Florida East Coast Passenger Rail Moving Along

[Ocklawaha]

Florida East Coast Passenger rail plan moving forward, exactly as MJ predicted. Here is an update from the Orlando Sentinel.

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2012-mar-feci-bringing-private-passenger-rail-to-florida-by-2014
NEWS RELEASE

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2012-apr-stunning-things-are-happening-as-florida-goes-rail
metrojacksonville.com IN DEPTH ANALYSIS

Miami to Orlando train proposal rolling down the planning tracks
4:44 p.m. EST, May 14, 2012|By Dan Tracy, Orlando Sentinel

A Coral Gables development company expects to have a study completed next month that could determine whether it builds a privately funded $1 billion train linking Miami with Orlando.

If the ridership study finds enough demand, Florida East Coast Industries could begin construction next year, Husein Cumber, executive vice president of Florida East Coast Railway, an affiliate of FECI, said Monday.

"Everything right now is trending in the right direction," he said.

Cumber spoke to a gathering of Central Florida government and real estate officials at the offices of MetroPlan, which sets transportation policy in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties.

So far, Cumber said, four stops appear certain for the train that has been dubbed All Aboard Florida: Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Orlando. The exact locations remain uncertain, except for Miami, where FECI owns nine acres downtown.

Missing as a possible stop is Cocoa, where the proposed train would veer west for Orlando. Bob Kamm, director of the Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization in Viera, said Brevard County officials want to know if they will have any involvement with the system.

"All we would see is the negatives … if you are just blowing through and waving as you go by," Kamm said.

Cumber said the ridership study would determine if there is a Cocoa stop, but he added that the train's biggest appeal is that it would be faster to ride it to Miami or Orlando than drive a car. The projected travel time is three hours and two minutes, he said, compared with about four hours by auto.

Previous studies of the Miami-Orlando route by backers of an ill-fated high-speed train had pegged the Cocoa segment as potentially lucrative because it could carry travelers from Orlando International Airport to the cruise ships at Port Canaveral.

Cumber said his group intends to meet with Port Canaveral officials next month and OIA administrators this week.

FECI, which also does business as Flagler, owns property throughout Florida, including the rail corridor from Miami to Jacksonville along the East Coast. FECR carries freight on the lines, but it could be upgraded for passenger trains, Cumber said.

It remains unclear the route the train would take from Cocoa to Orlando, although the most logical one would be publicly owned land along the BeachLine Expressway jointly operated by the state and the Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority.

SOURCE ORLANDO SENTINEL: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-05-14/business/os-railroad-private-metroplan-20120514_1_ridership-study-miami-orlando-route-passenge

OCKLAWAHA

[dougskiles]

I just can't wait to see this happen.  They are smart to limit the number of stops in order to keep the speed higher.  It will probably mean a few upset smaller towns along the way, but would keep the ridership numbers up (to where the system makes enough money to survive).

[tufsu1]

not sure I agree Doug....adding say 2 more stops along the way shouldn't add more than 10 minutes to the trip....on a Miami to Orlando trip, 10 extra minutes on the train wouldn't mean switching back to my car

[thelakelander]

At the end of the day, I can't imagine there not being a stop initially in Brevard somewhere.  FEC owns too much land (TOD anyone?) and Port Canaveral is there.

[JeffreyS]

Right but if you tell them up front they won't offer you incentives to stop there.

[dougskiles]

True, one stop in Brevard would make sense and not hurt anything.  I would not want to see them get wrapped into the political game of having to provide so many stops that it no longer attracts the choice riders.  The priority should be serving the Orlando to South Florida market successfully and building from there.  If that route doesn't succeed, the chances for an extension to Jacksonville are pretty slim.

[thelakelander]

True.  Since its privately owned on track that's already in place, there won't be much politics the East Coast communities can play to stop it from happening.  That would be just as successful as Lakeland making a big fuss at CSX to not increase the amount of freight trains on tracks they already operate through that city.  Lakeland cried and ultimately failed when Sunrail was approved.  This one will come down to the feasibility numbers either working or not working for FECI.

[Ocklawaha]

I just can't wait to see this happen.  They are smart to limit the number of stops in order to keep the speed higher.  It will probably mean a few upset smaller towns along the way, but would keep the ridership numbers up (to where the system makes enough money to survive).

I agree with TUFSU1 on this one Doug, perhaps for a different hypothesis. Rail isn't nearly as much about riding from New York to Miami as it is about riding from say Miami to Cocoa. Certainly with the international gateway in Miami feeding the system there is a market for tourists to travel to Mickey, but with OIA becoming more and more of a Latin American gateway, they MUST think about that local traffic. Cocoa WILL HAPPEN.

Even with 10 stops along the line there are ways to handle it without damaging the end to end times. Train X simply stops at stations 2,4,6,8,10 and Train Y stops at 3,5,7,9,10. Problem solved. My crystal ball say's this railroad is going to happen and behind the scene's Rick Scott is working so he will take credit for it.

[JeffreyS]

Well Ock will Jax and St. Augustine happen?

[Ocklawaha]

Well Ock will Jax and St. Augustine happen?

IF, IF, IF, Jacksonville get's it's posterior vertical, and IF Jacksonville can get the convention center out and consolidate the Transportation Center into the single, Jacksonville Terminal site, it will happen. If we continue to piss away the years and do nothing about this, they'll have 45 trains running into Tampa before we even get a wink. WE SIMPLY MUST GET OUR JRTC INTO THE SINGLE LOCATION AND GET RAIL BACK DOWNTOWN.