Taking advantage of what we already have

[thelakelander]

8. The "River-Line" LRV that Lake is showing, is operating on freight railroad track, but it MUST be divided from freight by a tight operation window as well as a system of locking out other trains while it operates. That would be fine for a lightly used track such as North Main Street, but it won't work for a busy mainline like FEC, or CSX.

Considering Orlando's commuter rail deal will involve relocating freight traffic on the A line over to the S line, the CSX corridor from downtown to Orange Park, Green Cove and Palatka would also potentially fall in that light range category.  Combining it with the abandoned S-line through the Northside would present the possibility of a decent sized +20 mile starter DMU served transit corridor at a pretty affordable price (compared to building BRT's North and SW routes).  It also doesn't significantly alter JTA's planned route patterns for BRT because the bus expressway is planned to simply parallel this same exact line. 

As you stated above, the FEC line is pretty busy track and any system using those lines would have to serve more a traditional commuter rail type service (I can't imagine FEC only running freight at night on that line).  However, it's not like things along that route are compact and pedestrian friendly either, so traditional commuter rail between Jacksonville and St. Augustine makes a lot of sense as well.

[Ocklawaha]

The only things left on the CSX line will be the Palatka Coal fired generating plant which get's a coal train and the paper mill, which ships out paper and "could" get pulp wood in by rail.  Add to that 6 Amtrak trains with more to come that run contra-flow to the rush hours. Heavy Southbound in the MORNING and Northbound in the EVENING. We could, and probably should have our City transportation guy work with Amtrak to do a 12 hour flip of at least two of those trains, running overnight to/from Miami via Orlando. That would put them through Jax about 12:01 - 2 AM Southbound. The other could run South a bit later... Well, all in all, a VERY workable plan. Yes, the old "A" line is not going to see much traffic unless the FDOT is working with DOT in Washinton, on this North-East-Corridor project. It could also be that with push from Amtrak, the CSX "A" line will get the nod as the new EAST-COAST CORRIDOR PROJECT comes along. We could still get some years of service out of it before the change was made.  

Ocklawaha

[zoo]

Someone should look into Phoenix, and contact their transportation dept for more informational support, as they're right in the middle of constructing their light rail system.

Use of S-rail for commuter rail and jogging trail is great! I would use it tomorrow! I hope JTA and the city, who claim to have no oversight over JTA, will reconsider their ridiculously expensive and ill-thought out system to do the thing the customers/residents/users want.

How can this presentation be used to get petitional support in affected districts? If anyone is going to do this, be sure to ask, and indicate, non-riders and riders (to thwart JTA's "those aren't riders" response). Then maybe the council would listen?