Treasure Coast’s Show of Support for Amtrak

"Treasure Coast’s Show of Support for Amtrak Demonstrates Need for Commuter and Passenger Rail Service in Our Area" by v. johns

The only thing better than getting home and opening up the Sunday Paper and reading until you get tired is getting home and seeing mass transit news splashed across the front page. While I’d read in yesterday’s metro report in the Palm Beach Post about an Amtrak tour for state and local leaders, to double my delight in such matters, I arrive home to find splashed exuberantly across the Stuart News’ front page the headline: “Is Treasure Coast ready for new Amtrak service?” My response: DUH!

According to the Stuart News “dozens of Treasure Coast residents lined up at stops along the Florida East Coast Railway on Saturday” to get a look at the “invite-only” Amtrak train carrying “state and local elected officials, community leaders, members of the media” and “top representatives from the (FEC) railway and Amtrak” on a “351-mile trip from Miami to Jacksonville, with stops in Stuart, Fort Pierce and Vero Beach.” The trip, according to the News, was to “review the feasibility of restoring rail service on the FEC Railway.” (Stuart News, Howk).

Amtrak spokeswoman Karina Romero told the Stuart News that the show of support for the 11:35am arrival in Stuart on St. Lucie Ave. was the largest officials had seen since the train’s departure from Miami earlier that morning. The article goes on to say that the show of support in Ft. Pierce on Avenue A was even larger than the crowds in Stuart and Vero Beach and that it would be another two years, at best, and seven years maximum, before service could actually be restored along the FEC tracks. (Stuart News, Howk).

To read this article, please click on the online home of the Stuart News and other Treasure Coast publications owned by E.W. Scripps at TCPalm.com. See also: The Palm Beach Post. For the purposes of this blog, I would like to opine on the significance of this event and give the clearest possible picture of what Southeast Florida’s mass transit future should or may look like.

As I mentioned before, in a previous post, I envision massive train systems intersecting dynamically along South Florida’s coastal urban core to form what I call the Southeast Florida Mass transit Nexus that will culminate at a massive transit hub being built in Miami (St. Petersburg Times, Chardy) that will house and service Amtrak, Tri-Rail, MetroRail, Greyhound, etc. This “nexus” will consist of (1) the aforementioned Amtrak service being proposed that will shuttle passengers into South Florida from Jacksonville and all points south of there, (2) high-speed rail from Tampa to Orland to Miami (Florida’s Peninsula mega region), (3) proposed shorter-distance commuter-rail service along the FEC tracks between Jupiter and Miami (South Florida’s Tri-County Area), (4) possible Tri-rail expansion into South Florida’s Treasure Coast, and finally, (5) the smaller city and county-based bus and rail systems, like Community Coach and MetroRail that will be plugging into these massive systems snaking their way down South Florida’s coastal urban core toward a common point in Miami’s ever metropolilizing environment.

Can you imagine being in downtown West Palm Beach at West Palm Beach Intermodal Center and watching (1a) Tri-Rail trains pulling in from the south via Miami, (1b) “Tri-Rail 2” coming in from the north unloading commuters form Stuart, (2) Amtrak pulling in 10 minutes later unloading passengers from PSL, Ft. Pierce, Vero and all points north, (3) high-speed bullet trains blazing by on their way to Miami from Orlando, (4) FEC Corridor trains ready to shuttle you from West Palm to Lake Worth or Miami and (5) Palm Tran busses buzzing all over the place to shuttle these folks to more specific points throughout the county?  Can you imagine being in downtown Stuart at their new transit hub and having to catch “Tri-Rail 2” down to Jupiter since you missed the 11:35AM Amtrak?

To make a long story short, once these systems are built and up and running, Southeast Florida, like its larger sister region, the New York-based Northeast, is going to be ONE BUSY PLACE. And if you’re a large biotech company looking for a global hub, you’d have to be “not in the know” to not consider setting up shop in what will be, in the future, the best place to live, work, study, play, relax and do business…