Didn’t hear that one. And it seems unlikely to me. He is definitely misstepping quite a bit though. Typical, Ex-CEO not getting that Governor is a different position.
Also, they’re circulating a bill to allow voters to recall elected officials. From my voting district too 
It WILL turn into hours, Tampa being the worst place I’ve ever seen for traffic jams.
Ahhh… missed that one. Unless he picks up a GOP co-sponsor (and a Senate companion bill with bi-partisan sponsorship) in the next day or two, I wouldn’t get too fired up about that. It’s late in the Committee Hearing schedule to be filing new bills, especially one that will have to go through mulitple committees on both sides. Big topics just don’t get calendared that fast. This is a trial balloon with the serious effort (if any) planned for next session.
Nope, this will just be old-school Legislative smackdown politics. Makes me nostalgic for the old Pork Chop Gang. Now there were some good 'ole boys who knew how to run a state!
i was being generous.
Missed this earlier.
90% of the tourists who are doing Disney and then a cruise don’t leave from Miami – they leave from Port Canaveral, which is only an hour east of Orlando by bus. In fact, a number of the cruise companies package the bus from Disney or OIA in with the cruise.
And be honest: how many people do you know that live in the panhandle have any desire to go to Miami more than three times in their life? And what average Miamian is going to want to go to Pensacola?
Oh, and the air-conditioning is broken.
As an aside, I think folks often forget how big Florida is. The drive from Pensacola to Miami is about 700 miles. To Key West its about 850.
Crank up Google Earth and use the ruler function to see how much of the rest of the United States is within that distance from Pensacola. You can reach 18 other states give or take.
Nobody from anywhere wants to go to Pensacola, but lots and lots of people want or need to go to Tallahassee.
This might all blow over sooner than expected: the senate budget committee is considering a proposal today to disband the Highway Patrol. More shit, bigger fan.
If there’s a good, but not great, chance that other states will implement high speed rail, then I can see a Tallahassee link being a good long-term idea, since it might coax other states into building them to link to Tallahassee. Jacksonville would be a good second choice but there are already plenty of rail and roads that go from Orlando and Miami to Jax and further north, whereas I-10/I-75/Florida Turnpike is pretty much the only game in town from Miami to Tallahassee.
The reason 90% of the people who leave for cruises out of Port Canaveral is because Disney offers package deals and because it’s so convenient. If you could get from Orlando to Miami/FTL/WBP in an hour on a high speed rail, wouldn’t that open up significantly more cruise destination choices?
About 6 out of 10 people who live here (Tallahassee) are from South Florida. Most of the people I know go to WPB/Miami/FTL several times a year. One friend has a business in Boca Raton and spends about one week there a month. Many of my friends go home to visit their families in South Florida. There’s also a LOT of traffic into the state capital because of A) Florida State and Florida A&M. We get lots and lots of people coming and going from all over the state, students, researchers, visiting professors, etc. and B) the State legislature brings not only the legislators, but their interns, assistants, lobbyists, non-profit organizations, and so forth. The population of this town swells by probably 75,000-100,000 people when school and the legislative sessions are in. All of those people have to get to and from Tally from either Central or South Florida. (I concede this is a very small target market as compared to however many millions of people are trying to get around the I-4 corridor every day.)
Pensacola? Yeah, not so much. But I think it’s funny how some people seem to be suggesting that those involved with our state government have no vested interest in actually traveling to the state capital for, you know, the business of running the state. And the students. Right. Probably 35,000 undergrad students between the two major universities in this town, but it’s just a little backwoods podunk POS town that nobody in their right mind would want to visit. :rolleyes:
Whatever.
Awesome. Even better. :rolleyes:
If we had one HSR line from Pensacola to Jacksonville and another from Jax to Miami, we would be ready to be the terminus of two trans-national lines (Miami to Boston, Jacksonville to San Diego). Just follow the rights-of-way of Interstates 95 & 10. And the Tampa-Orlando line could hook up with it all at Daytona Beach.
No they don’t. Tallahassee is a medium-sized city (170k) in a rural location. The only major industry is state government, and a few hundred staffers going back to Boca Raton every weekend are not enough to justify building a $20,000,000,000 train that will lose millions more every year.
Have you ever been to Tallahassee or lived there?
(I agree that the cost is not worthwhile. But you seem to have a really skewed unrealistic view of the state capital and I wonder if you’ve ever even been there.)
Some, sure, but not much. They all go to pretty much the same Caribbean sea, and both RC and Carnival operate out of both. Most all the family-oriented cruises are out of Port Canaveral. The only gain would be for people who want to do Disney and then have a very specific cruise itinerary in mind. That’s a niche market.
I’ll defer to your knowledge of Panhandle people, but the point is there aren’t many of them. Even if we add 30,000 students to the population to count FSU, all that does is make it into the Montgomery, AL/Richmond, VA ballpark. Those are not metropolises that justify a $20,000,000,000 train either.
Europe and Japan have very high population densities – get off the train and there’s a 100,000 people living within walking distance, and a million within a half-hour drive. And* those* trains often operate at a loss. Sapporo has ten times the population of Talahassee, and even the Japanese haven’t yet deemed it worth connecting with HSR.
I love trains; I went Atlantic City-to-Chicago all through college. But I also like police and firefighters and all the other things that a civilized society needs, and spending millions every year to help FSU kids avoid the horror of driving six hours to college means there’s less money for everything else.
Been there, didn’t live. I have an uncle in the panhandle.
What’s skewed and unrealistic? It’s a perfectly nice city, but it’s not big.
It’s a good thing nobody is talking about building a $20 billion dollar train, then, isn’t it?
If you’re talking about Talahassee to Miami, you sure are.
This: (italics mine)
The primary state industry is state government, but the other one is the university system. FSU + FAMU = about 61,000 students. Any idea how many people those two schools employ? Nearly 9,000 people! That doesn’t even take into consideration Tallahassee Community College, Keiser College, and several other “schools” (for-profit degree mills) in the area. And all the service industries that support both along with that: bookstores, clothing, apartment rentals and management services, beer/bars/clubs. Nevermind the hotels and restaurants that clean up every time the Legislators blow into town and need a place to stay for a few months.
That’s a hell of a lot more people traveling into and out of Tallahassee than “a few hundred staffers going back to Boca Raton every weekend.” That’s what I mean by skewed and unrealistic. You appear to be unaware, or at least unwilling to concede, that more people have business in this city than “a few hundred staffers.” I’d say, based on traffic patterns that change every time School/Legislature starts or stops, I’m here to tell you we’re talking about tens of thousands. Not a few hundred.
Now. The MSA populations of Tampa and Orlando combined come up to about 6 million people. The MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area - takes into account suburbs and such, not just the inside-city-limits-proper population) for Tallahassee is 360,000. I agree with your basic premise. I am not trying to argue that Tally is a major city or anything. It’s a tertiary market to be sure. I am also not arguing that the HSR line should absolutely be put ahead of a Miami extension or anything like that. I agree, it’s probably not cost-effective, but as a Phase III, it seems like the only logical thing to do.
I’m just saying: It’s bigger than you think, more people come and go here than you think, and there’s more industry than just the state government.