miami will be built on land historically owned by the company in Downtown.
   "The land was the original site of the old Miami Grand Central Station from the days of Flagler," said Michael Reininger, president and chief development officer for All Aboard Florida.
   The station site, just under 10 acres, is currently a series of surfaced parking lots that are to be redeveloped as part of the terminal station for Downtown Miami.
   "Ten acres is a pretty significant area of Downtown," Mr. Reininger said.
   "The station that we are building goes across several blocks of the Downtown area and really becomes the completion of that neighborhood redevelopment."
   The project is still at the design stages of the station and no other locations are planned to open in Miami, Mr. Reininger said.
   "We hope to break ground probably late this year," he added.
   "We'll turn that neighborhood into a very connected urban village, and we'll become a very significant intermodal kind of facility that will link our infrastructure and transportation uses with many of the other existing transportation uses, like the Metrorail and Metromover station, which exist adjacent to the station," he said.
   Fares are not determined at the moment, Mr. Reininger said, but he said they will be "highly competitive" compared with other transportation alternatives.
   "We are certainly developing this new business as a competitive business and we know that we'll be competing with other modes of transportation that are available, like air travel and cars."
   Miami Today previously reported that the project is to provide convenient and cost-effective travel by connecting South and Central Florida through a 230-mile route of combined existing and new railroad tracks, and will also offer travelers "an escape to highway congestion and costly delays" by offering 13 to 16 daily departures from each of the two terminuses â€" Orlando and Miami.
   Each train is to have the capacity to carry 400 passengers.
   The privately-owned intercity rail system's amenities and services are to include WiFi internet service, gourmet meals, beverage service, comfortable seating, luggage accommodations, reserved business and coach service seating, and online reservations.
To read the entire issue of Miami Today online, subscribe to e-MIAMI TODAY, an exact digital replica of the printed edition.
http://www.miamitodaynews.com/news/130509/story4.shtml

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(http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa111/Ocklawaha/CRITICAL%20Maps/5170e764-b93c-4af0-a871-80174ac4f834_zps6506a423.jpg)

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Quote

Miami's New Train Station Will Be Big, Grand, Up In The Sky
by Sean McCaughan

Can't wait for All Aboard Florida to roll into Miami? Hopefully it'll come with a name change to something more dignified, like the Florida East Coast Railway (now there's a name nobody's ever thought of before){AGREED! SOUNDS MORE LIKE A DISNEY FANTASY LAND RIDE NEXT TO DUMBO...OCK} but whether it does or not, at least the stations will be damn nice. How nice? Well...

Preferred Station Locations: Trolling around All Aboard Florida's Environmental Assessment Report, which discusses various station alternatives along the FEC line, we found a few juicy tidbits that we'd missed before. (Hey, it's a giant report) First, there are two alternative schemes for each station in play, but the Preferred Alternatives are the South Option in West Palm Beach, the North Option in Fort Lauderdale, and the Central Elevated Option (pictured above) in Miami.

Station Layouts: The Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Stations (schematics are here) will each be centered around a great hall, with an elevated waiting room and concourse above the tracks connecting to a 35 foot wide central platform. Each station will be about 30,000 square feet with 10,000 for retail.

The Miami Station: A railroad viaduct 45 feet above ground and parallel to Metrorail will pass over city streets, the Peoplemover, and the spur to PortMiami. Approaching the station the viaduct will widen to four tracks. Four passenger platforms will stretch 1000 feet between approximately 7th and 4th streets. The main entrance to the station will be across the street from the new Federal Courthouse on NE 1st Avenue, leading to a double-height grand hall below the tracks. Vertical access (elevators, escalators, etc.) will lead to waiting rooms and platforms. A buffer of retail spaces will separate the hall from the public street.

The 60,000 square foot depot will have 30,000 square feet of retail, compared to 10,000 square feet at the other stations. The "Transit-Oriented Development" (basically all the shit next to the station) will consist of 75,000 square feet of retail, 300,000 square feet of office space, a 200 room hotel, and 400 residential units.

http://miami.curbed.com/archives/2012/11/07/all-aboard-florida-station-layouts.php

Approaching the station the viaduct will widen to four tracks. Four passenger platforms will stretch 1000 feet between approximately 7th and 4th streets.


This is 4 tracks solely for AAF trains. Let's toss Amtrak into the mix and you've got two more (trains will split in Jax and need an extra track for the movements), 3 if you ever want a terminating train (such as the on and off 'PALMETTO') to ever call on us again. Next lets toss in minimal commuter rail, lets say just two short trains in from both St. Augustine and Green Cove Springs. The St. Augustine train occupies track one and the Green Cove train Track 2, except this is rush hour and another train from each direction is arriving. To release equipment for another run the first trains will have to pull forward and back past the other... only the other track is blocked by the train that arrived from the other side of the river...

So lets build 4 tracks! Great idea, and while the commuter trains are busy running around each other, Amtrak rolls in with the Silver Star, their going to split it and send a section to Tampa via Orlando and a section to Miami via the FEC RY... "Oh my God! The commute jobs have all 4 tracks fouled and we need at least 2 to split...

So lets build 6 tracks! You getting warmer, so while all of the above is taking place All Aboard Florida (which is only operating half the service it does in the Orlando-Miami corridor) comes rolling in... But their earlier train is over on track 6 as train number 7 rolls in... oops, it can't, tracks one and two are held by Amtrak, tracks three-six are fouled by commuter trains, so AAF sits on the bridge downtown and waits for a clear signal... (...and that's going to last about 2 weeks before the FEC, FECI, FLAGLER DEVELOPMENT, FORTRESS, hammer comes down on Jacksonville).

So lets build 8 tracks, with 4 platforms, and a 5th platform and 9Th track for executive cars...

The main entrance to the station will be across the street from the new Federal Courthouse on NE 1st Avenue, leading to a double-height grand hall below the tracks. Vertical access (elevators, escalators, etc.) will lead to waiting rooms and platforms. A buffer of retail spaces will separate the hall from the public street.

The main entrance to the station will be across the street from the new Federal Courthouse on NE 1st Avenue, leading to a double-height grand hall.

OCKservations: Note the station is downtown!! '@#%$&@#%@!##@' WHAT A GREAT IDEA!! Next note that the new front door to Miami is a 'Grand Hall...' Our current plans for the JRTC call for an addition to the south of the classic 1919 train station which roughly resembles a wart. Miami is even going to have a pedestrian subway BELOW the tracks! OMG! We've got one of those too! 

Note the retail spaces separate the waiting room from the street, on our plan for the JRTC the little fast food concession in the 'Prime Osborn' might even be open some weekdays. Otherwise Jacksonville plans to wrap the buildings on 4 more city block with more of those unique, Urbanesque, lease spaces with the dirt floors that dot our downtown.

Hey folks, we've even got an elevator across the street at the Skyway Station.

This sounds like the description for the Jacksonville Terminal that is already built, and could easily accommodate the track, and people.  What a great idea.  It's pretty, historic, and already built.  What more could Jax ask for? 

See previous posts:

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,18343.msg328114.html#msg328114

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,16667.msg306118.html#msg306118

these topics are now merged.

Miami Central is moving along quite nicely.

(http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/lt/lt_cache/thumbnail/728/img/photos/2016/05/20/71/67/Miami-3.jpg)

It's looking great. I can't wait to see the final product.