19 Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

The Florida Mystery

ARE NEANDERTHALS PLANNING FLORIDA'S FUTURE?

Traffic counts, road money down in Palm Beach Count
By Paul Quinlan
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer:
"In the next few years, the road program is not going to be able to build very many roads," said County Engineer George Webb. "But at the same time, if we don't have people moving in, we're not going to be that deficient."

As the number of drivers falls, service along the existing road network has improved. Only 2 percent of county roads are performing below their designed level of service, Webb said."

RAIL! Railroad track never has to be widened. Further if Palm Beach County is at a build out state so that only 2% of the roads are performing below expectations, then one would think we would be putting our focus on Rail and Tri-Rail. Our cities, Jacksonville, Miami, West Palm Beach, Tampa, Orlando, TALLAHASSEE, and our State Leaders, have proved to be mental Neanderthals, in a sea of transportation brilliance.

California, New York, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, even Oklahoma, are so far ahead of us we can't find them on radar. But we beg for Billions to build HSR from the Orlando Airport to an amusement park to a freeway interchange in Tampa. This poorly planned "Rat Rail" project coupled with a failure to properly fund Tri-Rail is going to cost all of us dearly.



Florida already has Amtrak Service, though we have allowed even that to decline from 12 trains daily to 4. We stood by to build a trail on the key West Palm Beach cut-off, between Auburndale, and Wildwood, and didn't say a word when Amtrak itself was fighting budget cutters in eliminating all service to Ocala, and Gainesville. We HAVE Amtrak, logic would dictate that the national rail passenger corporation be the tool with which to reach more for less.

Somewhere there must be a reward for this reckless behavior. Perhaps another 10 lanes? All of us have heard the expression "Tax and Spend," well maybe we are getting what we've asked for, my friends, welcome to the world of "Cut and Chop."

AMTRAK TO THE FLORIDA EAST COAST!

NOVEMBER 2012, IS THE TARGET DATE FOR THE FIRST PASSENGER TRAINS TO ROLL ON THE FLORIDA EAST COAST SINCE 1968.

From the Treasure Coast Palm comes this interesting quote:

In early October, the Florida Department of Transportation will apply for some $70 million to $100 million in federal economic stimulus funds to re-establish passenger rail service from Jacksonville to West Palm Beach.

Theoretically, the project could be given a green light by November, with funding documents in FDOT’s hands by December or January and construction beginning in early 2010, said Kim Delaney, growth management director for the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council.
Under that scenario, the golden spike could be driven and ribbons cut by October 2012, Delaney said.

“This project is already embedded in FDOT’s work schedule,” Delaney said. “There is a huge amount of work already underway,” ranging from preliminary engineering, right-of-way acquisition to environmental screening, she said.

On Monday, officials from Stuart, Martin County, two area planning organizations, FDOT and Amtrak met to begin amassing facts, figures and data in support of a Stuart Amtrak station near downtown.

There will be more on this exciting story in the near future. To read the complete article about the new Stuart Amtrak Station see: <http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/aug/31/no-headline---mc_amtrak/>

Another article with regards to Vero Beach, can be found at: <http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/aug/31/all-aboard-vero-beach-chooses-3-possible-sites/>

florida east coast
amtrak
commuter rail

"Jacksonville" will build Orlando Commuter Rail!

In many ways Portland and Jacksonville are twin Sisters in different worlds, Portland get's it and Jacksonville doesn't.
Here we sit in apparent political blindness awaiting something, anything to happen with our own commuter rail plans in Jacksonville. Suddenly over the air comes the word that SUNRAIL the meaningless name for the Orlando Commuter Rail project will be built by a Jacksonville firm.

The bid was just awarded.



$163.28 Million dollars was the bid from Jacksonville based Archer Western Contractors/Rail Works, a partnership of the Parsons Transportation Group and TransSystems. There were two other bids which came in some millions higher. The work includes designing and building sections of double tracks along the rail corridor as well as building a signal system, concrete station platforms, several improved rail crossings and a control center in Sanford.

The project planners built in a give and take 15% contingency in the event the costs spiral above the estimates, as indeed they did. But in the case of our Jacksonville firm, it was only a difference of $5 Million, close enough for government work.

The Orlando Sentinel reports that: Archer Western likely will sign a formal agreement with FDOT in March and probably will start hiring staff in April. If SunRail wins the approval of the Legislature during the session that starts next month, FDOT will purchase 61.5 miles of tracks from CSX by June 30, with construction starting as early Sept. 30.

So Orlando? Is big Sister to the North jelous? Not at all, we'll gladly finance it for you, build it for you, even operate it for you over those previously Jacksonville/CSX owned tracks, but do it ourselves? Why we don't even know how to spell RALE.

Perhaps it boils down to the culture of two completely different cities. Orlando has lived in Fantasy Land since 1965, selling the dream outside of the box. Back in Jacksonville, we've been more then happy to make the bricks, stir the asphalt and haul it to the site, but we've never even seen Fantasy Land. From inside our glass towers, smokestacks and wharves, it's hard to even imagine the approach of a fast new train.


Time to pull our collective heads out!

SENATE PASSES TRANSPORT STIMULUS BILL

The Photo Below is another image from Jacksonville, JTA and FDOT that they claim we don't have ready.

Concept By Robert Mann / Drawn Design by Ennis Davis, Thanks to MetroJacksonville.com

By a vote of 61 to 87, largely along party lines with some Republican cross-over votes, the Senate has passed it's version of the Transportation Stimulus Bill. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out in compromise committee. Let's hope something is left in New Starts, Amtrak, Fixed Guideway, Discretionary Funds, and State Rail Funds, all appear in abundance in the final program.

What us ready? Why we don't even have engineering or drawings done...

Grants to Amtrak
$800 m House Bill
$850 m Senate Bill

Grants to States for Rail
$300 m House Bill
$250 m Senate Bill

High-Speed Rail
0 House Bill
$2 b Senate Bill

Total Rail
$1.1 b House Bill
$3.1 b Senate Bill

Transit Formula Funds
$7.5 b House Bill
$8.4 b Senate Bill

Fixed Guideway Modernization
$2 b House Bill
0 Senate Bill

New Starts
$2.5 b House Bill
0 Senate Bill

Total Transit
$12 b House Bill
$8.4 b Senate Bill

Discretionary Grants
0 House Bill
$5.5 b Senate Bill

Remember Jacksonville, the Mayor and JTA have told you we don't have any plans... We're not shovel ready! To think we could have gotten these cars for asking.

Special thanks to The Transport Politic http://thetransportpolitic.wordpress.com/

Southeastern High Speed Rail Corridors
economic stimulus parkage
Jacksonville Streetcar
Amtrak
Monorail
Jacksonville Skyway
Bus Rapid Transit
Jacksonville Commuter Rail

HIGHWAYS -vs- TRANSIT AGAIN?

All Photos Jacksonville Terminal - from then - until now

bloggers collection available at the State Photographic Archives

HOW'S YOUR STIMULUS JACKSONVILLE?

Some very interesting numbers are on the screen for the long awaited stimulus, and now it looks like the same old war - Highways -VS- Mass Transit has raised it's ugly head again. I'm getting the feeling some politicians are revisiting the old National City Line's fiasco.

Our die should be cast with superb mass transit, we have it in our cards like no other city. JTA Has shattered ridership records, in fact all over Florida mass transit lifted off during the recent spike in gasoline prices. Some agency's could even be confused with NASA'S many rockets down on the Space Coast. Yet JTA, even with Streetcar, Commuter Rail, Bus Rapid Transit, Skyway, and Enhanced Bus, plans in hand, has asked for NOTHING! The Aviation Authority Director took some drawings and prints of a new super airport to Washington and single handily begged for $7 Billion dollars worth of improvements for Jacksonville International Airport (JAX). The Transit Authority Director has been to Washington many times, but so far no word on his asking for a cent. The timing couldn't be worse for our leadership

to sit on their hands.

We have a stacked deck in the US House of Representatives, with several members not only from our state but from OUR CITY! Not just any Representatives mind you but ranking members of the House Transportation Subcommittee. Even these members are flustered by the city's lack of action. Congressman and friend John Mica recently told me, "Bob get me something in my hands, get me a plan, anything!"

Amtrak, wants to expand and in a recent session at JTA, they confided that they have a plan which would, they believe, operate at a profit in Florida. With Jacksonville as the hub, they want to install a 5 train per route system to kick off Florida corridor services. Folks that would be 15 trains a day South of Jacksonville on 3 different routes, FEC, CSX "A" line, CSX "S" line, not to mention the chance of the "Gulf Wind" from Jax to New Orleans (more recently known as the Sunset Limited LA-JAX). The State has already enhanced capacity on the CSX to New Orleans and they have promised to do the same on the Florida East Coast.

Greyhound wants to move to new digs in Jacksonville as well, something close to a downtown train station (which we've closed for a nearly useless Convention Center suffering from a lack of space. So with Greyhound needing a home, and Amtrak wanting back into the old Terminal as a Florida Hub, the time is right to get that Transportation Center off the drawing boards and on the ground. By the way this center is often called the JTC (Jacksonville Transportation Center), or the "Prime Osbourne Convention Center", this blog will continue to call it by the name carved into the massive masonary over the 14 giant sandstone columns, JACKSONVILLE TERMINAL and JACKSONVILLE UNION STATION.

The Convention Center was subject of a deep study last year to find a new location with much more room. Many, many cities only a quarter of our size have much larger facilities. Orlando has a million square feet, Savannah and Mobile are in the hundreds of thousands, and we sit at about 80,000 square feet in a city that dwarfs these in size and corporate presence. This would seem like a no brainer, get that new center going up down on the beautiful riverfront downtown, and allow the greatest railroad station of the South to breath back to life.

>_______________

Here's a comment or two from today's Boston Globe:http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/02/07/another_gift_for_the_auto_industry/

Six million jobs are at stake in the American car industry . . . The only way to save the Big Three is to get people into showrooms, but 1,000 dealerships could close this year. That's 53,000 jobs that could be lost just at the dealerships."

The amendment passed 71-26.

Just four hours earlier, the Senate considered an amendment sponsored by Democrat Patty Murray of Washington that would have pumped an extra $25 billion into public works projects, including $5 billion for mass transit. The $819 billion stimulus bill passed by the House includes $12 billion for mass transit. The Senate bill had only $8.4 billion. Bill cosponsor Dianne Feinstein of California also tried to say the sky was falling. "Our highways are jammed," she said. "People go to work in gridlock."

That amendment failed by two votes. Just when millions of Americans are weaning themselves from unsustainable ways, the pork-brained Senate - with no complaint yet from Obama - remains the slick sales rep for a spent industry.

In Massachusetts, MBTA ridership set a new record with a 4.3 percent rise and the average number of riders per week on commuter rail is the highest in its 44 years. Ridership gains were far more dramatic in cities with younger histories of mass transit.

Commuter rail ridership in the third quarter of 2008 rose between 17 percent and 36 percent in Los Angeles, Dallas, Portland, Maine, Oakland, and Albuquerque. Bus ridership was up between 10 percent and 24 percent in Chicago, Baltimore, Atlanta, and Orange County. Subway and elevated-train rides rose between 11 percent and 14 percent in Atlanta, Miami, and Los Angeles. Trolley and streetcar ridership rose between 13 percent and 20 percent in Memphis, Buffalo, Denver, Minneapolis, and Sacramento.

The stimulus package should boldly be stimulating public transportation. Based on the American Automobile Association estimates of driving costs, the American Public Transportation Association calculates that Americans who rely on public transportation can save $8,368 a year.

_____________________

Now quickly tell me which city in the state of Florida consistently leads in the sad field of "Longest Commute by car".... Yep, you got it, Jacksonville. Adding more freeway lanes will not change anything, it's rather like putting a band aid on Marie Antoinette's neck. Next tell me which city in Florida has 3 major railroads, with 6 mainlines and several branches, 3 short lines, a world port, a new Cruise Port in the works, River Taxi's and completely belted by Interstate Highways? It sure ain't MICKEY MOUSE.

But a Mickey Mouse like cartoon character of leadership or the lack thereof, that they are literally fiddling while Rome Burns. Jacksonville burned to the ground too, on May 1, 1901, in a fire that rivaled San Francisco, Charleston and Chicago. But the Great Jacksonville Fire didn't do near as much permanent damage to our city's livability as this current crop in City Hall and our Transportation Authority. Someday there won't be a stimulus package, someday we won't have ready plans to build, someday we won't have the US House stacked in our favor.

Someday... Jacksonville? It's time to pull our collective heads out!

God have mercy on us, look what we have done behind and to the left of that great hub.

JacksonvilleTerminal
JohnMica
Amtrak
FloridaHighSpeedRail
FDOT
JohnPeyton
JTA