The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • X3

Orlando Sentinel: PRODUCT: VALBS DESK: REGSPEC DATE: 07-14-2005 EDITION: MET ZONE: SM PAGE: X3.0 DEADLINE: 16.59 OP: jallen COMPOSETIME: 18.56 CMYK Sentinel SM THURSDAY, JULY 14, 2005 DEPOT'S END BLOW TO TRAIN ERA Sanford Middle losing leader Passenger stop: Amtrak Auto Train: -wi --v jl The man many feel is responsible for transforming Sanford Middle into a nationally recognized school is stepping down. Principal Bill Gibson is retiring and plans to focus on making educational and Christian products. His last day at work was July 8, though his official retirement day is Aug. 31. "I've had this lifelong desire of opening my own business," said Gibson, 60.

"I figured I'd better do it while I was still The unstaffed Amtrak Sanford passenger station, a quarter-mile from the Auto Train, could close as soon as next month. Amtrak plans to close run-down, unstaffed Sanford passenger station PHOTOS BY JOE BURBANKORLANDO SENTINEL Auto Train passengers disembark recently after arriving in Sanford from Lorton, Va. The operation is thriving despite the planned closing of a station. A $1.5 million renovation is planned for the Auto Train station. SANFORD 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 rundown 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 intercity 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, 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, young enough." A former professional musician, Gibson said his company's first product would be a GIBSON multimedia program featuring original music by him that he hopes parent-teacher organizations will use to promote effective parenting. It's based on RICH Responsibility, Integrity, Caring and Honesty which he developed as a character-education program for Sanford Middle School. He also expects to stay fairly busy with other endeavors, such as teaching at the college level and doing consulting work. Most important, Gibson said, he hopes to enjoy retirement in a home he and his wife, Annette, are having built in Sebastian.

TAMMIE WERSINGER SENTINEL STAFF WRITER twersingerorlandosentinel.com The project calls for several park-and-ride stations along the route, including Sanford, Long-wood 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. On July 26, the commission is expected to decide how it plans to fund its $39 million share of the project, Fisher said.

Plans call for local counties to contribute $1 18 million, with the federal and state governments picking up the rest. ROBERT PEREZ SENTINEL STAFF WRITER rperezorlandosentinel.com ment Co. headquarters remain downtown. The PICO Hotel, now just the PICO building, and the railroad's main office building, now the Welaka building, continue to be used for office space unrelated to the railroad. A second depot replaced the original in 1917 and included an ornate lobby and fountain.

Only photos remain of the depot, which was on West Ninth Street on what's now Coastline Park. The current station 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.

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. Remnants of the original train depot and Plant Invest LAMINATES R-US Pergo Quick Step Shaw Floor Wilsonart Fin ALL OF THE ABOVE COMPLETELY INSTALLED INCLUDES: Underlayment Moisture Barrier Labor Materials Matching Thresholds Moldings rvrOdl WARNING: Don't be fooled by flooring companies low square foot prices.

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