(Leo King)
Will Amtrak trains again ply CSX’s tracks between Jacksonville and New Orleans? They will, if NARP has anything to say about it.
National Association of Railroad Passengers:
Restore Gulf connector
No dates are suggested, but NARP has influence over passenger rail matters in D.C. – where it counts
In a position paper published today on its web site, the National Assn. of Railroad Passengers (NARP) is demanding Amtrak restore passenger train service between Jacksonville and New Orleans.
Citing a recent study from Amtrak stating, in essence, it would be impractical to restore the service, NARP takes the opposite view.
The unnamed NARP writer stated, “The Gulf Coast Connector between New Orleans and Jacksonville is a strategically important component of the national intercity passenger train system. This route segment completes the busy I-10 corridor that connects the eight southernmost states. Together, these states have one of every three Americans and account for half the nation’s population growth since 1970.”
NARP is urging Congress and the U. S. Department of Transportation to take several actions in response to Amtrak’s report on resuming passenger train service over the route segment between New Orleans and Florida, “The Gulf Coast Connector.”
The non-profit group listed three options, the first of which would restore the tri-weekly service between Los Angeles and Orlando “that Amtrak summarily ‘suspended’ after [Hurricane] Katrina – immediately.”
The paper stated, “This action would re-establish passenger train service on the Gulf Coast Connector and lay the foundation for daily service. Amtrak should be able to fund the estimated $4.8 million incremental operating cost of restoring this service if Congress appropriates Amtrak’s full operating grant request for Fiscal Year 2010.”
A second option would establish daily service by extending the City of New Orleans to Orlando – “as soon as Amtrak restores the needed, stimulus-funded Superliner cars to service. These repaired cars will give Amtrak sufficient equipment both to implement daily service between Chicago and Florida and to implement its plan to increase frequency between New Orleans and Los Angeles from tri-weekly to daily.”
NARP suggested instructing Amtrak to include the incremental cost of these services in its operating grant request for fiscal 2011.
The organization also recommended “Release for public review and comment the assumptions, methodology and data used to project volume, revenue, operating and capital costs” Amtrak used to make its report.
In explaining their reasoning, NARP wrote that “The Connector is the only part of Amtrak’s national system that is not operating even though it appeared on the map that President Obama used when he unveiled his Vision for High-Speed Rail in America on April 16.”
Part of the line was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. CSX restored and upgraded the damaged sections within six months. Amtrak, however, never restarted service.
“The huge human and economic costs Katrina imposed along the Gulf Coast, together with the renaissance that passenger train travel has experienced in the rest of the nation since then, makes Amtrak’s use of Katrina as a pretext for failing to restart service especially unjustified and unfair,” according to the NARP document.
The document added, “A large market exists for passenger train service that traverses the Gulf Coast Connector. Florida represents the third largest travel market in the nation after California and Texas, generating nearly 78 million person round trips a year,” and the cited annual round trips to, from and within the three states – California, 126,809,974, Texas 99,471,208 and Florida 77,987,712.
The position paper pointed out “Of the total trips, almost one third are Florida residents traveling within the state; approximately one fourth are Florida residents travelling to other states; and nearly half (45 percent) are visitors coming to Florida from other states. Florida is by far the largest destination state in the nation – generating nearly 10 million more visits than the second largest destination state, Nevada,” and added, “Florida now has the fourth largest population of any state in the nation, after California, Texas and New York.” California leads with 36,756,666 residents, and Florida has 18,328,340.
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