Volume 9, Number 2
From the Editors…
When the parent company of a legendary railroad states its intention to operate passenger trains, it is bound to garner some attention. This week we try to find out what all the hubbub is about. Read more…
Volume 9, Number 1
From the Editors…
Recently, a local regional railway announced a private initiative to begin passenger train service connecting Central and South Florida. Just to be clear, we said private. Read more…
by William Lindley
Today, March 22, 2012, Florida East Coast, which owns and operates the mostly double-track railway between Jacksonville and Miami, announced plans for the construction of a privately-funded, privately-owned, privately-operated passenger train system to commence operations in 2014. This will include forty new miles of railway between Orlando and FEC’s main line on the Space Coast. FEC itself, not Amtrak, will be operating these trains.
Here in the South, we take our railroads as seriously as anyone along the Northeast Corridor, we just do it with our own money instead of constant raids on the federal treasury.
Ah, the agony and tragedy which has befallen California, the golden state.
Volume 1, Number 14
“Vice President – Passenger Services” is a title which may be returning to the corporate roster at Florida East Coast Railway. Yet another major railroad is more than flirting with the idea of operating passenger trains; this time, South Florida commuter services for Tri-Rail between West Palm Beach and Miami, and possibly northward along the Florida coast above West Palm Beach.
What were those allegedly crazy guys at the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida doing in 1970 running all of those long, passenger-filled trains every day of the week?
This week we look first at Amtrak’s slow pace, then at continued nationwide wrong-think surrounding Amtrak’s new venture into high speed rail; and we wrap up with a guest commentary by our Andrew C. Selden. Read more…
As Amtrak continues to say the right things, and to do a few as well, the logic of incrementalism is making inroads… but the “old-think” that stunted our passenger rail network for half a century hasn’t gone away yet.
