A New Train Of Thought

TAMPA - One year ago, the National Association of Railroad Passengers predicted the average price of gasoline would top $4 a gallon, a forecast that is close to becoming a harsh reality.

What drew less attention was the organization's prediction that the cost of flying would soar. In fact, aviation fuel prices are up nearly 85 percent over 12 months, an increase that has contributed to the loss of commercial airline service for 30 small U.S. cities and fewer flights at most other airports.

Today, Amtrak is hoping it can become a major alternative to flying and driving. It already has reported double-digit gains in recent passenger rail ridership.

The association, the Washington-based passenger rail advocacy group, also reports a surge in interest in the 40-year vision plan it revealed last year to more than double Amtrak's U.S. route miles to 45,000, about the size of the Interstate highway system.

"The press has been filled with articles of this nature in recent weeks," said Ross Capon, executive director of the group. "What is hard is to get Congress to do anything about it."

One new route in the association's long-range vision would resume train service between Jacksonville and Naples through Tampa. Amtrak discontinued train service from Tampa through Ocala to Jacksonville in 2004, and the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad discontinued its Tampa-Naples train in 1971, when the government-owned Amtrak was created to save U.S. passenger rail service.

Currently, Amtrak offers a daily northbound and southbound train that serves Tampa on its New York-Miami route. Amtrak also runs a daily bus service between Fort Myers and Tampa for connections with the Tampa train.

Because of the population growth in Southwest Florida, new rail routes there could be in service sooner than later, Capon said. The problem, of course, is funding.

"There's a massive commitment to spend more on highways and aviation ... and new programs like train service are not at the top of everybody's priority list," Capon said.

Amtrak's usage falls way short of highway and aviation traffic. More passengers use Tampa International Airport in two days than use Amtrak's Union Station all year.

However, energy costs and environmental concerns - cars consume 27 percent more energy per mile than Amtrak, and airlines consume 20 percent more - have begun to shift attention to passenger rail prospects.

Those trends contributed to an 11.7 percent increase in Amtrak's national ridership from October through March to 13.5 million passengers, compared with the year-ago period, Amtrak's most recent performance report shows.

Included in that has been Amtrak's daily ridership on its Silver Star New York-Miami route through Tampa, which rose 7 percent to 164,645 passengers from October through March, compared with a year ago.

Ridership increases have been especially strong in Tampa, which reported a 25 percent gain between 2006 and 2007 to 75,000 passengers, including those riding the Silver Star and others using Amtrak connecting bus service with the Silver Meteor in Orlando.

"We saw single-digit percentage increases at the beginning of the fiscal year starting in October and now we are seeing double digit increases," said Karina Morero, an Amtrak spokeswoman in Washington. "The price of gas is definitely playing a role, something passengers have begun to tell us about."