Corrine Brown wants Amtrak to NO restored

[spuwho]

From the JBJ:

http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2013/07/15/north-florida-leaders-want-amtrak.html



Amtrak ridership hit an all-time high in 2012, but in Jacksonville, ridership remains down by 15 percent from its 1997 levels.
U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., today called for Amtrak to reestablish the Sunset Limited Service between New Orleans and Jacksonville.
That portion of the transcontinental rail line was damaged during Hurricane Katrina. Even though repairs have since been made and freight train traffic restored, Amtrak has never reestablished passenger service along the route.
Brown spoke at a national conference of transportation officials in Jacksonville, where Sunset Limited, investments in high speed rail, and the progress of All Aboard Florida — a privately funded rail service between Orlando and Miami— were discussed.
Tallahassee Mayor John Marks echoed Brown's call for reestablishing Amtrak service on the Sunset Limited and has a coalition of 11 mayors behind him. Today to travel to New Orleans by Amtrak, passengers must go through North Carolina.
Today 13 "stranded stations" along the Gulf Coast have no Amtrak service. In addition to restoring that service, Brown talked about investing in rail infrastructure, which she called the future of our country.
"The Chinese, our major competitors, they've put $350 billion into rail. And we are fighting for about $8 billion," she said. "There are over 207 cities in the U.S. that if they didn't have train service, they would have no service — no bus, no air service. It is very important that our country is hooked up."
Congress battles annually over funding Amtrak, which despite growing ridership, still operates at a $1.4 billion loss.
Brown is the ranking member on House Transportation's Railroads and Pipelines subcommittee.

[JFman00]

Anyone know the rough travel times, including stops, from here to Pensacola and from there to New Orleans?

[JayBird]

Anyone know the rough travel times, including stops, from here to Pensacola and from there to New Orleans?

This was from back in 1993, think service ended in 2005 so I don't know how accurate this is now at 20 years old. Left Jacksonville 10:30pm and arrived in Pensacola 6:00am.

When Ock chimes in he'll be able to give you the full rundown


http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=43356

[ProjectMaximus]

Anyone know the rough travel times, including stops, from here to Pensacola and from there to New Orleans?

Go it! http://www.flickr.com/photos/jfrank65/3591294732/sizes/o/in/photostream/

Looks like 8 hours to Pensacola, 17 hours to New Orleans.

[carpnter]

Anyone know the rough travel times, including stops, from here to Pensacola and from there to New Orleans?

Go it! http://www.flickr.com/photos/jfrank65/3591294732/sizes/o/in/photostream/

Looks like 8 hours to Pensacola, 17 hours to New Orleans.

I think you can get to New Orleans faster if you took a bus.

[JayBird]

^very much so, last time I took Greyhound from Jax to NO it was under 12 hours. But you have to change buses in Tallahassee and again in Mobile so the layover times could make your trip longer.

[JFman00]

Aww. With travel times like that, I'd rather drive for Pcola and fly for NOLA.

[tufsu1]

part of the "charm" of American train travel is not worrying about schedules...and just enjoying the ride

[coredumped]

Aww. With travel times like that, I'd rather drive for Pcola and fly for NOLA.

When flying add the complimentary TSA molestation and lines (though, JIA isn't too bad, NO might be pretty bad).

[samstone]

You can drive to New Orleans in ten hours, or take half a week sitting on some side rail on the coast of Alabama waiting for them to empty out the honey bucket under the train so you can use the bathrooms. Well done Corrine. Now we need the Pony Express to get our mail to Saint Augustine in a week and if the telegraph poles are up we'll know who won the Presidential election any day now.

[tufsu1]

samstone.....thanks for the insight.

I'm so glad the US spent money back in the 1950s and 1960s replacing our old two lane highways with interstates....I-10 probably cuts the travel time in half versus the old US 90.

Now perhaps we could consider spending some money upgrading our rail systems too, which Congresswoman Brown supports....heck, in Europe rail is most often the best way to travel for trips of less than 400 miles....and that's with cheap airlines like Ryan Air covering the same area

[fsquid]

part of the "charm" of American train travel is not worrying about schedules...and just enjoying the ride

true, but almost double time isn't worth it to me.  If it was in the 12-14 hour range, I can see the tradeoff.

[Dog Walker]

Nostalgia time! 

When I was a kid, my family would put me on the train here (Gulf Wind?)at the beginning of summer to spend weeks in NO with relatives.  It was a great adventure from going into the tunnels that still smelled of coal smoke onto the tracks at Union Station to eating the meals that my mother had prepared in brown bags to getting off at the other end and riding the electric buses and streetcars into Chantilly.

We could ride the electric buses and streetcars for $ .10 all day with transfers and spend part of each day in Audubon Park at the zoo.

No A/C in those days and walking the Quarter and Marigney and Chantilly in the evening was to share the smells of everybody's dinners and snatches of their conversations.