The Jacksonville-Pensacola line was the route of the Gulf Wind streamliner from 1949 to 1971. After two decades of freight-only service, passenger service resumed in 1993 when the route of Amtrak's Sunset Limited was extended beyond New Orleans to Orlando. Amtrak service was suspended in 2005 due to damage to track and trestles by Hurricane Katrina, and has never resumed east of New Orleans.
Lines and history
Tallahassee station. The station was used by the Sunset Limited prior to 2005.
The 373 miles of the Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad comprise the main line between Baldwin and Pensacola. The main line is known as the Tallahassee Subdivision east of the Chattahoochee River and the P&A Subdivision west of the river.
The Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad's Bainbridge Subdivision runs as a branch line between Tallahassee north to Attapulgus, Georgia.[2] The system connects with CSX Transportation at each end of the line in Baldwin, Pensacola, and Attapulgus. CSX has trackage rights on the FG&A, but plans to use the them only if their lines to the north are impassable.[3]
In 1882, the lines were acquired by Sir Edward Reed, and were renamed together as the Florida Central and Western Railroad. Two years later, Reed brought the Florida Central and Western and several other Florida railroads he had purchased under the umbrella of what was named the Florida Railway and Navigation Company, which, in 1888, was renamed the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad (FC&P). In 1900, a year after purchasing the majority of FC&P stock, the newly organized Seaboard Air Line Railway (a predecessor of CSX Transportation) leased the FC&P and, in 1903, acquired it outright.[4] CSX previously operated this segment as their Tallahassee Subdivision. The line has a centralized traffic control signal system between Tallahassee and Baldwin.[5]
The Bainbridge Subdivision runs from the FG&A main line in Tallahassee north to Attapulgus, Georgia, where it connects to CSX's Bainbridge Subdivision, which continues north to Bainbridge, Georgia. The Bainbridge Subdivision was first built in 1901 by the Georgia Pine Railway. The line was only intended to be a shortline for logging, but since it provided an additional rail route from Georgia into Florida, traffic increased. As a result, the line was renamed the Georgia, Florida and Alabama Railway by the end of 1901. The GF&A Railway bought the Carrabelle, Tallahassee and Georgia Railroad in 1906, which ran from Tallahassee south to Carrabelle.[6]
The Georgia, Florida and Alabama Railway, which extended from Richland, Georgia, to Carrabelle, Florida, at its greatest extent, became part of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad in 1927.[7] The Seaboard lines, after various other mergers, became part of CSX Transportation in 1986.
The line's milepost numbers begin in Tallahassee at 52 and increase from there. This is due to the fact that the numbering still reflects the line's full length to Carrabelle, which was mile 0 before the track between there and Tallahassee was abandoned.[8]
