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

[csziggy]

7. Service from New Orleans to Jacksonville, Florida stopped before Katrina

The Sunset Limited used to connect to the Gulf Wind and go from Jacksonville to Los Angeles. The entire route was called the Sunset Limited.

In 1993 a barge hit a train bridge and caused an Amtrak train to fall into the water -

1993 Big Bayou Canot train wreck
The 1993 Big Bayou Canot train wreck was the derailing of an Amtrak train on the CSXT Big Bayou Canot bridge in northeastern Mobile, Alabama, United States, on September 22, 1993. It was caused by displacement of a span and deformation of the rails when a tow of heavy barges had collided with the bridge eight minutes earlier. Casualties were 47 killed and 103 injured.[1] To date, it is both the deadliest train wreck in Amtrak's history and the worst rail disaster in the United States since the 1958 Newark Bay, New Jersey rail accident in which 48 lives were lost.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Big_Bayou_Canot_train_wreck

Service from Mobile to Jacksonville was stopped and had not been re-established on a regular basis prior to Katrina. The timing was bad - the route through to Jacksonville has just been restored:

Meanwhile, on April 4, 1993, the entire New Orleans—Jacksonville route reestablished passenger train service with the extension of the Sunset Limited to Miami, using the route of Amtrak's Silver Meteor south of Jacksonville.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_Limited#Amtrak

I had been planning to take a train trip with that re-opening of the line. I live in Tallahassee and before the route was opened in 1993 my options for catching a train were to drive to Jacksonville or to the Orlando area. It was exciting to think that I could take a train from my town - but before I could plan a trip the bayou accident prevented it. Apparently some service had been resumed but although I was trying to keep track of it, I never heard that it had by 2002 (photo in article below is the ONLY record I could find for that!)

According to articles in the local paper, service might be restored to Tallahassee in 2020:

All aboard: Rail service could be returning to Gulf Coast
Karl Etters, Democrat staff writer 3:20 p.m. EST December 31, 2015

More than a decade has passed since thundering passenger locomotives stopped in Tallahassee or anywhere else east of New Orleans.

But that could all change as the Southern Rail Commission looks to restore rail service from the Big Easy to Orlando, which would include a stop in the capital city.

This year, the SRC asked Amtrak to evaluate options for bringing train service back. The popular Gulf Coast Limited rail line closed in 2005 in the wake of destruction of miles of tracks in Hurricane Katrina.

The Amtrak report looks at three possibilities of restoring the rail line, all with stops in Tallahassee. One would be a daily trip from New Orleans to Orlando with 16 stops along the way. Another would extend the New Orleans line to two daily trips between Mobile where passengers would change trains on their way to Florida. The third would be an overnight trip from New Orleans to Orlando.
http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2015/12/31/all-aboard-rail-service-could-returning-tallahassee/78131404/