This is a huge deal going down in Florida!!![:)]
http://www2.tbo.com/static/special_reports/tbo-special-reports-news-rail-plan/
it’s very interesting
Ok i’m alittle confused would this finally bring passenger rail back to the west coast of Florida? Last I saw most of the track in Sarasota county has been removed ?
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You expect the FLA DOT rubber-tired bubbas and their political bosses to follow through???
Gee, another passenger rail line to connect Miami with Orlando, maybe even Tampa. What about the rest of us? So the taxpayers of the entire state get to foot the bill for something that will never come anywhere near them; they will never be able to use it. Most people in the state today won’t even be alive by the time the first wheel turns. Of course it will allow Amtrak to cut their service back to Jacksonville. The map shows service to Naples…there is no railroad track in Naples. The Seminole Gulf ends a mile south of Bonita Springs. The line from Punta Gorda to Fort Myers was built in 1904 and still uses the same rails. The line from Arcadia to Punta Gorda goes back to the late 1800’s…it was standard gauged around 1893. No one is going to walk in here and start running trains tomorrow. They are going to have to shell out a LOT of money first. That entire railroad is exempted, with the exception of a short stretch where they operate their dinner train. So who pays for all this? People who wont live to see it.
The track from Sarasota (south of Clark Rd) to Venice has been taken up. All track in the city of Sarasota is still intact although half is inactive.
You certainly have a grasp of planing for the future.
Lol, saying that the track is still intact but inactive is a joke. I can walk a straighter line drunk that most of the track in Sarasota county. I had heard at one time someone wanted to run a trolly or light rail from downtown Sarasota to Venice to save the rail line and possibly a dinner facility at one or both ends when the stations where still intact. The venice station is still there as a bus depot, but all the track is long gone, except for a short track section with a restored cabose on it. Hey how can you really rely on a county that lets the ringling circus move out because of stupidity, i mean what of county pride ? Sorry bout the rant but its sad that we loose so much of ourselves because of money and others short sightedness. (yes I know my spelling isn’t great)
I am sure there were other reasons for Ringling’s departure from Venice, but most of Seminole Gulf’s trackage is exempted. That means occupied passenger cars can not be operated over the line. In Fort Myers, where they operate the dinner train, the track is maintained just enough to allow occupied cars, and only for those stretches that the dinner train uses.
There is not enough freight movement to pay for more.
As far as planning for the future, the future is today. Southwest Florida has the most transient population I have ever seen. People move here thinking, oooh, Florida!!! This is sooo great…after a couple months reality sets in, and they go scurrying back where they came from, with their tails between their legs. The only people who stick around here are the retirees, and they wont be here in 20 years. THEY are not going to pay for someone else, in another part of the state, to have passenger rail. These people wont pay a tax to provide themselves with a trauma center in the hospital emergency room…something THEY will use THEMSELVES. They certainly are not going to pay so you can have your little choo-choo.