Florida Transportation: Airport, Train, Public Transportation, Marine
From Florida, you can reach the world — and beyond. With a state-of-the-art multi-modal transportation infrastructure and one of the most advanced telecommunications networks in the world, Florida is connected to the world in every possible way.
Transportation: Florida is the nexus of the Western Hemisphere’s transportation links. The Florida transportation infrastructure is multi-modal (interactive map), and includes highways, railways, seaports, airports and a spaceport that enable companies to gain quicker access to markets and reduce bottom-line costs.
- Roads: A 12,066-mile State Highway System and nearly 110,000 miles of other public roads offer easy access to regional and national markets, as well as Florida’s airports and seaports.
- Rail: Florida’s 2,796 miles of main route rail lines connect the state’s railroads to major business centers and distribution nodes. The Florida rail transportation system comprises 15 line-haul railroad and terminal or switching companies, which includes 2 Class I Railroads, 2 regional railroads, 10 local railroads, and 1 railroad specializing in switching and terminals.
- Airports: Florida’s 19 commercial airports offer non-stop scheduled service to over 120 domestic and many international destinations. In fact, Florida has more direct flights to Latin American and Caribbean destinations than all other U.S. cities combined. In 2007, Florida’s commercial airports served nearly 70 million enplaned passengers, including over 44 million visitors to the state. Florida’s commercial airports also handle nearly 7% of the nation’s air cargo. Over 4.8 million tons of air cargo valued at $36.3 billion moved through Florida’s airports in 2007, making them as crucial to business and international trade as they are to tourism.
- Seaports: Florida’s maritime transportation is world class. The state's 14 deepwater seaports are within 90 miles of any business in Florida. With nearly 70% of Florida’s international commerce moving by water, these ports moved 14.1 million cruise passengers in FY 2006/07 and facilitated nearly 3 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of container movements. Many Florida ports feature roll on/off or gantry crane loading areas, dockside cold storage, dry dock, bulk liquid cargo and bulk dry cargo facilities. In FY 2006/07, Florida seaports moved 121 million tons of cargo, and international trade through Florida seaports was valued at approximately $73.4 billion.
- Spaceport: Florida’s Cape Canaveral Spaceport is one of only five commercially licensed spaceports in the United States and the site of the first U.S. commercial launch. Florida hosts commercial, civil and military space operations, with primary emphasis on payload processing, launch operations and spaceport range technologies.
Telecommunications: Florida has been recognized as one of the top five telecom hubs in the world. The Network Access Point (NAP) in Miami serves as a major switching station for Internet traffic coming to and from Latin America, while other high-speed networks, such as the Florida Lambda Rail and LA Grid facilitate R&D efforts. In addition, Florida has some of the fastest and most widely available networks for high-speed and wireless connectivity.