Here a link to the news announcement to restore service qithin 24 months.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.al...t-to-return-to-gulf-coast.html?outputType=amp
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.al...t-to-return-to-gulf-coast.html?outputType=amp
Alabama still not on-board.
CSX not on-board.
Half of the funds needed.
No schedule.
No equipment.
Movement but the light at the end of tunnel is not a train.
Especially no equipmentAlabama still not on-board.
CSX not on-board.
Half of the funds needed.
No schedule.
No equipment.
Movement but the light at the end of tunnel is not a train.
By the time this train is operating, at least some of the Midwest cars will likely be in operation. Besides, all this train would really need is two short Horizon sets, one of which was just made available by the cancellation of the Hoosier State. I'm not saying there is an abundance of free equipment, but I doubt that would be the reason for the route not being implemented.Especially no equipment
AL is too busy trying to bring its citizens back to the dark ages, this won’t happen in the foreseeable future.
Another reason why state funded corridors cant work under current law.
Hopefully the country will have a different make up politically in 10 years.
There had been talk of the City of New Orleans being extended to Orlando or somewhere that direction if a new route was again opened. Any idea if that would be a part of this deal. Would be a great boon to us here in Illinois or lots of people from the Chicago area that wants to go to Florida.
I'm certainly in favor of a NOL-Florida train, but even if it has through service to Chicago it will do little for Chicago-Florida travel besides eliminating the connection in DC. Besides the fact that there will be no service south of Orlando, the route takes longer than the route via DC. The travel time not including connections or station dwells is proposed to be 33:08 from CHI-JAX via New Orleans whereas using the current CL and SM route only takes 29:59, which is also interestingly 6 minutes faster than the former Floridian route. If the priority was Chicago-Florida, it would be much easier to just implement through cars between the SS and CL, which would have the added benefit of serving Miami, Tampa, and Raleigh.There had been talk of the City of New Orleans being extended to Orlando or somewhere that direction if a new route was again opened. Any idea if that would be a part of this deal. Would be a great boon to us here in Illinois or lots of people from the Chicago area that wants to go to Florida.
Definitely not through Philadelphia: the fastest I know of is the whole CL route followed by the SM route south of WAS. However, it is possible there is a more direct route that is faster which Amtrak has never operated on.What would the fastest Chicago to Florida train be with current infrustructure?
Chicago to Philadelphia and then straight South?
I'm certainly in favor of a NOL-Florida train, but even if it has through service to Chicago it will do little for Chicago-Florida travel besides eliminating the connection in DC. Besides the fact that there will be no service south of Orlando, the route takes longer than the route via DC. The travel time not including connections or station dwells is proposed to be 33:08 from CHI-JAX via New Orleans whereas using the current CL and SM route only takes 29:59, which is also interestingly 6 minutes faster than the former Floridian route. If the priority was Chicago-Florida, it would be much easier to just implement through cars between the SS and CL, which would have the added benefit of serving Miami, Tampa, and Raleigh.
At the risk of veering off topic, not all Republicans are knuckle dragging troglodytes who are anti passenger rail. This proposed service is bipartisan as are the leadership in passenger rail friendly states like VA and NC. I believe in fairness and honesty. I am sure everyone else does too.
Although, truth be told, even then the Republicans in general did not oppose those cuts too much. Yup, lived through those "save the trains" campaigns, and we could never quite raise the Republicans from their slumber enough to get anywhere near to block any of it. They generally cheered right along.Lot of politics on this post. People forget that some of the biggest cuts to Amtrak took place during knuckle dragging Democrat troglodyte administrations.
At the risk of veering off topic, not all Republicans are knuckle dragging troglodytes who are anti passenger rail. This proposed service is bipartisan as are the leadership in passenger rail friendly states like VA and NC. I believe in fairness and honesty. I am sure everyone else does too.
I'm honestly not sure where you're getting this from. President Obama (D) and a Democratically controlled congress provided $8 billion for improved passenger rail funding as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Unfortunately, much of this money was returned/refused/ignored by the likes of Scott Walker (R), Rick Scott (R), and John Kasich (R). Obama also negotiated another $13 billion in funding for projects between New York and New Jersey. As expected this funding agreement was quickly undone and abandoned by Trump (R).You know, I feel like I have been watching the same movie over and over again since about 1970. It seems like Democrats talk very highly of rail when they are out of power but then when they get into power, the talk of rail just seems to quietly go away.
I’ve read this statement several times and yet I still have no idea what you’re really trying to say. By any rational assessment government funded passenger rail would fall into “so-called” social programs.It seems that they want to scrape every thin dime they can together to fund their so-called "social programs" and spending big bucks on rail gets in the awkward way of their agenda.
What you seem to be asking between the lines is “How can we improve government funded passenger rail while continuing to elect anti-rail politicians?"Meanwhile, Repubs are so business focused that they don't want to spend tax payers dollars on what they perceive as a poor business model (i.e. doesn't "make money" or "show a profit") So, what we end up with is basically, which ever party happens to win an election - rail loses. It's the ol' "heads you win tails I lose" scenario". We can change this - but, I don't know how.
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