There are plenty of Red politicians that support rail transport. Heck, Debbie may even believe in it herself. But she's supporting what her constituents want. Perhaps by a 2:1 margin. Mr. Parrish's piece in Florida Today makes perfect economic sense, and hopefully it will either persuade her people or at least keep them from getting their own stinkin' way.
As much as I hate to hit on this, the question isn't "do my voters support X", it is "how much do they care about X" and "in what context can I frame X". Moreover, in the context of the Florida legislature (with its heavy term limits) she's arguably only risking a single far-off re-election for a project that (1) is likely to end up being popular down the line, (2) which quiet inaction would probably not attract much notice, and (3) where she could probably get away with a line to the effect of "Look, I'm not a fan of this project but it isn't the job of the legislature to throw arbitrary roadblocks in the way of a private company using their property legitimately." I highly doubt she was elected solely, or even primarily, on the rail issue.
she is no different from any other politician left or right or center.
I think Brightline will take away the purpose of the SM more than the SS, even if it goes go Tampa. If Amtrak could get FEC to agree to it, I think it would make sense to operate the SM discharge/recieve only down the FEC (I seriously doubt FEC would allow Amtrak to carry intra-Florida passengers). Then the SM could be the Miami express train and the SS could be the Tampa and Orlando train. The only adjustment that would probably be necessary is to move the SS an hour earlier northbound so it could connect to the CL (I think this should happen even with the current set-up).
With Brightline, my best guess is that Tampa-Miami will clock in at 3:55-4:00 (give or take a few based on stopping patterns, etc.). Why?
Any Amtrak operation over Florida East Coast, both now and prior to Brightline plans, must be done in a manner which preserves (at a minimum) the current level of service to the popular leisure travel market at Orlando. Ideally the service would return to the former model of splitting trains at Jacksonville; There's no longer a Tampa servicing facility, but there is at Sanford (terminate a section in Orlando).
You mean those wouldn't be good for 110mph?Siemens is going to get that completed BrightGreen train off shop trucks prior to delivery, right?
This info from the Brightline site linked above may be old news to any who follow this project closely. But for the rest of us, a nice summary:
The more American tourists ride these trains, the more people will ask, "Why can't Amtrak have nice trains like this?" Well, Congresscritter, what's the multi-Billion dollar answer?
But it could equally backfire.
I would not be too concerned as AAF has been saying since last year there will be a 30 month construction schedule for phase 2. And they have been saying lately that phase 2 construction wont begin until after phase 1 is operational. So service to Orlando 30 months from October 2017 puts the start up date sometime spring 2020. They are quietly accumulating all the required permits for phase 2. So the opponents can only stop phase 2 if, and only if, AAF has no other source of funding other than the Private Activity Bonds (PAB's). But Mr. Reininger (Executive Director of FECI, former CEO of AAF) has said that AAF will obtain financing, implying it might not be PAB's.
True.
