Florida Overland Express


		Florida Overland Express

	High Speed Rail Alternative
	The Florida Department of Transportation has aggressively sought alternatives to meet the travel needs of Florida Residents and tourists while still being responsible stewards of the environment and public resources. In this search, the prospect of implementing a high speed rail system for Florida originated in 1982 and is currently mandated by the 1992 Florida High Speed Rail Transportation Act. Florida is no alone in considering high speed rail, a number of states and regions are exploring a variety of rail technologies and corridors. A common goal is to identify markets where travel volumes and distances are such that rail services can be competitive with highway and air travel options. This may provide an opportunity to lessen the pressure on both roadway and air travel as these facilitiees are heavily congested in several urban areas.

	As time has passed, the prospect of a high speed rail system has grown more attractive. Modern Rail technology has proven itself in an increasing number of travel markets across the globe. Florida's rapid population and tourism growth, flat topography, cluster of large urbanized areas, and growing densities have created a travel market that, in part, may best be served by a transportation system that includes high speed rail. Rapid development also motivates moving ahead with a system at this time while the cost and availability of rights-of-way are still reasonable. Other motivations for moving ahead include a desire to use the investment to help shape future development near stations and to complement the growing interest in public transit as an alternative to automobile travel. A traveler choosing to travel by HSR instead of auto may be further reducing roadway travel and its negative impacts as transit alternatives might be the logical choice for travel within the urban areas visited by the HSR travelers.

	The proposed Florida high speed rail project is not envisioned as a single cure-all for the pressing travel congestion problems facing the state. High speed rail is, however, recognized as one of the several pivotal transportation investments needed within the integrated infrastructure of the state to resolve these growing concerns.
	The Florida High Speed Rail Project
	In 1996, the Florida Department of Transportation entered into a public-private partnership with Florida Overland eXpress (FOX), a consortium of four of the world's largest and most respected international engineering, construction and rail equipment companies, to implement a high speed rail system linking Tampa-Orlando-Miami. The Florida Department of Transportation and FOX are currently in the preocess of finalizing studies of ridership, route alignment, construction costs and financing.

	The Florida High Speed Rail System is designed to provide approximately 320 miles of electrified track connecting Florida's largest urban areas. The system is intended to be an integral part of the states overall transportation infrastructureby linking air, auto, taxi, shuttle vans, and existing rail and transit systems in a way that will meet future resident and tourist travel needs. The Florida high speed rail project will serve as an important link in what may be the United States' first multi-modal transport system that includes high speed rail.

	The system proposes connections with five major airports, the highway system and growing regional rail and and bus transit systems across the state's largest metropolitan areas. The counties directly served by this proposed high speed rail system are forecast to continue more than 45% of the state's 15.5 million people by the year 2000 and over 58% of tourist development tax revenues are predicted to be collected in counties with direct FOX service. FOX willserve a very large share of the state's major tourism attractions including cruise ships, beaches, urban centers and theme parks.



	The Proposed system is planned to utilize the newest generation of French TGV rail equipment. The system will consist of ten car train sets, including two power cars, seven passenger coaches and a lounge car with food service. The coach vehicles will be 61' - 4" long and 9' - 6" wide. A train set would have seating capacity for 295 passengers. The system will serve seven stations (shown above). The peak operating speed for the system is 200 miles per hour.

	Publications Note: For Adobe PDF files, one must have a properly configured plugin for the file or the Adobe Acrobat Reader. To save the files to your location on most web browsers the right click of the mouse on a link will bring up an option (among others) "save link as" or "save target as". From there, select a location for the file and save it. High Speed Rail In the US EurailSpeed98: Analysis of the Economic Impacts of Florida High-speed Rail Florida Overland Express Executive Summary (.PDF) An Analysis of the Economic Impacts of Florida High Speed Rail (.PDF) An Analysis of the Economic Impacts of Florida High Speed Rail - Appendices(.PDF) Travel Time, Safety, Energy, and Air Quality Impacts of Florida High Speed Rail(.PDF) Related Links Florida Department of Transportation High Speed Rail News Releases (historical) Florida High Speed Rail Transportation Commission U.S. Department of Transportation - Bureau of Transportation Statistics High Speed Ground Transportation