7 replies to this topic

[pennyk]

Ft. Lauderdale SunSentinel, 7/8/14

All Aboard Florida scales back initial run

All Aboard Florida's promised Miami-to-Orlando passenger rail service will initially run only between Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, with trains rolling in late 2016, officials now say.

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[KevinKorell]

Not to be a pessimist but this sounds like a last ditch effort to put something on the tracks. Otherwise it appears that the environmentalists and the NIMBY's who oppose grade crossings may have won. Here's why.

All Aboard Florida (AAF) was not intended to provide service between Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach. While those stops would have been made, they would have been receive-only Orlando-bound, and discharge-only Miami-bound. There really is no need to provide an AAF type service solely between those three points, which can and should be served by a parallel eastern branch of TriRail. Such a branch was supposed to go further up the coast to Jupiter.

So therefore I don't think the incremental approach is the right thing to do here. It's all or nothing.

[pennyk]

I totally agree with you. It does not make sense to only have service between Miami and West Palm Beach. TriRail is already in place. It is less expensive, but not as quick.

[KevinKorell]

It's a commuter style environment. While the original article says it would not compete with the current TriRail route, it really would compete with TriRail or perhaps even block a TriRail commuter service along the FEC corridor.

[jis]

Well since AAF does not plan to stop anywhere between West Palm Beach and Orlando, I don't see why this would have any effect on Commuter service north of West Palm.

[KevinKorell]

True, but as long as AAF runs "open door" at the three Gold Coast stops it will compete with a potential TriRail along the FEC route at points south of and including West Palm Beach.

[jis]

That's true. It will be similar to how Amtrak competes with NJT between New York and Trenton, with almost similar fare differentials and likely similar split of relative loads. If and when commuter service starts to Jupiter or to Vero, there would be no contest on those between AAF and the Commuter service.

[KevinKorell]

Well now today's Orlando Sentinel says that Orlando would only be a few months behind the above "starter line", opening in 2017 instead of 2016. Seems silly then, to not just open the whole thing in one shot.

All Aboard Florida train could roll into Orlando in June 2017

The planned All Aboard Florida train will not be pulling into Orlando until May or June 2017, likely a half year or more behind the system's startup in South Florida.

All Aboard Florida President Michael Reininger said Tuesday that the $2.5 billion project has been broken into two phases, with a 60-mile-plus section opening first in late 2016 in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

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