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Liability issue next for Amtrak service on FEC
…and the lawyers wept "
the best candidate as far as a train is concerned to run over the FEC would be the Palmetto. The Silver trains could be left right where they presently are and the Palmetto could be exteded back to Miami, this time over the FEC.
Florida is growing every year, it would be great to have another avenue for relieving stress on I-95. The last time I took a passenger train on FEC tracks to St Augustine was back in 1959…lets hope the managers of FEC, Amtrak and the Governor of Florida, Rick Scott, can once again make it happen. We will all have to pray flip flop Romney won’t get a chance at a bid for the White House.
WHO PAYS FOR WHAT IS A CRITICAL ISSUE. I’M SURE EVERYONE INVOLVED IN THIS DEAL WANTS TO BE “HELD HARMLESS” IN CASE OF ACCIDENT, INCIDENT, DERAILMENT,DEATH ETC. AS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW THORNY THE ISSUE CAN BE, LOOK AT THE BP OIL PLATFORM FIASCO IN THE GULF BP POINTS THE FINGER AT THE DRILLING CONTRACTOR AND VICE VERSA. THIS STUFF MAKES LAWYERS RICH. I SUGGEST BINDING ARBITRATION BE LOOKED AT. (30)
I happened to be riding the FEC en-route to Miami when the strike that shut down the FEC RR started in 1959 or 1960. I remember asking the conductor if we would complete the trip to Miami. He said we would complete the run to Miami. Never thought it would be 50 + years before passenger service started again.
@Larry - it could be on the tracks that service Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood, but there is a parallel set of tracks to the east of the set that Amtrak current uses for the Silver Service. This would mean Amtrak would bypass a lot of those stops. Because I don’t see that happening, though, I’m curious about that, too, since the switchover would happen just north of West Palm on the lone crossover between the tracks up the coast and the tracks to Okeechobee.
Liability issues between WPB and Miami? My understanding is that any FEC runs would be over the same state owned tracks that the Meteor and Star currently use between WPB and Miami. What is the issue?
Now lets not be too hasty, after it has only been 10+ years that the “responsible parties” have been working; if one can call that on this project. This has to be a really classic example of not getting anything done when governments, both state and Federal are involved
I hope Amtrak plans for MORE than one train a day.
Not the same trackage; In W. Palm the FEC tracks are about a 1/2 mile east of the Amtrak/Tri-Rail route. I think it stays that way down to Mia. If they are going to use FEC’s route, then the lawyers ought to look at the Silver Star/Meteor agreement as a blueprint though…and not take forever doing it.
Larry,
You are partly right, but not entirely. the pending Amtrak route runs on the FEC to West Palm Beach then would connect to the ex-CSX state-owned trackage that Tri-Rail and Amtrak already use. FEC has its own route into Miami. Also, when the two run so close together, there would be no need to re-invent the wheel by build additional stations literally 1 to 4 blocks apart.
My sister & bro-in-law live in Titusville. Maybe the existing station will be used. Anyway, this would be great for them and their friends.
It would be great to have passenger service from West Palm Beach to Jacksonville over FEC owned tracks.
Hopefully the ride will be smoother on FEC tracks, also hope that Amtrak has the right of way over freight trains!
Currently CSX has the right of way verses an Amtrak train or at least that is how it seems.
they’ve been talking about Amtrak/FEC service for 10 years and only now are talking about liability issues? what is taking so long?
It would be great to have a more direct route from Chicago to Orlando, instead of having to go to the east coast first. Maybe some day - - -
Sounds great. It’s a direct route and should cut off at least an hour between WPB and Jacksonville.
Amtrtak has not had any new routes added to its map for over 10 years now. Don’t hold your breath. I do however, favor this. Realistically, for Amtrak to serve Florida effectively, they need to go back to running split operations south of Jacksonville. The dogleg trip on the Silver Star has got to be the biggest joke of all on the long-distance service. Actually, I view the Tampa-Miami section of the Silver Star as a phony reincarnated version of the original Silver Palm train that we had running locally in the state of Florida for about one year around 1983/4.