Florida East Coast Industries announced last Thursday that passenger rail services between Miami and Orlando could begin as early as 2014.
The project, called ‘All Aboard Florida’, is designed to serve Florida’s growing number of business travelers, as well as families and tourists traveling for pleasure.
The service will connect South Florida to Orlando through a 240-mile route combining 200 miles of existing tracks between Miami and Cocoa and the creation of 40 miles of new track to complete the route to Orlando.
Eventually the system could be expanded with connections to Tampa and Jacksonville.
More than fifty million people travel between South and Central Florida annually, largely over highly congested highways.
All Aboard Florida is envisioned to transform the way people travel throughout the state, offering a faster, safer, and more enjoyable mode of transportation between Florida’s two largest metropolitan areas.
Targeted to begin service in 2014, the approximately $1 billion project will operate on a regular schedule throughout the day transporting business and leisure passengers between South Florida and Orlando in approximately three hours.
There would be four stops: Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Orlando, each with connections to airports, seaports and existing rail systems such as Tri-Rail and Metrorail.
240 miles in three hours!!! Snail’s pace for modern inter city rail.
Welcome to the current ‘high speed rail’ in North America. It’s about as fast as driving, assuming no pileups or congestion.
I don’t see how this can work without alot of govt money, which wasn’t mentioned in the article.
Actually Kit, an average of 80 mph is not bad for a conventional inter-city service. Three hours can be turned into productive time if full wi-fi, power sockets and tables are provided, and if there is a buffet bar, so pax can work and eat on board.
If the service turns a tidy profit, then attention can be turned to investment in speed improvements or new high-speed sections.
I live in Melbourne and have been following the saga of rail service in Florida for 15 yeaars. This month the Florida Legislature pass enabling legislation for the FEC, AMTRAK and the State of Florida to comence new a 400 mile service from Miami to Jacksonville. This service will not include Orlando. Your article is describing a Miami – Orlando connection via a new high speed track inland from the FEC tracks. This ten year old proposal is now politically defunct. A possible connection to the FEC’s Jacksonville – Miami line from Port Canaveral to Orlando has not even been engineered so it is at least 10 years away