Amtrak passenger service on track for rail service across Gulf Coast from New Orleans to Orlando

[KamaAina]

xpost from GD.

http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/news/15291718-130/amtrak-passenger-service-on-track-to-return-to-gulf-coast

Five weeks ago, an Amtrak inspection train rolled across south Mississippi for the first time since Hurricane Katrina....

The group suggested a daily round-trip train from New Orleans through south Mississippi to Mobile, Alabama, and a long-distance train that would connect from New Orleans to Orlando, Florida, through Jacksonville, Florida....

From April 1993 until Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005, the Sunset Limited Amtrak line ran from Los Angeles to Jacksonville. But the service has been out of commission for more than a decade because of the devastating storm.

There’s been some movement to restore the service, as part of a $9.5 billion long-distance Amtrak service that would run from Chicago to New Orleans, then veer east along the Gulf Coast to Orlando.

Yes, that would finally connect Chicago (and thus most of the Midwest) to Florida without having to go through DC, but it's about the same distance. Why there is not a more direct route through Atlanta is above my pay grade.

h/t TexasTowelie

[MisterP]

1. this is about the Sunset Limited being extended; a restored Floridian would go right FL-IL

[KamaAina]

2. That's not how I read it

There’s been some movement to restore the service, as part of a $9.5 billion long-distance Amtrak service that would run from Chicago to New Orleans, then veer east along the Gulf Coast to Orlando.

I never heard of the Floridian.

[MisterP]

3. oh, so a City of New Orleans and then it swerves east to finish what was abandoned after Katrina,

and then jukes south to Orlando

the old Floridian served KY and TN, which are still stranded--much of the ridership's intrastate or regional rather than end-to-end anyway

[LoveIsNow]

4. The Floridian ran Chicago to Florida until 1979

It didn't rub through Atlanta either, due to poor track; it went through Alabama, then turned. This one will run to New Orleans and turn, essentially being an extension of the City of New Orleans, rather than the Sunset Limited.

[KamaAina]

5. I imagine it would have better ridership if they could find a way to get it through the ATL

Just sayin'.

[LoveIsNow]

6. Couldn't agree more

But that would require getting the freight railroads on board, which is very difficult but might happen if there was the will in DC to fork over a few billion for track repairs. That's not the case though.

Also, Amtrak has a huge shortage of long distance equipment, which Congress would have to buy them. Basically they can add a few cars to a train or two, but they don't have enough to put together a whole new train, which requires at least 4 trainsets, if you have no backup cars.

In short, unless we get a very different sort of Congress and president it will be one of the many Amtrak routes that should exist, but don't.

[KamaAina]

7. Like Bernie?

[LoveIsNow]

8. Yup.

Amtrak definitely one of the many things in America that needs more than incremental change.

[Vogon_Glory]

9. Not So Much Bernie As New Senators And Congressional Reps

Not so much as Senator Sanders (I'm a Hillary supporter, but believe that the Republic would survive if Sanders ultimately wins the primaries) as forward-thinking progressives and Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives and the US Senate away from the right-wing Republican reactionaries who currently control it. It's these Republicans who control the purse strings and keep the US intercity passenger rail network as flimsy and under-funded as it is.

I would like to see new Amtrak Chicago-Florida trains instituted as well as the Sunset again extended from New Orleans to Orlando again. As a Texan, I would like to see the return of the Lone Star from Chicago to Houston and either the pre-Amtrak (Burlington Route) Texas Zephyr running from Houston to Denver or the (ex-Rock Island) Twin Star Rocket running from Houston to Minneapolis/St. Paul. Unfortunately, getting such trains back again means making clean sweeps of such reactionaries as Ted Cruz, Don Inhofe, Ron Johnson, Tom Cotton, and other stunted-visionaries in the Senate and also their counterparts in the House.

Off-topic, I think progressives' standing would improve if more of our voters stopped seeing our President as a king or figurehead and more like a football quarterback. Quarterbacks might be great and deserve glory, but it's the linemen and receivers together with the quarterback that scores touchdowns.

[KamaAina]

10. One would think the existing Texas Eagle could add a spur to Houston

as the Chicago-NYC Lake Shore Limited does to Boston, and the Chicago-Seattle Empire Builder to Portland.

[Vogon_Glory]

11. Not quite the same thing

Not quite the same thing as a resurrected Twin Star Rocket. As a matter of fact, there was such a stub operation at one time. Our (Texas) Republican-controlled legislature refused to fund it and it was discontinued.

Why right-wing "fibber-tarian" voters are so hostile to Amtrak yet think that air service currently provided by subsidized "essential air service" programs would continue under a Tea-bagger-controlled federal government eludes me.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

12. I had to look this one up.

Last edited Mon Apr 11, 2016, 11:13 AM - Edit history (3)

There was such a routing, but, wow, did it involve a lot of railroads. The trip took some 31 hours.

The Dixie Flagler

The Florida East Coast's Dixie Flagler was one of three principle trains (the other two being the Pennsylvania's South Wind and Illinois Central's City of Miami) that connected the Midwest and Chicago with the southeast and Florida. In terms of mileage the train operated the shortest schedule although its timetable was just the same as its two counterparts. Additionally, it required the partnership of four different railroads (six, including subsidiaries) to complete the journey. Despite the three trains being owned and operated by different railroads, all worked together to provide reliable service and were not really competitors in the truest sense. The Flagler saw its name changed in the early 1950s to the Dixieland and would not survive to the see the 1960s (which is somewhat interesting considering that the other two trains saw relatively healthy traffic through the start-up of Amtrak in 1971).
....

This new train was known as the Dixie Flagler and was inaugurated on December 17, 1940 having been christened with a bottle of orange juice at Chicago's Dearborn Station. To complete the journey required the cooperation of five other railroads; from Chicago to Evansville, Indiana the train was handled by the Chicago & Eastern Illinois (which for power utilized a beautifully streamlined 4-6-2 Pacific); the Louisville & Nashville to Nashville; L&N subsidiary Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis carried it southward to Atlanta where it was picked up by Atlantic Coast Line subsidiary Atlanta, Birmingham & Coast which transported the train to Waycross (Georgia); from there the ACL handled the Flagler to Jacksonville where it returned to home rails of the FEC and finished the journey to Miami.

Beautifully streamlined? Ummm:



Chicago–Miami Dixie Flagler on South Side of Chicago, 1940s. Chicago & Eastern Illinois Photo by Paul Eilenberger

Okay, this isn't bad:



From the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Gallery

Amtrak's Floridian took over the route of the South Wind.

The Dixie Flagler

The Dixie Flagler was a streamlined passenger train operated by the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) between Chicago, Illinois and Miami, Florida. It began in 1939 as the Henry M. Flagler, a regional service between Miami and Jacksonville, Florida; the FEC renamed it and extended it to Chicago a year later. As an overnight streamliner it was part of the every-third-day pool shared by the City of Miami and South Wind. It was renamed Dixieland in 1954 and discontinued altogether in 1957.