I think running Amtrak trains down the FEC is a no-brainer. It’s a great idea and one that should be implemented as soon as possible. Unfortunately, there is one element that is sadly missing. This is a great opportunity to put the Amtrak station right in downtown Miami instead of where it now is. I understand that the original site of the FEC station is still owned by FEC and is now a parking lot. Lots of public transportation, hotels and even the Port of Miami cruise ships are a short cab ride or walk from the FEC tracks.
There would be some challenges, like running the trains to Hialeah for servicing and some new track work would be necessary, but the opportunity should be seriously explored.
The Florida East Coast of today is definitely not the FEC from before the strike. It is a mostly single track main line with tightly scheduled freight trains that maximize crew utilization. Fitting an Amtrak schedule onto this line is not going to be easy. I’m also not so sure as to how necessary it would be compared to existing Amtrak service.
Amtrak is planning on running two round trips on the FEC in the near future. Trains are coming to Florida’s east coast. As I understand it, they will switch from FEC to CSX somewhere near West Palm Beach and continue south on CSX as today’s trains do. I was suggesting keeping them on FEC all the way into Miami.
I personally agree but the same old concerns raise their head…
1. Equipment – Using the Palmetto and extending it back to Miami would take 2 additional coach sets and 5-dinners depending on schedule (maybe 3 more sets) There would be a need for 4 - 5 sets of sleepers. My understanding is Amtrak plans on adding an average of one sleeper and coach to the 23 -24 low level sets of equipment. that is in addition to another BOS - CHI and restoring overnight BOS- WASH - Newport News sleepers.
The schedule of equipment purchases types will probably be put off to the time that a car manufacturer is given a notice to proceed. Amtrak would like to retire Heritage fleet cars first to allow 125 MPH speeds for those LD trains on the NEC. Note the Palmetto already has the best times NYP - WASH due to no heritage equippment. However if ridership increases more than anticipated (a real possibility ) then revenue cars - coaches and sleepers will be built first slowing additional equipment for an extended Palmetto.
2. Schedule-- The need for at least some sembalence o
I believe the long-term plan was to run them on FEC South of Jacksonville. At least that was the plan the last I read it online. Did it change? They wanted a stop in Daytona Beach I believe. It’s been about 1-2 years since I read up on this project though. I could have sworn someone from the Obama Administration mentioned FEC South of Jacksonville to Miami.
They have always discussed restoring Jacksonville to Miami passenger service. There are a lot of issues with running passenger trains over the FEC but is not limited to the FEC itself. I think the major issue would be capacity but also consider that a lot of the traffic on the FEC is related to rocks(for cement).
Something to consider, is the expansion of Tri-Rail Service north of West Palm Beach north to Jupiter and potentially on to the rest of the Treasure Coast. I think the expansion to Jupiter has the potential to happen before restoration of service up the east coast of Florida. The other reason I bring this up is obviously the station and other needed infrastructure is dual use for both commuter and longer distance passenger service. Either way, for commuter rail, it involves a few options:
Traditional sharing of tracks between freight and commuter service
Reroute FEC freights around West Palm Beach and Northern Miami over the CSX (where Amtrak currently operates)
Create a freight-bypass line that breaks near Miami and connects to the FEC Fort Pierce Yard.
FEC has stated to sell the adjacent land to the current right of way to build and provide commuter rail service (which might not even connect to the FEC main)
Another factor to consider would be the Florida High Speed Rail Initiative. Obviously this is a lot further out. But the bigger question is, does Amtrak have the equipment to do so? Personally, I’d prefer a intrastate Florida rail service similar to the California DOT/Amtrak California brand/service.
As a side note, the October 2007 issue of Trains highlighted the Florida East Coast Railway.
right! running amtrak trains down the FEC IS a no-brainer! since the cessation of passenger service on the FEC, millions more people live along the east coast and it is now almost one long city. a california style service would attract many passengers. specifics: initially, to get the ball rolling, running coach only trains as a cross platform transfer at JAX, switching over to the CSX (SAL) tracks at west palm beach to continue on to MIA. later, organise through service coaches/sleepers connecting to the silver star or meteor, or as an extension of the palmetto (renamed ‘champion’?) downtown miami is not suitable for a passenger station any more, especially if run from the present ex SAL route. I used to work for SCL out of hialeah yard '73-'75 and the tracks from the old SAL station site to downtown miami are very curvy, lots of slow street running, and lots of crossings. in short, a nightmare for a passenger train. and I don’t know if the tracks are still there. and besides, potential passengers are not in downtown miami, but in the sprawling miami-dade county area. the present amtrak station at hialeah yard is not convenient to public transport. I support moving it down to the tri-rail airport site. not only is that convenient to connecting tri-rail passengers and people arriving at MIA airport, but the site is convenient to expressways, which is how most people will come to the train station anyway. west palm beach connection: about 2 miles north of the west palm beach station is a connection to the FEC tracks. we used it to deliver/pick up cars to the FEC back in the '70s. I checked it out 2 years ago and it is still there. hand thrown switches and what appears to be 10 mph track and several street crossings in the less than 2 mile long connector. (unchanged since the '70s). can be easily upgraded to 30 mph track and automatic switches. doesn’t need to be a ‘high speed’ connector for that short of a run. as far as upgrading the FEC track north of WPB, is all the do
I think it is necessary because there are millions more people that live along the east coast of florida since the cessation of regular FEC service in 1963. a lot of potential riders. also, many are elderly, preferring the train to driving on interstate 95 and also many are young who have never experienced a train and that I’m sure will embrace the concept of hopping on a train to visit friends and other beach towns along the coast. and also, the FEC route to jacksonville is considerably shorter in miles and time than the present amtrak CSX route.
Well if we could wean Floridians away from their cars, if you could do it in California, you certainly can do it Florida.
Some of the double track remains, mainly as passing sidings or industry access. It’s also a well maintained right of way too.I’m not really sure how much upgrading would be done as the FEC still is the “Speedway to America’s Playground.” The high quality right of way is a result of hauling rock but also allows the FEC to operate a fairly profitable, competitive (and relatively short) intermodal corridor.
My area of concern was more so is some of the bridges are single track. I don’t know of any plans to replace or upgrade them… as some look like they’re fairly old, but still well maintained. Salt water and steel is not a good combination. In some cases, you might be blocking the main due to the station placement like in Stuart if you were to place the station right in downtown (which I would recommend against). While that would be a matter of scheduling, I’m pretty sure the FEC doesn’t want its trains tied down while a passenger train is unloading or loading or conversely the passenger service (Amtrak, Tri-Rail, or whoever) while the FEC local goes about its work.
I was waiting for someone to point out a very important statistic. That stat is rider destinations. As we all know system wide Amtrak ridership was down FY 2009 vs 2008. Florida trains for FY 2009 were one of the few that increased originations and arrivals. According to Amtrak figures Florida trains (Silvers) are up another 15 -20% for 1st 6 months FY 2010 over 2009. AutoTrain had a decrease in FY2009. I will use FY 2009 figures for the following items.
Total riders on and off at all stations in Florida were 988K
Auto train was 233K however that is a special service so will not be considered further.
That leaves 755K total regular service Florida passengers.
Orlando had 146K and Tampa with one train a day 111K (more than Atlanta’s 96.5K)
Total interior Florida passenger counts were 450K ( that excludes JAX and WPBeach south to MIA [305K])
That means that 59% + passengers came/went to interior FL stations in FY 2009.
That is an average of 308 interior passengers on each of 2 RT trains every day. (do not confuse that number to the number of interior passengers on any train at one time)
That is approximately 4 - 6 revenue cars carying those passengers what with offs and ons. Then you have the non revenue cars of dinner and lounge cars.
That does not leave many cars for east coast trains when you factor in the 14 car train length limit of NYP.
This would almost require the Palmetto to be extended to JAX - Vero - WPB - MIA with the extra car sets listed in my previous post. Also schedule adjustment (? those times not good for Florence - Savannah passengers who want an arrival not in the middle of the night). The Palmetto is already carrying many pas