Cocoa eyed for possible All Aboard Florida train station

[thelakelander]

Brevard County officials hope All Aboard Florida builds a train station near Clearlake Road in north Cocoa, offering passengers quick access to Port Canaveral, the beach, State Road 528 and U.S. 1.

This morning, the Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization unanimously selected Clearlake Road over eight other proposed Brevard station sites along the railroad corridor in Melbourne, Cocoa, Rockledge and Palm Bay.

The Clearlake Road location includes 37 developable acres near the future railroad track's southward curve, where trains will pass beneath SR 528 and begin traveling parallel with Interstate 95 towards Miami. All Aboard Florida already owns property at this curve, and Florida East Coast Railway owns the 37-acre station target area.

Next, All Aboard Florida will conduct a ridership study to determine if the Cocoa station site makes business sense.

http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/10/cocoa-eyed-possible-all-aboard-florida-train-station/81202466/

[spuwho]

The idea of some kind of limited stop at Cocoa was in the plan when they were negotiating with OOCEA on the ROW. 

AAF was going to bus passengers from the OATC to Cocoa and then board Brightline trains there until the Cocoa to MCO segment was complete.

However, that plan had no accomodation for ticketing as it was not going to be an official stop. Just a platform to transload OATC related passengers.

However, when AAF was negotiating with Broward County, there was a lot of horse trading when it came to certain costs, especially around permitting for FEC to connect to the OOCEA ROW and the costs for crossing upgrades.

I am thinking that the station discussion is to initially support the transloading and then eventually a future full service facility.  AAF has never publicly announced a station in Cocoa that I can recall.

[Kerry]

Just wait until all of the communities that are now fighting AAF starting begging for a stop.  AAF will need to put in Express and Local trains.

[spuwho]

Just wait until all of the communities that are now fighting AAF starting begging for a stop.  AAF will need to put in Express and Local trains.

To be honest, I don't want AAF to run locals. It is sold as an express service and should stay that way.

Amtrak or a regional transit entity will end up with the local services if they ever come to exist.

If Brightline turns out to be a big deal, you will see people lining up at Mica's office looking for a local service subsidy.

Martin and Indian River Counties will ignore the service just to show spite. Let them live on their island.

[Kerry]

I actually hope they do put in local service, and I fully expect them to.  Every rail system in the world has local service.  Local service would bring a lot of people to Jacksonville.  I'm not saying a stop every 10 miles, but stops in St. Augustine, Palm Coast, and Daytona Beach would be nice.

[FlaBoy]

Orlando and Miami are the centerpieces to this. Cocoa could get a no frills stop but I would expect there to be only a few trains that actually stop there and a lot of express trains that would blow by depending upon demand. I think you could see some express trains to Jax one day from South Florida too, again depending upon demand.

Daytona and St. A, as tourist destinations, will most likely get a stop on the way to Jacksonville if this happens. Palm Coast won't get one.

[Kerry]

Why would you think Palm Coast wouldn't be stop worthy - they want to visit places in Florida also.  Take a look at rail map of any country in Europe.  They stop at places a lot smaller and less significant.

[thelakelander]

I've always heard that a potential Jax extension would probably only include a stop in Daytona. Perhaps a second stop in St. Augustine but I've never heard anything about a Palm Coast stop......outside of Amtrak running a corridor service between Jax and Miami on the FEC.

[Kerry]

Just give it time.  We have more freeway off ramps than were ever originally invisioned as well.  Once transportation infrastructure is in place every community will want to tie into it.