Do you wish Jacksonville had Commuter Rail?

[Metro Jacksonville]

Do you wish Jacksonville had Commuter Rail?



Heading south on I-95 and tired of sitting in traffic during afternoon rush hour?

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2009-aug-do-you-wish-jacksonville-had-commuter-rail

[aaapolito]

I would love commuter rail!

[Hurricane]

That is pretty much the only way to solve the traffic problems on 95.  Adding more lanes only entices more drivers and more traffic.  The exit ramps are bottle necks and it doesn't matter how many lanes you have when none of them are moving.

Connect downtown to JTB, Mandarin, Nocatee, and St. Augustine with small rail.  In the future run a new leg down the beach corridor.  The 3rd phase would be to run from downtown to Orange Park.  This would allow almost everyone south and east of downtown to drive just a few miles to a small rail station, hop a train that comes every 15 minutes and go lots of places without sitting in traffic, wasting gas, or polluting the air.  It could also allow for better night life downtown - as we know almost no one lives there and driving a long distance to get there is not feasible for most... 

If enough people would actually use the rail to get to work, this would be possible.  Unfortunately, the city is probably scared that this would be another sky rail failure (not realizing that the current sky rail failure is a combination of a elements that is a new discussion all together...). 

This is similar to how we got the JAG's as an expansion team in JAX.  We would need to prove to everyone in writing that more than enough people would TRULY use the rail.  This would almost need to be done by pre-selling a yearly train pass - similar to how we presold sky boxes and Touchdown club seats before we even got awarded to be an NFL expansion city.  I hope that someone steps up to the plate for us here.  I'll buy one.

I wish us all the best of luck at getting this MAJOR feet accomplished.  I sure hope we have some big wigs at the city take notice.

[Overstreet]

Look at the dips in that track. The right hand track has a major one. The left is a little better. Ballast settlement can be a problem to rail traffic. They are less tollerant of "pot holes". 

When I work down town I come in early and leave late to avoid this traffic. Some things don't change. It has been like this 20 years. Commuter trains might work for others, but I often have to drive somewhere during the day.

[thelakelander]

^Its all about choice.   Trains won't work for everyone but if you can get a certain percentage to use them, you may not have to spend billions on continuous road widening projects in the future.

[JeffreyS]

The Commuter rail in from Clay County would be even more useful as we have some of the slowest commutes in the state.

[Deuce]

Yes, although it wouldn't really benefit me much in terms of commuting. I both live and work downtown so I can walk to work or bike (which I do). Where it would benefit me, is if there was weekend service to a location like SJTC or St. Augustine, then I could travel to these locations for the day and not have to drive a car.

This will also benefit me by helping to increase my property values in the future as JAX would have another standard urban service that will help to attract more people and jobs. A rail service that would take folks to the job concentration on JTB, would be very attractive to someone who wanted to live in the urban environs but couldn't necessarily find a job in the downtown concentration. Of course, there are jobs all over, but having connections between these two job centers would go far and more job centers would be created around the stops.

I believe that without commuter rail we will loose jobs and money to other cities and suffer for it. If this is done right, the money invested in it will pay huge rewards.

[Ocklawaha]

Lake, did you use your telephoto lens on that photo of the track?

A small dip like that will effect the ride with a slight sway, but this isn't high speed track and is in extremely heavy use as a freight corridor daily. Freight trains tend to trash track with 250,000 pound payloads per car being common. In order to introduce passenger rail back to these segments we will need some sort of joint improvement deal with the railroads, or we could just go for corridor service with Amtrak.

OCKLAWAHA

[stjr]

Are the FEC and CSX ROW's wide enough to accommodate a third rail line for passenger only?  I would think ROW is a big chunk of the costs so just having that out of the way, how much more would it cost per mile to add a third line?

[Bewler]

Where was that last picture taken?

[thelakelander]

^Downtown Toronto.

Are the FEC and CSX ROW's wide enough to accommodate a third rail line for passenger only?

Yes.  Its 100' so it could accommodate a lot more.

[FayeforCure]

The Commuter rail in from Clay County would be even more useful as we have some of the slowest commutes in the state.

I have seen BOTH on the MPO plans.

[Ocklawaha]

Where was that last picture taken?

Looks like Southside, looking North toward Atlantic Blvd on the FEC... Lake?

The Commuter rail in from Clay County would be even more useful as we have some of the slowest commutes in the state.

I have seen BOTH on the MPO plans.

Yes, Orange Park is number ONE in the State of Florida for worst commutes, we also "own" about 3 or 4 more top 10 worst commutes in the state. Amtrak corridor service would go a long way toward helping in this regard.

Are the FEC and CSX ROW's wide enough to accommodate a third rail line for passenger only?  I would think ROW is big chunk of the costs so just having that out of the way, how much more would it cost per mile to add a third line?

Shouldn't be really needed STJR, the right-of-ways usually run 100' wide, but often much more. With PTC "Postive Train Control" meets are all calculated in advance, meaning we might have to install some longer second or third track passing sidings, but not the whole route. If JTA and FEC can play their cards right and project what this line will look like with Corridor AND Commuter traffic then perhaps we can get much of this built on the Amtrak-Federal tab.

OCKLAWAHA

[JaxNole]

I would use it.  I also wouldn't think walking one mile to the nearest station would deter me, unless I was running late.

There's a reason in other cities property values are higher for properties close to transit stations.  I'd love not having the car, insurance, maintenance and gas expenses.  If I need a car, Zipcar would be awesome.

[hightowerlover]

get a hover craft