(The following story by Larry Hannan appeared on The Florida Times-Union website on July 30.)
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — If you want to take an Amtrak train from Jacksonville to New Orleans, it will mean going to Washington first.
It wasn’t always the case.
There was passenger train service from Jacksonville to New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. The Sunset Limited was suspended after the storm and has not been restarted east of New Orleans.
No decision has been made about bringing it back, either. But ridership was low before the hurricane, so it’s unlikely to return, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said.
About 81,000 people rode the Sunset Limited – which went from Orlando to Los Angeles – before the hurricane hit. Those numbers were down 16 percent from 2004, when 96,426 people rode it.
There has been talk of a series of trains offering service similar to what the Sunset Limited did before, but no one knows what that would entail. It would probably mean trains traveling a shorter distance but operating more frequently, Magliari said.
Some like the rails
CSX Transportation owns the rails the Sunset Limited used. Spokesman Gary Sease said CSX is fine with Amtrak resuming the route if it chooses to do so.
The elimination of the Sunset Limited route is frustrating to Jacksonville rail travelers who would like to go to New Orleans, or some of the cities in between, such as Tallahassee.
St. Augustine resident Vicki Gifford said her family used the Sunset Limited all the time before the route was suspended. She has a son in Tallahassee she could visit by taking the train.
Her family has missed the train because it’s a lot more fun than taking a bus or driving a car, Gifford said.
Jacksonville Beach resident Larry Peters said he’d like to take the train to New Orleans because flying has become such a hassle.
Atlanta is apparently high on First Coast residents’ rail wish list. There is none now, and Amtrak has no plans to offer such service, Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black said.
Jacksonville-Atlanta unlikely
The Florida Department of Transportation said it is looking at ways to improve rail service, but Jacksonville to Atlanta is not a focus, representatives said.
The law requires that states approach the federally subsidized Amtrak system about new routes, not that Amtrak approaches them.
CSX has tracks from Jacksonville to Atlanta, but Sease said it is a high-traffic route and it would be a struggle to find space for a passenger train.