(rshsdepot) Sanford, FL

["J. Henry Priebe Jr." <root_@_net.bluemoon.net>]

Orlando (FL) Sentinel:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/volusia/orl-locvrrailroad06x070605jul06,0,2431953.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-volusia

Sanford losing depot as train era fades away

By Robert Perez
Sentinel Staff Writer

July 6, 2005

SANFORD FL -- The Amtrak passenger station, a dingy outpost tacked onto the end of a warehouse, has
gone unstaffed for 10 years. A wrinkled, torn note on the window declares the waiting room is
closed.

If that is not enough to discourage potential railroad passengers, yellow caution tape and orange
barricade mesh surrounding the entrance send a clear message: Keep out.

Passengers have to stand on the platform, huddling under an overhang when it rains, or sit in their
cars as they wait for their train.

As soon as August, however, there will be no more waiting. Amtrak plans to quit making stops at the
Sanford station.

So even as Congress battles over Amtrak's budget and local officials push for a
commuter-rail demonstration project that would run right by the station, Sanford's once-proud
railroad heritage continues to fade.

Amtrak officials cite the run-down condition of the CSX-owned station for stopping service.

"The station needs work done to it that CSX won't do," said Tracy Connell, an Amtrak spokeswoman.
"We will have no more stops in Sanford."

CSX officials said it's not up to them to keep up the place. Amtrak, which leases the space, is
responsible for all maintenance and improvements, they said.Neither side will budge, so Sanford
passengers soon will have to travel to DeLand, Winter Park or Orlando to board trains providing
inter-city service.

The station's closing doesn't mean Amtrak is pulling completely out of Sanford. Just a quarter-mile
north, the Amtrak Auto Train station is a vivid reminder of the city's railroad heyday. It bustles
with activity each morning as the Auto Train pulls in from Lorton, Va., and each evening when it
heads out on the return trip.

That station is scheduled to undergo a $1.5 million renovation next year, similar to one in Lorton
in 2000. Auto Train, which shuttles passengers and their cars between the two stops seven days a
week, remains one of Amtrak's few profitable routes, according to the railroad.

In 2004, Auto Train drew 197,483 passengers to Sanford, making it the 48th-busiest Amtrak station in
the country, one spot ahead of Orlando. By contrast, Sanford's dilapidated passenger- only station,
which offers service on the Silver Star, Silver Meteor and Sunset Limited trains, had 10,710
passengers last year.

"It used to be that we had three and four passenger trains each day in Sanford," said Walter Cook, a
retired engineer who spent 42 years working on the railroad in Sanford.

For nearly 100 years, rail service was an integral part of the city's economic lifeline -- from the
1880s, when trains met passengers disembarking from steamboats on Lake Monroe, to the 1980s, when
Rand Yard north of County Road 46 had switch engines working 'round the clock.

The Sanford depot opened around 1954, about the time Cook started with the railroad.

"We had all kinds of trains back then, and the specials," he said. "I don't like it," he said of the
station's closing.

Sanford's best hope of ever having another passenger-only depot is the proposed commuter-rail
demonstration that would shuttle passengers from DeLand to Orlando.

The project calls for several park-and-ride stations along the route, including Sanford, Longwood
and Lake Mary. But preliminary plans call for the Sanford station to be built in Rand Yard, well
north of the current depot.

Last month, the Seminole County Commission renewed its support for the $473.5 million project.

"They haven't wavered on their commitment to the project," said Deputy County Manager Don Fisher.

- -----
Robert Perez can be reached at <mailto:rperez_@_orlandosentinel.com> or 407-772-8046.

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1167
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org