Amtrak and FEC have contracted to try and make the plan work. They feel they could break ground by summer 2002. All they need is seed money--about $65 million for starters. Area politicians are talking to local, state and Federal Government officials on the venture, developer sources tell GlobeSt.com.

Passenger service along the coastline ran from 1885 when Henry M. Flagler, a partner of Standard Oil Co.'s John D. Rockefeller, built the first set of tracks, to 1970 when Florida East Coast canceled the service after it proved to be unprofitable.

FEC uses the line exclusively for its freight business and runs 30 freight trains daily from Jacksonville to Miami.

Amtrak currently runs two inland passenger trains daily from Jacksonville to Orlando, Lakeland, West Palm Beach and Miami. The proposed new coastal route would go from Jacksonville to St. Augustine, Daytona, Titusville, Cocoa/Port Canaveral, Melbourne, Vero Beach, Fort Pierce, Stuart and Miami.

Immediate new construction would cover passenger stations at the eight cities on the new route and improving the existing track infrastructure. Service and retail businesses catering to tourist and other travelers would crop up along the route, supporters of the project tell GlobeSt.com.

"It would be almost a snowball effect," says a travel agent whose company would be bidding for a location along the route once the stations were built. "Each station would be its own mini retail hub."

Construction of the stations could be completed in 10 months once the funding is in place, an Amtrak representative tells GlobeSt.com. Florida East Coast Railway owns the 500 miles of track from Jacksonville to Miami.

Daytona Beach would be an immediate beneficiary of the expanded rail passenger service, travel consultants tell GlobeSt.com. City officials already are considering three sites for a new passenger station. They urgently want to compete with Orlando, 50 miles south, as a tourist destination for families.

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GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Amtrak Trying to Track $65-Mil Expansion

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