(The following editorial appeared on the Orlando Sentinel website on July 27.)
ORLANDO, Fla. — It didn’t have to be this way, with Central Floridians from DeLand to Poinciana climbing into stifling-hot cars only to watch their gas gauges deflate in slow traffic.
For two decades, Central Florida leaders have been talking about building a commuter-transit system. Everything from political infighting to, well, political infighting has derailed a series of plans.
Meanwhile cities such as Charlotte, Miami and Salt Lake City have eclipsed metro Orlando. They have helped untangle traffic jams and free motorists from their cars with commuter-rail systems. Orlando now competes with those cities and others for federal transportation dollars, but they’re expanding their systems while we’re just trying to launch ours.
Left up to state Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, Central Floridians would forever be trapped in their cars while residents of Denver and other transit-friendly cities build commuter systems with federal dollars that might have gone to the Orlando area.
In the last legislative session, Ms. Dockery helped dismantle a deal the would have handed over 61 miles of CSX lines to the state to build the system. The Lakeland Republican politicized her concerns about what the system would do to Lakeland traffic by rallying the state’s trial lawyers against the deal, saying they would lose because rail contractors would be immune from lawsuits. Turns out, that’s pretty standard on rail contracts.
Now is the time to ensure Ms. Dockery does not continue to handicap Central Florida in the next session.
Senate Transportation Committee member Lee Constantine, an Altamonte Springs Republican, met Thursday with Senate President-designate Jeff Atwater to convey the critical nature of the commuter rail legislation. The Palm Beach Republican’s appointments to key committees, such as Transportation and Judiciary, can go a long way in ensuring that the right people will be in place to champion the project. And, to their credit, state transportation experts are studying Lakeland’s rail situation to address traffic concerns there.
Thanks largely to Congressman John Mica of Winter Park, Orlando’s commuter rail plans are making so much progress through federal channels that the project is expected to win preliminary design approvals in the next few weeks and then be poised for final design — the precursor to a full funding agreement. Last week , for instance, the project cleared a major environmental hurdle at the federal level.
With $300 million in federal funds at stake, we can no longer let small-minded politics hold Orlando back. The project is needed to help with traffic during Interstate 4’s reconstruction. It would boost the economy and ultimately ease motorists’ fuel crunch.
Our leaders can lay the groundwork now for a legislative session that moves commuter rail forward, or we can continue to watch our gas taxes build systems in more-progressive cities.