(The following story by Wayne T. Price appeared on the Florida Today website on September 17, 2009.)
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Melbourne International Airport officials on Wednesday endorsed efforts to establish direct Amtrak train service between Jacksonville and Miami that would feature a passenger-boarding platform near the airport terminal.
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The Jacksonville-to-Miami Amtrak line would use existing Florid East Coast Railway tracks and would parallel Interstate 95, hitting key communities such as Melbourne along the way.
If provided funding, the service would need various state and federal regulatory approvals and could take anywhere from two to three years to get under way.
The Florida Department of Transportation, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, would construct the passenger-boarding platform at airport-owned property near the intersection of Air Cargo Road and Apollo Boulevard. The airport would be responsible for providing passenger parking, a relatively low-cost venture for Melbourne International.
“This is a great opportunity for us,” Richard Ennis, executive director of Melbourne International, said at the airport authority’s monthly meeting Wednesday.
Passenger service on Florida East Coast Railway lines ceased in 1968 during a labor dispute.
Amtrak now offers passenger service from Jacksonville to Miami on its Silver Star and Silver Meteor trains, but the Silver Meteor takes nine hours and the closest it comes to Brevard is Orlando, while the Silver Star takes almost 11 hours and goes to Tampa on tracks owned by CSX.
Using Florida East Coast tracks, which cut through Brevard, would create a quicker route down the east coast of Florida while also allowing stops in cities like St. Augustine, Daytona Beach, West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. Titusville also might be slated for a stop.
The trip from Melbourne to Miami by Amtrak likely would take about four hours.
Florida is requesting $70 million for the Amtrak project, but funding is far from a given.
There is a trainload of competition for the available $8 billion high-speed and intercity rail funding. The Federal Railroad Administration said it received 278 applications in July for funding totaling $102 billion.
Airport officials like the idea of an Amtrak boarding platform near Melbourne International because the 1.7-mile stretch of rail line is long enough to not disrupt traffic at Sarno Road or Babcock Street when the train is stationary and loading passengers.
Larry Wuensch, Melbourne International’s director of land development, said Amtrak and the Florida Department of Transportation are applying for federal stimulus money for the project next month.
“Assuming approval, a timetable would be developed subsequent to that,” Wuensch said. “Knowing the governmental processes, start of service is likely to take some time, since they will need to conduct environmental and technical analysis, finalize locations, design and build the stations, bid the construction, actually build the stations, etc.”