Tri-Rail and the Florida East Coast

[Noel Weaver]

Yesterday's Sun-Sentinel (Sunday, April 16th) had an article about running
Tri-Rail trains on the Florida East Coast.
I think this one will be much easier said than done. The Florida East Coast
runs at least 12 trains each way on a weekday and may well experience
capacity problems down the road without any passenger trains on it. In
my opinion, they will need at least three tracks all the way with a good
number of four track segments in order to do this.
It will cost a large fortune.
Hopefully the link below will allow you to read this.
Noel Weaver

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... ws-broward

[george matthews]

The Florida East Coast runs at least 12 trains each way on a weekday

Not all that many trains, provided there is a timetable for each train. Two tracks should be enough.

(My only experience of Tri-Rail is watching the trains at West Palm Beach while waiting for an Amtrak train to Winterhaven.)

[M&Eman]

The double track CSX Trenton Line is the main freight artery between New York and Philadelphia and it shares numerous freight trains with SEPTA commuter trains.

[Noel Weaver]

The Florida East Coast has track capacity for their own trains but no where
near enough for passenger trains to share this railroad. The six miles of
double track through Fort Lauderdale is needed for meets and sometimes
even double meets, also two round trips originate or terminate here too.
FEC runs probably one of the most reliable freight operations of any
railroad around and certainally much better than average. They are NOT
going to allow ANY of their freight trains to be interfered with by any
commuter trains.
They have been freight only for a long time. Two or three northbound
trains go through Fort Lauderdale in the middle of the evening commuting
hours so probably four tracks would be called for at least here.
One can go to a point by the FEC tracks and wait and usually see the same trains almost every day at almost the same time or fairly close.
These trains may not run on a minute basis but they run on a reliable
basis Monday through Friday.
Tri-Rail service is now up to 20 trains each way Monday through Friday and as more equipment becomes available, the service is slated to be
increased much more.
Increasing track capacity on the Florida East Coast would cost a huge
amount of money and our area would be better served by a series of
decent connecting lines, probably light rail, east and west that would serve
much larger areas at less cost than trying to do the FEC for passenger and
especially commuter service.
Noel Weaver

[BlockLine_4111]

Any updates or recent articles about commuter trains on the FEC?

[Noel Weaver]

Any updates or recent articles about commuter trains on the FEC?

There has been talk of it from time to time but here in Florida, talk is
cheap and they do lots of it.
It will take really big bucks to get any kind of commuter train service on
the Florida East Coast. They have a very successful freight business and
will not stand for any interference of their freight operations. They run
their freight trains on a schedule and they are generally on time.
Noel Weaver

[Kurt-Trirail]

Any updates or recent articles about commuter trains on the FEC?

Mark my words, there will be talk of it for decades, but it will never happen.

-Kurt

[chrsjrcj]

Any updates or recent articles about commuter trains on the FEC?

Mark my words, there will be talk of it for decades, but it will never happen.

-Kurt

I agree. I highly doubt that the FEC would want commuter trains going down there line every 20 minutes. Not to mention that the people living next to the tracks will complain, even though the tracks have been there since the early 1900's.

[neroden]

The Florida East Coast
runs at least 12 trains each way on a weekday and may well experience
capacity problems down the road without any passenger trains on it. In
my opinion, they will need at least three tracks all the way with a good
number of four track segments in order to do this.

This is a ridiculous opinion -- "three track all the way" would accomodate, oh, 190 trains per day each way at least. Double track all the way with some other improvements (a third bypass track at key passenger stations, at least two platforming tracks at passenger stations, long freight leads for yards and industries) would certainly be plenty.

That would still be an immense, very expensive upgrade, however, which means I wouldn't bet on it ever happening.

[Kurt-Trirail]

This discussion has been dead for a couple of years now, and so should the rumors and idle journalism that started this topic in the first place.

Locked.

-Kurt