(http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa111/Ocklawaha/CRITICAL%20Maps/FloridaHighSpeedRailMap.gif)
This is the official State Rail Plan map for the "someday" rail network of High Speed Rail. about 1/3 of this track isn't even in place. It WOULD require Billions of dollars and it's a complete bypass of Jacksonville Terminal as the "GATEWAY CITY" that we have always been. We are the only major City in the state with the station, the tracks and the real estate in place to retake the hub role.
(http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa111/Ocklawaha/CRITICAL%20Maps/RealisticRailMap.gif)
This is the same map showing what is ALREADY in place in Florida, and how the rail travel pattern is set up. All this system needs to start is for JTA to build a proper station area, and a few line upgrades for higher speeds. In a State as dense as Florida 79-100 MPH is really as fast as we need to "fly", and for that, any current Amtrak train is up to the task without spending a dime on new technology.
From this there is only one conclusion, FDOT plans to screw Jacksonville big time! Shall we send our port, banks and Navy bases to Orlando too?
OCKLAWAHA
Yeah, we should definitely try to hold onto the hub, but it seems a little selfish...linking Tally to Gainesville hurts no one but us. (I'm no historian and I'm younger so I don't have a fundamental tie to the old days in Jax). In any case, Jax would still be the gateway to FL for those coming from GA, right? I mean from AL, Pensacola looks like it was the gateway anyhow.
Good comments Max.. In railroad-speak, a "GATEWAY" where one railroad company can interchange cars with another. In this case we are the only city that really qualifys. Pensacola has two lines north into Alabama, but one is certainly NOT a mainline. From Pensacola to Jax, there are a couple of connections northward, a shortline between Panama City and Dothan Alabama crosses the CSX just west of Marianna, another from Tallahassee to Thomasville, and one from Perry to Georgia. The next available track south is within the Jacksonville City Limits. So that makes us the GATEWAY CITY in more ways then one.
But it's easy to see the State want's to bypass us with a new railroad, not even consider the "A" line and their map left off the Amtrak service North of Jax??? That new center-of-the-state line they plan would go from Ocala - Gainesville - Lake City. That's not so horrible until one realizes that the NS, runs straight south from Atlanta - Macon - Valdosta - Lake City. Currently Valdosta - Jacksonville is their freight mainline and former passenger route. But if this were done, it would easy to write us out of the picture all together.
OCKLAWAHA
I think you're rerading too much ionto this Ock...I worked on the high speed rail study connecting Tampa and Orlando in 2002....no one is bypassing Jax.....the legislation that jump started high speed rail (and has since been revoked) required connecting Florida's 5 largest urban areas....while not specific, most took this as meaning Jax, Orlando, Tampa and Miami....the real debate was whether the 5th area was SW Florida (Ft. Myers/Naples) or West Palm.
I always wondered what they considered as the five largest urban areas. I figured West Palm would be included with South Florida, leaving Sarasota/Bradenton as the 5th largest in the state.
Quote from: tufsu1 on August 30, 2008, 05:31:13 PM
I think you're rerading too much ionto this Ock...I worked on the high speed rail study connecting Tampa and Orlando in 2002....no one is bypassing Jax.....the legislation that jump started high speed rail (and has since been revoked) required connecting Florida's 5 largest urban areas.
You know, I worked on it too for Sierra Club and the main effort was just to see if they could get the leg from Orlando (actually Melbourne) and Tampa built. Previous legislation had been revoked and they were in a hurry to figure out how to get this leg going because of the car counts along I-4. They were negotiating to use CSX (?) lines to go south from the east coast. They were looking at highway density and travel time between destinations as a way of figuring what the legs should be.
I don't. It's an old map but it says volumes about Tallahassee's goals as opposed to Amtrak or State Sponsored trains. Building new tracks for Orlando, while abandoning Amtrak west of Jacksonville, or Southwest through Waldo (Gainesville) and Ocala, told us where their hearts are. Does anyone realize for the first time since just after the War of Yankee Aggression, Jacksonville trains all enter and leave on the same lines. We no longer have a single connection in "THE LARGEST RAILROAD STATION SOUTH OF WASHINGTON DC". By the way, the US DOT says our Transportation Center should have 12 tracks, that's about the original 10 through tracks and 2 stub tracks. If so, the Convention Center is to be sliced in half, east to west.
OCKLAWAHA
The trick here is to get our starter rail system going here that will make us much harder to ignore.