We have done two feature articles on All Aboard Florida. Our first article offers the 'official line' from the original announcement and the second, our railroad pundit view of the system.
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2012-mar-feci-bringing-private-passenger-rail-to-florida-by-2014http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2012-apr-stunning-things-are-happening-as-florida-goes-rail/page/2Florida High Speed Rail as we came to know it is dead, it was a bad plan with little chance of success, no matter how success was measured. The official state passenger rail plan is as bad as the HSR plan was, it even laid out a route from Orlando to LAKE CITY via Ocala and Gainesville and missing Jacksonville completely. That plan will likely never get off of the paper its drawn on. This leaves us with Amtrak, who has been "announcing" trains coming to the Florida East Coast for at least 20 years. They did run a test train on the line a few years ago, then decided they needed to start over in their planning setting the target launch date back to eternity.
More regionally, there is the Southeast Florida Rail Corridor which is actually an extension of the Miami Tri-Rail commuter trains northward to Stuart over the Florida East Coasts tracks. Sunrail in Orlando is under construction but again this is only a 60 mile commuter train line. Tampa and Jacksonville both have commuter rail studies in the works and it's likely that at least 2 of the Jacksonville routes will happen... eventually.
The Florida East Coast Industries - ALL ABOARD FLORIDA is a completely private buildout of a small part of the old HSR plan. They are closing the gap between Orlando and Cocoa Beach. This trains will be intrastate and NOT offer interline ticketing or through cars to and from Amtrak. At least not for now. The reasons are that interstate passengers and through ticketing as well as through car agreements would involve a whole new stack of government hurdles and regulations, a great deal of expense and a long, long time.
Expect All Aboard Florida to start running their trains to and from Miami and Orlando via Cocoa Beach, once the service is up and running, expect a train or two or three to start serving the Jacksonville Market on a Jacksonville-Daytona Beach-Cocoa Beach-West Palm-Ft.Lauderdale-Miami route. If and when Amtrak comes to the same tracks, they'll operate out of the same stations as separate carriers just as Delta and American both operate out of JIA. I do expect to see All Aboard Florida in Jacksonville before they go to Tampa. Tampa is an expansion that might or might not happen.
