Potentially possible, but I would be more than extremely surprised if that ever comes to pass.The egos that are involved at least today, would make that a steep hill to climb. And it would cause the inland route from Orlando to West Palm Beach to lose all service.
Checked baggage interlining would be nice but even self-transfer could work if the setup is short, simple, and comes with enough space to put everything out of the way on the connecting train. I enjoy using passenger rail as much as I can manage but I hate having to drag luggage up or down steps through mouse maze corridors to a metro service with little or no storage. Having to choose between clogging aisles or blocking seats is a waste of rare and valuable jerk points. Unlike the Northeast I'd imagine that Florida has plenty of room to make this workable if planned correctly.Purely as a hypothetical possibility Brightline does have checked baggage, so potentially there could be interline checked baggage. But I am sure, this being the country that it is, people will discover/invent a hundred reasons why that could never happen.
True that. It is unlikely that a Brightlline or SunRail or TriRail designed new station would be anytiing like some of the legacy Rabbit's warrens that some of the multi-rebuilt older stations are. They will come equipped with elevators and escalators and full ADA compliance and all that, and for Brightline stations, they will apparently come with open space walk through security barriers too, as found in the current Brightline stations.
New Brightline track will be superior to the freight tracks Amtrak is running on now. It is designed to support speeds of at least 125 mph.
110mph between Cocoa and WPB.
The main obstacle to Amtrak running on other passenger operators' lines is that the other operators don't want to accept a train which has been delayed several hours by freight traffic elsewhere. We've seen this in the Chicagoland and NY areas quite clearly, and I would expect the same in Florida. TRE in Texas and Metrolink in LA were more cooperative.
I don't think Brightline has to offer Amtrak a slot though correct? Brightline could just say no since they are fully private?
You mean they'll sit on the sidings while the Brightline trains go by just like they sit on the sidings for the freight trains? Or do you mean Brightline will go slow so as to make the Amtrak train behind it go 20mph? Or will they cut back on their maintenance like the freight lines so track conditions require slow speeds for Amtrak?
It's not about being public or private so much as not being a party to the contractual obligations that spawned Amtrak.
I think I read here that because Florida East Coast RR ended passenger service in the early 1960s and weren't involved in the establishment of Amtrak, they have no obligation to offer slots for Amtrak trains. However, I know Amtrak has talked with them in the past about running trains up to Jacksonville on their line and have even run test trains. Brightline is a slightly different company from FECRR, so I don't know how that plays also.
As far as I know Brightline so far has had way less problem with the FRA than Amtrak has had in trying to get a NEPA EIS approved by FRA and get a ROD. So I don't see why anyone would think that they'd have problem with the FRA.
I don't think Auburndale split will ever happen again. Any split if it happens, which itself is very doubtful, will be at JAX. There will not be any service to St. Pete except via Thruway. Also it is unlikely that Tampa will be redeveloped as an Amtrak terminal station capable of turning an LD train. All this of course unless some miracle happens.
Passenger service via Ocala is unlikely unless CSX is willing to reconsider the agreement that conveyed the Deland - Orlando - Poinciana segment to SunRail.
They planned to take SR 417 to 536 to I4 which already gets them to the vicinity of Disney Springs.
