TCPALM.COM: STUART — Two years from now, it’s likely that 32 passenger trains will amble through downtown every day, day-in and day-out. No one yet fully understands how it would affect downtown Stuart. But it’s already generally accepted here — often with resignation — that a tripling of train traffic through the heart of the city can mean nothing good.
For the sleek, new, high-speed trains to connect Miami and Orlando in just three hours, they barely would slow down as they roll through downtown. But they wouldn’t stop.
Moreover, the railroad company also hasn’t said if construction of a second track would mean the loss of downtown parking.
“It certainly will have an effect on the area,” local historian Alice Luckhardt said. “It will almost kill downtown.”
Not everyone is quite as fatalistic.
“I’m trying to keep a positive attitude — that Stuart will continue to thrive and overcome — but there are going to be changes to downtown if it comes through,” a cautious Mayor Troy McDonald said. “It is going to change the character. We at the city will have to look at how it’s affected us and then react.
Read the story here:
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2014/jun/11/would-passenger-rail-service-derail-stuarts/