(The following story by Larry Hannan appeared on the Florida Times-Union website on November 16.)
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — An Amtrak route that goes through Jacksonville on the way to New Orleans may return next year.
Or Amtrak could spend $1 million that Congress gave it for a study of the route – and then do nothing.
The Sunset Limited Route from Orlando to New Orleans was abandoned after Hurricane Katrina damaged CSX train tracks in 2005. The route still runs from New Orleans to Los Angeles.
Those damaged tracks have been repaired, and CSX says it has no objections to starting the route again.
Amtrak has been reluctant to restart the route, though, because of low ridership before Katrina hit. About 81,000 people rode the Sunset Limited in 2005, down 16 percent from 96,426 in 2004.
But U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., who chairs a rail subcommittee, has insisted that Amtrak look into re-establishing the route. Brown was able to back up her insistence by putting a requirement in recent Amtrak legislation that mandated the rail agency come up with a plan for re-establishing service by next summer.
Brown said her constituents have asked to have the service return and she is confident that Amtrak can find a way to make the route work.
The legislation gives Amtrak about $1 million to come up with a plan. It does not require Amtrak to re-establish the route.
Before Brown took action, Jay McArthur, officer for state contracts with Amtrak, had said the top goal in Florida was to offer service from Jacksonville to Miami on the Florida East Coast rail lines.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said it wasn’t feasible financially to bring back the Sunset Limited Route until now. But with Amtrak given money to look into the issue, the hope is to find a way to bring the service back, he said.
McArthur said the key will be finding a way to offer a service that attracts more riders. Amtrak also wants to offer train service that can keep to a schedule because the old Sunset route was habitually late.
One option: offering multiple trains from Orlando to New Orleans. In theory, that might make it easier to keep the routes on time and attract more ridership, McArthur said.
Magliari said the study will work through the departments of transportation in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana to try to come up with a rail plan. Public meetings designed to get feedback from potential riders would be coordinated thought the state agencies, he said.
He was not sure if Amtrak has begun work on a plan. Nazih Haddad, manager for passenger rail development at the Florida Department of Transportation, said the state has not yet heard from Amtrak.
FDOT would like to see the Sunset Limited re-established, Haddad said, pointing out that the state has gotten hundreds of letters and phone calls from people asking when the route will return.