This subject has been addressed many times at the various boards, but that hardly precludes further discussion here at this time.
The constraints for additional Northeast-Florida service are of course "the usual"; 1) Equipment 2) Funding and 3) CSX track capacity. The demand is there and any additional service, particularly if routed along the SAL through North and Central Fla serving Gainesville, Ocala, and The Villages would "pull its weight'. Existing schedules are quite speed competitive with safe and lawful driving times, and lest we forget there are perfectly competent people living in New York, and to a lesser extent, other NEC cities, that choose not to own an automobile.
Midwest to Florida service is a completely different issue. There is simply no way that any conceivable rail route could be speed competitive with again, safe and lawful driving. During its "zenith" days circa 1977, when Amtrak assembled the best LD equipment it could find and assigned it to the Floridian, it was on a 47 hr CHI-MIA schedule. From much experiencek, that trip can be driven safefully and lawfully, including a nine hour rest stop, in about 34 hours.
No question whatever, the IC-CofG-ACL-FEC City of Miami was schedule CHI-MIA in about 37 hours, but the route has been truncated, the IC Centralia Div has been singled tracked, and once again there is considerably more freight traffic. Further at that time I-75 had not been completed. I can recall as late as 1972 a long stretch detoured over US 41 between Chatanooga and Atlanta. Semis back then hardly had the power they do today; you went over hill and dale at their speed.
Having used the existing 30-WAS-91 connection on enough occasions, I don't think of such as grossly inconvenient. but then retirement means you don't worry, you just be happy.
Likely the case could be made for a CHI-MIA train to serve the intermediate markets such as Chi-Nashville, Atlanta-Jacksonville, et al, but with the "death" of the KEYCARD, that subject along with any other route expansions, at this time, is most definitely not "on the back burner" but more likely "in the deep freeze".
Last edited by Gilbert B Norman on Mon Oct 18, 2004 10:50 am, edited 2 times in total.