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Rail Users’ Conference Calls for More “Southern Comfort” in Travel

The Rail Users’ Network (RUN) held an online conference on Saturday, October 29. The event focused on Amtrak, private-sector passenger rail, and rail transit in the South. It was the latest in a series of semi-annual conferences that placed the spotlight on rail in different regions across the country. Presenters included advocates in the South and managers there who are developing new rail services.

Topics included expansion of Amtrak services in Virginia, construction of a new line by Brightline (a new private-sector passenger railroad) to expand service to Orlando Airport and later to Tampa, the ongoing battle to establish Amtrak trains between New Orleans and Mobile, and expanding rail in Texas.

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From Florida on Valentine’s Day

Member Gary Kazin, a “snowbird” who winters in Florida and is an avid cyclist, sent in this report from his travels this past Valentine’s Day:

We’re in Kissimmee, Florida, an appropriate destination for Valentine’s Day weekend, for the Florida Folk Dance Council’s Winter Camp, which started Friday evening and ends at noon Monday.  Eat (too much), sleep (too little), dance. . . .

I’m a ‘non-dancing spouse’ so I get breakfast and dinner and can do my thing during the day.  We’ve done this before and I bring my bike.  We start our travel a day early to sight-see northbound but go directly to Boca Raton on Monday.  I rode 42 miles Saturday to visit a state park northwest of here; the weather was great and the ride went well.

On the return, about 5 miles from the hotel, I was riding on a service road and heard a crash behind me.  A 63-year-old man had crashed an electric dirt bike; it apparently had gone off the edge of a sidewalk where the dirt had eroded away and the bike dropped about four inches.  The rider didn’t follow the bike down and went over the handlebars, falling to the ground ahead of it.  Some of these bikes can reach 30 mph and he had no helmet!

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