[:(!] I LIVED IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA AS YOU MAY KNOW THERE IS A GREAT DEBATE ABOUT HIGH SPEED RAIL. THE GOVERNOR IS VERY HAPPY ABOUT THE FACT THAT THE PROJECT MAY HAVE BEEN DERAILED BY THE VOTERS OF FLORIDA. I WROTE TO THE PERSON WHO STARTED THE BALL ROLLING BY REMINDERING HIM THAT AT ONE TIME 2 GREAT RAILROADS CRISCROSSED THE STATE. THE TRACKS ARE IN PLACE. I ALSO SPOKE ABOUT WHAT AMTRAK DID IN THE NE. I DID RECIEVE A LETTER BACK FROM HIM IT APPEARS TO ME THAT CSX IS NOT HAPPPY ABOUT SHARING THEIR TRACKS WITH ANY HIGH SPED RAIL.I WOULD TO SAY THAT THE HIGH SPEED RAIL FOLKS SHOULD SIT DOWN WITH CSX AND TALK ABOUT USING THE FORMER A LINE THAT AMTRAKS SILVER SERVICE USES FROM MIAMI TO NEW YORK AND BY THE WAY TRAINS THAT USE THAT LINE MAKES STOPS AT MOST OF THE LOCATIONS THAT THE HIGH SPEED RAIL FOLKS WOULD LIKE.
First, don’t shout with all caps. Please turn your Caps Lock off.
What did Amtrak do in the Northeast? The Acela Express project was 15 months late, and the trains can only travel at 150 mph for 18 miles in Massachusetts. The travel time between New York and Boston is 3 1/2 hours for an aveage speed of only 66 mph. That’s high speed rail? That’s only 15 minutes faster than the Turbo Trains back in 1974.
While the CSX tracks are in place in Florida you can’t put high speed trains on tracks used by freight trains or the other way around so the high speed trainswould not have shared their tracks with CSX. A new right-of-way for the high speed trains still would have been necessary.