(The following story by Ryan Burr appeared on the News Herald website on November 27.)
FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. — For this holiday season, people living in the Southeast again won’t be able to consider Amtrak as a mode of transportation, at least for the New Orleans-to-Orlando route and stops in between.
Marc Magliari, a Chicago-based Amtrak spokesman, said Monday that corporate management still is discussing with the Florida Department of Transportation and the Southern Rapid Rail Transit Commission, which represents Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, possibilities for reopening the rail line.
“They’re looking at more frequent stops, more than three days a week, and where it could end and begin,” Magliari said, adding that there remains no indication of when Amtrak will decide the fate of the New Orleans-to-Orlando section of the Sunset Limited route, which serviced customers between Orlando and Los Angeles.
Amtrak shut down service between Orlando and just east of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the central Gulf Coast in August 2005. The passenger depots nearest to Panama City, including Chipley, Crestview and Tallahassee, did not sustain damage like some in Mississippi.
Chipley, Crestview and Tallahassee are some of the smaller towns with stops on the Sunset Limited route. Ridership in Chipley and Crestview was about 1,500 to 2,000 passengers in the 2004-05 fiscal year as well as the two preceding fiscal years. Tallahassee showed slightly higher passenger use, closer to 3,000 during that time, according to Amtrak’s Web site.
“It’s kind of a sore subject for us to even talk about around here,” said Vicki Waller, an Amtrak agent who takes reservations. “A lot of people miss the service” between Florida and New Orleans.
In addition to Sunset Limited, Amtrak runs four other long-distance trains into Florida, running north-south. For Bay Countians and others in Northwest Florida, Jacksonville has the closest functioning Amtrak station, Waller said.
Hurricane Katrina destroyed 39 miles of railroad track near and east of New Orleans, but CSX, the company that owns the track and had allowed Amtrak to use it, repaired its lines by April 2006 for freight train use, Magliari said.
CSX also is involved in conversations with Amtrak and other agencies on what passenger train schedules would work best with the freight trains.
Sunset Limited was Amtrak’s longest route, Magliari said, so there were delays. Also, freight train congestion was problematic between New Orleans and Bay St. Louis, Miss. Both are issues he said Amtrak wants improved if the New Orleans-Orlando section reopens.
The Southern Pacific Railroad started the Sunset Limited route in 1894 and Amtrak assumed operation of it in May 1971. The “Florida extension” from New Orleans to Orlando was added in 1993.
Magliari said Amtrak is not hurting financially by not operating the Florida extension of Sunset Limited because running the entire route costs more than revenue from it produces.