(The following story by Aaron Deslatte appeared on the Orlando Sentinel on March 12, 2009.)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The SunRail commuter-train plan is drawing new criticism over language meant to appease the Lakeland area, which would absorb more CSX Corp. freight-train traffic to make way for passenger transit through Orlando.
The bill (SB 1212) creating an insurance policy for the $1.2 billion commuter-rail project cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 6-3 vote Wednesday, but not before an influential senator warned that changes would have to be made down the line.
The committee adopted an amendment requiring the Florida Department of Transportation to “prioritize” construction of an alternative route for Lakeland freight traffic in the pecking order of projects competing for funding within 10 years of the construction of a CSX freight hub in Winter Haven.
Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, called the idea “way out of bounds” because it would bypass the normal process FDOT and local governments use to decide the priority of projects.
His complaint came at the tail end of a two-hour hearing at which critics again blasted the $200 million insurance arrangement that would pay claims for most accidents — whether caused by CSX or by a commuter-rail train — on the 61-mile commuter line running between DeLand and Poinciana. The policy would be jointly purchased by CSX and the state.
Bill may need to change
Fasano noted that FDOT’s “work program” allows local governments to determine their own ranking system for road, port and transit projects, and warned that bypassing it would invite future political interference.
“You’re going to have other members in both chambers saying, ‘If we’re doing it for Lakeland, if we’re doing it there, then we ought to do it in this district or that district,'” Fasano said.
“That’s the way it was done many years ago. We did away with that.”
The bill is headed next to Fasano’s Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee, and Fasano said it would have to be changed there to keep advancing.
SunRail backers inserted the language to win support from Lakeland, which could see as many as 19 additional freight trains a day routed through its downtown as a result of the commuter-rail project. It is also an attempt to blunt support for Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, the project’s most fervent critic, who managed to derail it last year. Nearly $500 million of the project’s total cost would pay to reroute freight trains west of Orlando and to build a new freight yard in Winter Haven. FDOT has agreed to study alternatives that would build additional tracks to bypass Lakeland.
“Our ultimate goal is to have the freight rerouted out of downtown … by a date certain,” said Lakeland lobbyist David Shepp, who supported the FDOT-drafted language added Wednesday.
‘Another moving target’
Now, FDOT and other officials planned to meet with Fasano today to try to come up with an alternative that will satisfy him.
“It’s just another moving target,” said bill sponsor, Sen. Lee Constantine, R- Altamonte Springs.
“We’ll just go back to the drawing board and try to find something that makes them all comfortable.”