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Brightline Trains


FLheat

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Atlanta has MARTA and The Perimeter as built for exactly the same reason - the right folks in DC at the right time.

 

When the interstate system was being designed in the 1950s and early 1960's, Orlando was the equivalent of modern-day Lakeland (even less so in the county - Orange had around 300K back then, Polk today has 600K). In fact, Orlando pulled significantly above its weight in the old Florida SRD, thanks to Sentinel Publisher Martin Andersen. Orlando was originally not supposed to get either I4 or the Sunshine State Parkway (now Florida's Turnpike).

 

Another thing to remember about Atlanta: it is THE major city in Georgia and the only MSA in the top 50 (it's also the state capital). Florida has FOUR MSA's in the top 50. We have to compete with south Florida, Tampa Bay and Jacksonville for everything the state gets (not to mention the other fast-growing, politically connected areas like SW Florida and Polk). 

 

Interstate beltways are 90% paid for by the feds. By the 1980s when Orlando was getting large enough to think about one, the window was largely closed for new interstate projects (it also didn't help that our Congressman, Bill McCollum, was mostly useless when it came to bringing home the bacon, but politics throughout the time are another story). As a result, our beltway (paid for 100% by us except for what funds we could wriggle out of the Legislature) was designed more as a function of what we could afford than what we might have liked.

 

MARTA was one of the last of the heavy rail projects that came out of Washington (MetroRail in Miami was another). Both projects (which, btw, have been stalled on expansion for years thanks to DC attitudes) happened because of the heft of those regions' political clout when the money tree was being harvested, not because of the wisdom of the folks in those areas. MARTA, which I'm intimately familiar with from living in Atlanta, riding it daily and from my work for the Georgia General Assembly, has struggled from the beginning to expand out of Fulton and DeKalb Counties. All the other counties surrounding the region were playing NIMBY from the beginning (stories of "those" people riding the train from downtown to the 'burbs to rob the God-fearing folks in the countryside were epic - yes, this was the South and the whole thing had a racial tinge to it.)

 

Orlando was late to the transit sweepstakes because it was late to its metro status more than anything else.

I'd like to add: I happened to be in DC in January 2009 when the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was up for vote on the House floor. A friend working in politics, knowing what a political junkie I am, told me I should be at Capitol Hill on the day. I spent the day in the House gallery watching the historic proceedings, but one thing really struck me: how hard Rep. Mica worked the floor, on both sides of the aisle. Of anyone on the floor, he stuck out as an earnest hard-worker for his constituents. In 20 years time, if Central Florida has a world-class transportation system, we will all have John Mica to thank.

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I'd like to add: I happened to be in DC in January 2009 when the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was up for vote on the House floor. A friend working in politics, knowing what a political junkie I am, told me I should be at Capitol Hill on the day. I spent the day in the House gallery watching the historic proceedings, but one thing really struck me: how hard Rep. Mica worked the floor, on both sides of the aisle. Of anyone on the floor, he stuck out as an earnest hard-worker for his constituents. In 20 years time, if Central Florida has a world-class transportation system, we will all have John Mica to thank.

 

Agreed. As much as I hate most of Congressman Mica's stands on the issues (especially social issues), he has been tireless on efforts to keep central Florida moving over the years. I4, light rail, SunRail, MCO: all have benefitted from his work, especially in the days when Bill McCollum was more interested in almost anything but helping with infrastructure. He has an awful blind spot about Amtrak, but that's hardly unusual for a Republican.

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Indeed, but John Mica and Glenda Hood tried hard to get the Republicans on the Orange County Commission, along with the narrow-minded thinkers on International Drive (including Harris Rosen and John Morgan), to take the money from the Clinton administration for light rail, but they weren't having any of it. The Profiles In Cowardice from that era are stunning. 

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The light rail was supposed to be the same as sunrail but then turn at downtown to go along I-4 to convention centre. Isnt this correct?

 

The urban landscape of Orlando will be very diff if that was built. Who was behind building the metrorail in Miami back then?

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8 hours ago, HankStrong said:

Well, they still plan to use it for people.

 

I've never understood the panic over LNG.  There are plenty of really bad things that are much scarier than LNG.

Not sure I'd want to go hurtling down the tracks at 125 mph knowing that in the opposite direction is travelling a train loaded with highly explosive liquid gas.

Not sure it would go over very well with a lot of people.

 

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13 hours ago, JFW657 said:

Local news is reporting that Florida East Coast Rail has plans to use the tracks that All Aboard Florida had planned to use for their high speed commuter rail service, to transport highly explosive liquefied natural gas.

Story: Florida rail company plans to transport explosive gas.

 

Are you okay with the truck next to you on the highway containing 9000 gallons of gasoline?

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What is confusing to me, and not made clear by the story is this.  It says domestically natural gas is moved by pipeline and that rail is only used to move the gas from the pipeline to ports for export.  As far as I know natural gas is produced up north. If the pipelines enter Florida at the GA border, why not liquefy it there and run the rail to the Jacksonville port?  Why is gas produced up north being liquefied and and put on trains in central and south Florida?

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To get to the Port of Miami I suppose, but still I am confused as well - maybe it's cheaper to make that ~350 mile leg of the journey by rail as opposed to sea? Maybe there's something South FL has that Jacksonville doesn't? Just throwing out speculations here.

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^^

I'm assuming everyone read that article last week in the OBJ stating that a district court ruled that AAF can't use bonds to fund the leg to Orlando if its the only funding source.

http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2016/09/14/lawsuit-threatens-future-of-miami-orlando-train.html

this is a miami article.  the OBJ had the full article.

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9 hours ago, tc01 said:

Orlando should have been Phase 1. South Florida stations are between 20-30min apart. 

It's a little puzzling. S. Fla already has Tri-Rail, granted, it takes longer than what Brightline will be able to supply. 

I wonder how much tickets are going to be, especially for the Miami to Orlando route. You would have to think they need to aim for under $100 RT. More than that, sorry, I will jump in my car and deal. 

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19 minutes ago, sunshine said:

Is it faster than driving? If we can get to Miami in like 1 hour 30 mins....I will pay it...

It will be slightly faster than driving. From their website: " Driving from Miami to Orlando takes about four hours. Brightline will allow passengers to cover that same distance in about three hours "

The difference is, you don't have to deal with traffic and can do whatever you want while you are riding the train, such as work on a laptop, read stuff, etc.  It's a plus, but the minus is you have do deal with getting in an out of the station and getting local transport once you are at your destination.  At this time, that's maybe not enough to convince people to take the train instead of driving.

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