MORE CROSS-STATE SERVICES.

In Florida, the fast, frequent service between Orlando and Miami is whetting appetites for a cross-state extension to Tampa.

"It’s a big part of our future, right? We love Tampa. Tampa’s the next big market for us. You connect Tampa to the rest of this system and suddenly 75% of the state is within close proximity to a Brightline train. We like that a lot," Brightline CEO Mike Reininger said.

The railroad service, and a planned new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays, might be emerging in common.

"We’re in concert with the mayors in Orange County, the mayor in Orlando, the mayor in Tampa, the Department of Transportation, hard at work to try to figure out the solution that allows us to get a train that’s running from Orlando all the way into downtown Tampa," Reininger said.

"I don't think that it's something that is too far away. I think that it will be coming soon," Hillsborough County commissioner Harry Cohen said. "My understanding is that the next phase of their expansion will be to Tampa to the area close to our Union Station, which is basically between Ybor City and the port district and downtown."

In addition, Cohen told FOX 13 that this week’s announcement about the Tampa Bay Rays’ new stadium will open the door to new possibilities.

"I think that the sense of certainty surrounding the Rays’ stadium situation actually will be helpful, because it will clarify what needs to go on around wherever the Brightline train terminates," Cohen said.

Years ago, Florida East Coast wrote the playbook on retail intermodal trains, and I wonder if anybody is thinking through a business opportunity here.

Proponents of the train argue it will alleviate traffic and that a Tampa-Orlando route would help ease congestion on I-4.

"It's a major freight corridor, so people naturally would like to have alternatives. And this is a really nice alternative," Cohen said.

So far, nobody in Florida is talking about bringing the service to the balance of Florida East Coast, which is to say to Jacksonville. Alas, there's the Chessie Curtain north or west of there precluding extensions to the likes of Savannah or Tallahassee.

That's the latest from Florida.  Dear reader, are you sitting down?  Swallow your coffee before you read on.

"Missouri officials seek funding for additional ‘River Runner,’ other new Amtrak service."

The Missouri Department of Transportation is seeking federal funding to add a third daily round trip to Missouri River Runner service and add three other Amtrak routes in the state, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

The state DOT is asking Gov. Mike Parson (R) to include the request in his coming budget proposal to help expand the St. Louis-Kansas City service, as well as add trains between Kansas City and Springfield, Mo; Kansas City and St. Joseph, Mo.; and an extension of the existing Chicago-Quincy, Ill., Illinois Zephyr-Carl Sandburg operation to Hannibal, Mo.

“All four of these concepts have been identified by communities across the state for years and are currently identified as unfunded needs,” state DOT spokeswoman Linda Horn told the newspaper.

Three daily frequencies linking St. Louis, Jefferson City, and Kansas City strike me as the minimum for a corridor operation.  If a train is running to Springfield (is that the former Frisco) how hard is it to plan for that service to continue to nearby Branson?  There used to be service both on Burlington and Wabash from Kansas City through St. Joseph to Omaha; I think for a while one of the early Zephyr sets protected the Burlington service.  That extension of the Quincy service is intriguing.  It's currently configured to offer a morning-to-Chicago, evening return for business travellers and shoppers, as well as a morning-to-Quincy, evening return that might best serve collegians in Macomb and Quincy.  Hannibal isn't that far downriver, however that would be more for the tourist trade than for the shoppers.

I'd rather have proposed additions to the Amtrak regional network to chew over than not, and it comes as a major surprise to have Missouri officials contemplating these expansions.