The Future of Rail in Florida
A divisive bill, touted “the future of Florida transportation,” is coming up for a vote in the Florida Senate. Senate Republican leaders believe they have the votes needed to pass the legislation. On Monday, the bill passed the Florida House of Representatives with a 84-25 vote.
The proposed legislation would impact the future of SunRail – a $1.2 billion commuter rail project in Central Florida. Supporters of the Central Florida SunRail hope the new transportation system would ease the congestion along Interstate 4 and eventually grow to link with high speed rail tracks linking Tampa, Orlando, and Miami potentially. The legislation could also impact Tri-Rail, a commuter rail in South Florida running between Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. This project could receive an additional $15 million from a transportation trust fund on top of the $27 million they are currently receiving. Furthermore, federal transportation officials have suggested that approving the bill would strengthen the Florida’s application for a $2.5 million grant to build a high speed commuter rail.
What do you think, should the Florida Legislature vote to further the future of rail in the Sunshine State? Would you use a commuter rail?
Emily Says:
I love the idea! Everyone uses rail in europe, because it is punctual, clean, and convenient! If the rail is managed similarly to Europe’s rail system, I would definitely use it in Florida!
Michael "Mike" Yost Says:
The South Florida Tri-Rail has been subsidized by taxpayers since it’s inception. This “approval” will only make it possible for Federal Funds to make that subsidy payment.
Adding Sun Rail to the mix will again, bring ANOTHER subsidy payment from Taxpayers when they find it too, isn’t a “break even” proposal as promised. The numbers that are being used by the Sun Rail supporters are NOT realistic calling for millions of riders yearly. Amtrak has ONLY 20 million annual riders, so what makes them think HSR is going be “profitable”?? HUGE assumptions that are totally unrealistic and unsound in their estimates.
Rep. Corrine Brown supports this. WHY?? Because she gets HUGE campaign donations from CSX, Norfolk-Southern, and even the maglev builders who COULD furnish the track equipment for this project. Follow the campaign finance money and you UNDERSTAND the reason for the support from these lawmakers.
It is TIME to bring fiscal Conservatives to our government and time to defeat the Corrine Browns of this world once and for all. As the leading Conservative Republican candidate, I need your support and your effort to help me defeat her. That ends this cycle of “special interest” running our nation and the spending of taxpayers dollars we don’t have. THAT is why there is so much debt ($12 trillion) on the Federal Governments books. Debt we WILL repay or watch our nation collapse under the burden left to our children and grandchildren.
http://yostforcongress.com
Michael “Mike” Yost
Candidate, U.S. House of Representatives, 3rd District of Florida.
Robert Says:
I’m very disappointed in the decision to build this train. Accepting stimulus money goes against everything conservatism stands for but you could probably argue that it was a necessary evil. However if Crist/Cretul/Atwater were going to look at how to spend this money on truly conservative projects they would not use them to create projects that cause the formation of new government infrastructure that will need to be funded after tax dollars run out. That is the oldest liberal tactic for expanding the power of government in the book! Use it to expand roads or MAYBE to save a few jobs that are currently on the chopping block. DO NOT use that money to create new departments and hire a bunch of people. How are we going to pay those salaries after the money runs out???
C Says:
I think SunRail is great for the future of Central Florida and Florida. One of government’s functions should be to provide infrastructure, and we are headed down a path where roads are not enough. We need to provide alternative transportation options. I can’t wait to ride the train from one side of Orlando to another, or take a weekend trip to Miami.
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Derek Hendrickson Says:
This is a terrible financial plan.
We already voted it down twice on the ballot !
And now you’re bringing it up again and trying to push it through ?
If you spent as much time and effort on more important issues such as State Sovereignty etc you might do something worthwhile.
RPOF listen to Sen. Paula Dockery, she understands it.
This is the type of fiscal conservative as opposed to party politics that we want as Governor and all other elected officials.
Balance your budget and live within current revenue, no new taxes.
That’s what we do ! We are suffering out here.
We don’t want any more Federal Mandates, Federal Funds, State Taxes, Fees or Subsidies for this or anything else. You have already tied us down too much with the Federal Economic Package you agreed to, don’t agree to anything else !
Enough is enough and we are going to remember in 2010.
SteveTraino Says:
Light rail does not and will not work! Not one place in Florida is the population dense enough to support a light rail, not even Miami! this isnt NYC or Manhattan where the population density is enough to support rail. you cant walk to a rail station and walk from your destination, this will be a huge burden in the future to the ta payers of FL on top of creating another bureaucracy to waste money on! BOOOO too all the republicans who voted for this waste!
Andrew Dorsey Says:
C – Correct me if I’m wrong, but UCF doesn’t event get to be part of this SunRail package, there is no East-West sunrail, just North/South.
Orlando is a city sandwiched between two major connectors, only 1 will be serviced by this system, leaving UCF completely out of it.
Today, fiscal restraint of Republicans in Florida was thrown to the wayside in favor of a crap shoot for federal dollars. At least, in Hillsborough, will have a choice as to whether we want to build our own light rail system via a ballot measure, without state money. We get to choose our path ahead.
SunRail leaves out so much of the Orlando area. It is an area that is the very definition of sprawl, via a complete lack of Urban density planning.
Enjoy your crap-shoot Florida, hopefully a Democrat Led federal government wants to throw the $2.2+ Billion necessary for your High Speed Rail dream. Forget the fact that the powerhouses of Chicago/California/NY control Congress and the White House. Hope Bill Nelson has secured federal promises from the Federal Transit Administration for Floridians.
I view this Florida decision as a Macro-economic pipe dream dependent on a Microscopic lens.
Muckraker Says:
http://www.bloggybayou.com/2009/12/text-of-email-i-sent-to-my-state.html
I must say, I’m disappointed all around by our “Republican” leadership
Muckraker
Muckraker Says:
http://www.bloggybayou.com/2009/12/florida-republicans-time-for-integrity.html
So Much for Integrity for our elected Republicans. JD Alexander SHOULD have recused himself…
Ca**idy Says:
So, the comments here say that this is a bad idea due to the so call fiscal problems with it. The reason more people don’t “light rail” is because it isn’t there. We need something that will allow us to have more transportation that is not individual cars. We need to care more for our environment, as well as provide something that people can use.
SMS Says:
I think a majority of the posters on this discussion are being very short sighted. Transportation is actually one of the FEW things government needs to be involved in. And unless we want to privatize each road and charge tolls- govt will continue to be involved. Whether you want to believe it or not, we can not continue on the path of widening roads when they become congested. Rail is a convienent and pratical method of releiving traffic. The original route of SunRail follows current rail line (cheaper then building all new) and various stops and additional routes will be added. We have to look towards the future and SunRail does just that.
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