Update on the new train or tracks south Florida? (Miami: houses, construction)

[DarkWolf]

Originally Posted by 071402

Maybe, maybe 2 trains per hour. -- 1 am 3 am 4 am 5 am.

12-5am should be Freight only....probably only a few of those should run.

[ThreeOz]

I don't know much about this particular subject of commuter rail, but you can probably bet that there are some hidden agendas at work behind the scenes. The Panama Canal is completing it's widening project to bring larger ships from Asia to the east coast. Miami and Fort Lauderdale ports will be seeing some of this traffic, with rail taking a large portion of the offloaded containers north. Currently these ships land in California and Oregon and rail takes the containers east.

[klaucka]

it is hard to separate truth from fiction with issues like this, but i have seen some information that the way they have structured the new company for the passenger rail piece will allow them access to large loans and/or subsidies that the FEC wouldnt have access to as just a freight company. these loans would enable them to upgrade the tracks and better handle to additional freight from the project you mention above. that makes the passenger line much less of a risk for he FEC, actually probably a major win for the FEC freight business regardless of whether the passenger line is a success. as a business person myself, i tend to agree with ThreeOz in that there are other agendas at play here. the reality is that proving out a profitable business model for passenger rail is very tough to do in that there isnt a lot of proven success and the projections around the number of riders dont garner a lot of confidence. especially when the places the trains are going to will require the rider to get a car anyway and travelling by car between miami and orlando isnt that bad. i just dont see any real motivation for a potential rider to take the train vs. a car (and this isnt a knock on trains, i actually prefer train travel but wouldnt choose it if taking a car was just as cost effective or easy).
no one would be investing a penny in this if there wasnt additional revenue expected from freight.

[ByeByeLW]

Originally Posted by ThreeOz

I don't know much about this particular subject of commuter rail, but you can probably bet that there are some hidden agendas at work behind the scenes. The Panama Canal is completing it's widening project to bring larger ships from Asia to the east coast. Miami and Fort Lauderdale ports will be seeing some of this traffic, with rail taking a large portion of the offloaded containers north. Currently these ships land in California and Oregon and rail takes the containers east.

And there isa push to deepen and widen the Lake Worth inlet (Port of Palm Beach)

[ByeByeLW]

I'd rather hear trains than most other suburban/urban noise , but that's just me.

[071402]

So are there train horns? some parts of the travel of the train may suit noise better? Too many questions... In North Palm area, tracks run through areas close to the ocean.

[City Guy997S]

Originally Posted by 071402

So are there train horns? some parts of the travel of the train may suit noise better? Too many questions... In North Palm area, tracks run through areas close to the ocean.

North Palm Beach ends at Northlake Blvd and the tracks are next to the Ford dealer.....no where near ocean.

[071402]

Originally Posted by City Guy997S

North Palm Beach ends at Northlake Blvd and the tracks are next to the Ford dealer.....no where near ocean.

Really? I'm standing in the yard of a friend in Palm Beach Gardens - tracks are about 20 feet from where I'm standing... Her beach is a few miles from here. And the train JUST NOW PASSING. Ok then... hmmmmmm

=====Get ready for more trains along the Florida East Coast Railway — and with it the potential for more noise. Especially from horns.
The new privately financed service dubbed All Aboard Florida is gearing up to run more than 30 passenger trains a day on the FEC starting in 2015. That's in addition to the 10 freight trains daily that already use the tracks that run east of Interstate 95 and pass [b]through downtowns along the coast.[/B] THE COAST THE COAST.

[2nd trick op]

This subject seems to be generating a lot more heat than light, and given the fact that rail passenger proposals usually involve long lead times and/or delays, I think it would be appropriate to "catch our breath" and put things into perspective by posting a link to the basic facts:

All Aboard Florida - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The entire rail industry -- freight as well as passenger -- while having recovered from its long decline 1945-1980, faces a number of uncertainties ranging from the current Administration's "war on coal" to exactly how much of the present heavy (and profitable) containerized freight traffic now moving cross-country from the Port of Los Angeles / Long Beach will be diverted, and to where? (HINT: It won't all go to Miami, and certainly not on short notice; the capacity to handle it just isn't there.)

For any number of factors too numerous to mention here in great detail, the nature of railroading and, for that matter, of all sectors of the transport infrastructure, makes participation by several levels of government necessary. Since no private rail passenger operation, outside of a few tourist attractions, has generated any profit since the 1950's, I think it's a safe bet that the promoters of All Aboard Florida are counting upon the operation's suitability for handling import container traffic as a fallback, but none of this would see intense rail traffic plowing through formerly-bucolic communities on short notice.

Three generations ago, the rail network was by far the dominant component of our transportation system, and the average American, if male, was likely to posses at least a modest familiarity of how that component operated from day to day; this is no longer true, and a number of opinion leaders at the interface between transportation and journalism have taken notice that an increasingly feminized, sensitized and suburban society just isn't making the effort to understand how things actually work.

[City Guy997S]

Originally Posted by 071402

Really? I'm standing in the yard of a friend in Palm Beach Gardens - tracks are about 20 feet from where I'm standing... Her beach is a few miles from here. And the train JUST NOW PASSING. Ok then... hmmmmmm

You mentioned specifically NORTH PALM BEACH.......

Palm Beach Gardens has nothing to do with my response and being PBG doesn't even have a beach of their own you get a double !

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