Keeping Track: Passenger trains may return to S.Ga.

Jan. 6—VALDOSTA — Efforts are picking up steam to bring passenger rail service back to the Valdosta region after nearly 18 years.

The leadership of Amtrak, the quasi-governmental operator of America's intercity passenger rail system, held a public meeting in December where a map outlining possible new service was released.

Amtrak said interest had arisen in restarting passenger trains along North Florida's Panhandle, running from New Orleans to Jacksonville, Fla., and points south as far as Orlando, Fla.

From 1993 to 2005, Amtrak's Sunset Limited, a transcontinental passenger train, ran regularly between Los Angeles and Miami. Its stops in the Panhandle included Madison, Fla., only 30 miles from Valdosta.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina heavily damaged the line's tracks east of New Orleans and Amtrak suspended service along the route. Even after CSX, the freight railroad which owned the rails, made repairs, a combination of economic and political pressures kept the route dark, though Amtrak never officially closed out the service.

After the suspension ended passenger trains through Madison, Valdosta-area residents wanting to use Amtrak had to drive 120 miles to Jacksonville, a stop-off point for a pair of daily north-south Miami-New York trains.

From Feb. 18-19, 2016, Amtrak ran a single invitation-only train for state and local lawmakers and reporters along the old North Florida route to check the tracks and gauge public support for bringing the service back.

One bright spot in revival plans for the Panhandle route was the sale of the tracks east of New Orleans three years ago by CSX to the Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad, said James Tilley, president of the Florida Coalition of Rail Passengers.

"I can't speak for (FG&A) management but I've talked to some of their people and they show more enthusiasm for passenger rail service than CSX did," he said.

Whereas previous service on the line used overnight long-distance trains, Tilley said he thinks a daytime-only commuter service would be more likely in the future.

"One of the problems with the previous service was that many of the stops at towns in the Panhandle were in the middle of the night," he said.

A daytime service would be more likely to attract support, Tilley said. Connections to Amtrak's long-distance trains could then be made in either Jacksonville or New Orleans.

The ball is now in the Florida Department of Transportation's court to apply for federal funds for restarting the line before a mid-March deadline, he said.

In 2021, Congress earmarked $66 billion in funding for Amtrak to expand, replace aging rolling stock and refurbish stations.

Marc Magliari, an Amtrak spokesman, said the map at the December public meeting was not an endorsement of new services but simply an outline of routes that had generated "expressions of interest."

The Southern Rail Commission, an interstate interest group representing Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, listed the Panhandle route as fifth on a list of new or revived passenger rail projects along the Gulf Coast they would like to see in a letter to the federal Department of Transportation.

There has been no passenger rail service through the City of Valdosta since late 1979, when Amtrak cancelled the trouble-prone Floridian, a Miami-Chicago train plagued with track delays and outdated equipment.

Terry Richards is the senior reporter for The Valdosta Daily Times.