Editing Fort Pierce, Florida (section)

===Transportation===
[[File:Florida East Coast Railway station- Fort Pierce (5526146982).jpg|thumb|The Fort Pierce Railroad Station in the early 20th Century]]

Fort Pierce is located on [[U.S. Route 1 in Florida|US 1]], near its intersection of [[Florida State Road 70|SR 70]]. [[Interstate 95 in Florida|I-95]] and [[Florida's Turnpike]] are nearby, at the west edge of town. The [[Intracoastal Waterway]] passes through the city. The nearest airport with scheduled passenger service is in [[Melbourne Orlando International Airport|Melbourne]]; the closest major airport is in [[Palm Beach International Airport|West Palm Beach]].<ref>''Rand McNally Road Atlas, 2016''.</ref> The city itself has a general aviation airport, [[Treasure Coast International Airport]].

Fort Pierce is served by the St. Lucie Transportation Planning Organization (TPO).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://stlucietpo.org/ |title=Transportation Planning Organization - Homepage |publisher=Stlucietpo.org |date=2011-02-02 |access-date=2013-08-08}}</ref> The TPO is a [[Metropolitan planning organization|Metropolitan Planning Organization]] (MPO), a federally mandated and federally funded transportation policy-making organization responsible for transportation planning, programming, and financing of State and Federal transportation funds for the City of Fort Pierce. The TPO is governed by a TPO Board, which is composed of elected officials, representatives from the St. Lucie County School Board, and representatives from Community Transit, a division of The Council on Aging of St. Lucie, Inc.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.coasl.com/svc_transportation.html |title=Our Services > Transportation |publisher=COASL |access-date=2013-08-08 |archive-date=July 8, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708171600/http://www.coasl.com/svc_transportation.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> The original bus system started as a demand response service bus in the 1990s; it only served St. Lucie County. Soon it expanded to a fixed route system, going to predetermined locations along a route. On June 3, 2002, the [[Florida Department of Transportation]] (FDOT) approved funding, expanding the bus service to Martin County, and it became the Treasure Coast Connector.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://treasurecoastconnector.com/ |title=Home |publisher=Treasure Coast Connector |access-date=2013-08-08}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://treasurecoastconnector.com/services/|title=Treasure Coast Connector: Services|work=treasurecoastconnector.com|access-date=16 November 2015}}</ref>

From 1894 to 1968, the [[Florida East Coast Railway]] served the city as a passenger railroad. Until a strike beginning in 1963, several long-distance passenger trains from Chicago, Cincinnati and New York City made stops there, en route to [[Miami]]. These long distances trains included the [[Illinois Central Railroad]]'s ''[[City of Miami (train)|City of Miami]]'' and the [[Louisville & Nashville Railroad]]'s ''[[South Wind (train)|South Wind]]'', both heading from Chicago; and the [[Atlantic Coast Line Railroad]]'s ''[[Champion (train)|East Coast Champion]]'', the ''Havana Special'', and the winter-only ''[[Florida Special (train)|Florida Special]]'' originating from New York.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Florida East Coast Railway |journal=Official Guide of the Railways |publisher=National Railway Publication Company |volume=90 |issue=7 |date=December 1957}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Florida East Coast Railway |journal=Official Guide of the Railways |publisher=National Railway Publication Company |volume=91 |issue=3 |date=January 1962}}</ref><ref>Bramson, Seth H. ''Speedway to Sunshine: the story of the Florida East Coast Railway'', Boston Mills Press, 2010, p. 227. {{ISBN|9781554077533}}.</ref> Into the latter 1950s, passengers could take the ''[[Dixie Flagler]]'' to Chicago via [[Atlanta]] from the station.<ref>Herr, Kincaid A. ''University Press of Kentucky,'' 1964, p. 273.</ref> The FEC continued a six day a week Jacksonville-Miami train from 1965 to 1968, per court order.<ref>Bramson, Seth H. ''Speedway to Sunshine: the story of the Florida East Coast Railway'', Boston Mills Press, 2010, pp. 151, 153. {{ISBN|9781554077533}}.</ref>

[[Amtrak]] and the Florida East Coast Railway had been planning to make stations along Florida's East Coast. The cities cited by Amtrak and the Florida Department of Transportation included: [[Stuart, Florida|Stuart]], Fort Pierce, [[Vero Beach]], [[Melbourne, Florida|Melbourne]], [[Titusville, Florida|Titusville]], [[Cocoa, Florida|Cocoa]], [[Daytona Beach]] and [[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]].<ref>"Orlando Sun-Sentinel," Feb 22, 2013, Angel Streeter, "Amtrak still hopeful for service on FEC tracks" http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-02-22/news/fl-amtrak-florida-east-coast-railroad-20130215_1_amtrak-service-fec-passenger-service {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180129140701/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-02-22/news/fl-amtrak-florida-east-coast-railroad-20130215_1_amtrak-service-fec-passenger-service |date=2018-01-29 }}</ref>

In 2023, [[Brightline]], an [[inter-city rail]] route that currently runs between [[MiamiCentral|Miami]] and [[Orlando International Airport Intermodal Terminal|Orlando]], announced that it was looking for sites for a new station on the [[Treasure Coast]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 26, 2023 |title=BRIGHTLINE ANNOUNCES PROCESS TO SELECT A TREASURE COAST STATION |url=https://www.gobrightline.com/press-room/2023/brightline-announces-process-to-select-a-treasure-coast-station |access-date=2024-01-06 |website=www.gobrightline.com |language=en}}</ref> As of 2024, there are currently no plans to add a station in Fort Pierce.