Amtrak: Flagler Line Will Happen

[Metro Jacksonville]

Amtrak: Flagler Line Will Happen



With $118 million committed in FDOT's work program for their 2013 budget year, plans for the return of passenger rail between Jacksonville and Miami are alive and well.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2012-jan-amtrak-flagler-line-will-happen

[Noone]

I'm warming to rail. Because of Metrojax I took Amtrack for the first time from Boston to Portland and we would do it again.

Check out pictures 3, 10, 11, 14, 17, 26 27, 28

Kim Delaney next time you VISIT JACKSONVILLE lets kayak McCoys Creek under the Times Union. You fire me up. So now to bring back Amtrack to Downtown we are now going to have to destroy more of our history?

[JeffreyS]

And of course the city  council has shot us in the foot with their mobility fee moratorium that could encourage TOD development near our beautiful Jax Terminal.

[mbwright]

Another fine example of our backwards town.  I'm sure the "Transportaion Center"  will continue, then 'run out of money, or not be funded, so this will never come off the ground for Jax.  Another missed opportunity.  Maybe we'll get lucky and they will decide to redo the whole plan, and bring it back to the terminal, as they should.

[Tacachale]

This is great news. This past year we attempted to use Florida's rail service, and found it to be so inadequate that we ended up driving. Hopefully we can channel this into some new downtown development.

[fsujax]

This would be a huge win for Downtown, if we could get the station relocated. Either way it does spell jobs for Jacksonville.

[BridgeTroll]

Need to turn this around...

One of the most puzzling issues with the planning and promotion of the Flagler Line is the silence of Jacksonville's officials on this project.

[Jaxson]

I will believe it when I see it.  Too many years of feet dragging for me to begin holding my breath.

[peestandingup]

Don't kid yourselves. The city's not going to do anything that would promote public transit in any way & something that would make any kind of sense of it all. And putting the station downtown & back into the Terminal, which coincidentally feeds into the as-of-now mostly useless Skyway, would indeed do just that. Nope, they'd rather leave the station out in the middle of bum fu*k nowhere & use a perfectly good urban transit terminal to host a handful of conventions every year. Yeah, that's the ticket.

[JeffreyS]

For now we need to get Amtrak into Jax Terminal with the tunnels and share the space with the few conventions we have.  There is already a bus stop there, skyway there and we could sit like that until streetcar moves forward.  It would be ok if Greyhound was not coming yet if it wasn't moving at all.  Right now you can access Greyhound from the skyway.

[tufsu1]

just a question to pose...why should the City or JTA spend money to build/re-build Amtrak (or Greyhound for that matter) a new station?

[fsujax]

The movement of the Amtrak station has as much to do with Amtrak as it does with the City or FDOT. If Amtrak really wanted to move, it would be worked out by now. They are all talk, but at this point have put zero dollars toward the move. While the track, platform and station configuration are being hashed out, and paid for by FDOT. Amtrak hasn't put anything towards the design costs.

[dougskiles]

just a question to pose...why should the City or JTA spend money to build/re-build Amtrak (or Greyhound for that matter) a new station?

Same reason why we are giving incentives to move Everbank from one part of town to another.  Brings more activity to the core of the city.

The movement of the Amtrak station has as much to do with Amtrak as it does with the City or FDOT. If Amtrak really wanted to move, it would be worked out by now. They are all talk, but at this point have put zero dollars toward the move. While the track, platform and station configuration are being hashed out, and paid for by FDOT. Amtrak hasn't put anything towards the design costs.

Are you saying that Amtrak hasn't spent any money on the entire FEC line or just the station in Jacksonville?

To address the question about the city pushing for the move, who would be the leader of that charge?  Would it come from the Mayor himself?  Give him a little time to understand the situation, and I think he would be in favor of the move.  I wonder if anyone advocating for the move has brought it to his attention?

[Ocklawaha]

Another fine example of our backwards town.  I'm sure the "Transportation Center"  will continue, then 'run out of money, or not be funded, so this will never come off the ground for Jax.  Another missed opportunity.  Maybe we'll get lucky and they will decide to redo the whole plan, and bring it back to the terminal, as they should.

FIRST, REMEMBER JACKSONVILLE DOES HAVE AMTRAK SERVICE AT ITS OWN PISS POOR AMTRAK STATION. So moving Amtrak back downtown is not a choice of having or not having passenger train services, it is however a question of just how badly we want trains and their workforce in downtown.

Remember folks in Conservative Florida, R-A-I-L is a four letter word, and Jacksonville is the cheerleader of the conservatives. Located somewhere to the far right of John Birch, we need to kick this city into reality, we don't all own cars, and many of us that do would dearly love to have the monitory relief that decent public transportation, both intra and intercity would bring. In this respect the governor fails miserably, FDOT getting its advice from CUTR/USF the very epicenter of the anti rail - bus transit lobby is F**ked, and JTA has fumbled the ball so many times they might as well be wearing the other teams jerseys.

WELCOME TO JACKSONVILLE! While we haven't quite obtained the moniker 'Wart of The World, In The Armpit Of The Great Frog', we're working on it. 

JTA apparently believes convention goers would not have a problem dealing with Amtrak passengers, but cannot under any circumstances mingle with bus passengers. The fact that along with airline passengers, they are often one in the same has never occurred to this 'authority.'  Even if we get Amtrak back in downtown, the JRTC plan is so flawed that the station will never have the vibrancy to make it the economic engine it could be. Without Greyhounds passenger numbers in addition to Megabus, La Cubana, Autobus, JTA bus and the skyway ALL IN ONE PLACE, you'll never have the critical mass for retail, restaurants, boutiques etc...

Until 1971, the old station typically handled twice Amtrak's total, annual, Jacksonville passenger count, IN TWO DAYS! Yet for 'social gentrification' we are going to scatter our passengers all over LaVilla

[JeffreyS]

just a question to pose...why should the City or JTA spend money to build/re-build Amtrak (or Greyhound for that matter) a new station?

Don't build a new one put Amtrak in a very old one, Jax Terminal. Leave Greyhound where they are but if are going to build them one don't put it blocks away from our old transit terminal.