(The following story by James Miller appeared on the Daytona Beach News-Journal website on May 1, 2009.)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Senate today delivered a potentially fatal blow to the proposed SunRail commuter system connecting DeLand and metropolitan Orlando.
Language required for the 61.5-mile rail system to become a reality failed to get the required Senate support after weeks of heavy lobbying in which opponents hammered a controversial liability arrangement and the system’s projected costs.
The failure left SunRail proponents – who say the project is a necessary long-term transportation alternative in the growing Interstate 4 corridor – with apparently dim hopes of a resolution during this legislative session.
Lawmakers have extended the session, which was scheduled to end today, into next week to deal with budget issues – but House and Senate leaders have said the budget is the only issue during the extension.
Resurrecting the proposal Friday in the Senate would require a two-thirds vote – something that seemed next to impossible, though both proponents and opponents said there might be an eleventh-hour attempt.
The Senate declined to consider similar legislation last year.
“I’m not going to give up the fight until it’s over,” said Sen. Lee Constantine, an Altamonte Springs Republican sponsoring the proposal in the Senate. “Do I have a chance? You always have a chance. Is it good? No.”
Proponents today tried to amend commuter-rail language – said to be a template for any future rail deals in Florida – to an omnibus transportation bill.
The amendment included the liability arrangement, which has to be in place by June 30 or the SunRail deal can be voided.
One attempt was withdrawn. Another failed.
Of the four senators representing parts of Volusia County, only Sen. Carey Baker, R-Eustis, backed the deal in the vote that was cast. Sens. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville, Jim King, R-Jacksonville, and Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, opposed it.
King cited costs and his concerns about the liability arrangement.
“It’s not dead,” he said. “It’s in the corner smelling bad, but it’s not dead.”
SunRail is expected to cost the federal government, the state and five local partners – Volusia, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties and Orlando – $2.7 billion over 30 years.
It hinges on a $432 million sale deal, in which the state would buy the corridor from CSX Transportation and then lease the tracks to CSX for freight traffic. Some of that money would go to CSX for improvements in a separate freight-rail corridor.
In a written statement, Gary Sease, a spokesman for CSX, said the company hopes lawmakers can pass the required legislation this session.
“Our agreement with the state expires June 30,” Sease said.
In order to sell, CSX wants protection from liability for certain types of accidents along the commuter-rail line.
The proposal that failed today would have shielded CSX from up to $200 million of financial responsibility for accidents involving commuters and other non-CSX personnel in the corridor – regardless of who is at fault.
Lawmakers who supported the deal said it was reasonable because there would be no commuters on the line unless the state put them there.
Opponents said it was unconscionable.
They proposed a hypothetical situation in which a school bus crossing the tracks was hit by a CSX freight train.
“Bus, little bodies, weeping moms and dads. The state is responsible, right?” said Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico.
Supportive lawmakers have worked hard to make changes to get the project through the Senate. They’ve eliminated language granting state sovereign immunity to the companies hired for SunRail operations, dispatch, maintenance and security.
The amendment proposed today also included language that would have let the Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach county commissions create a $2-per-day rental-car surcharge for transportation projects.
South Florida lawmakers seeking a dedicated source of money for the Tri-Rail commuter system in those counties wanted a surcharge to help pay for Tri-Rail. But a proposal to require voter approval subsequent to each county commission’s adoption of the charge complicated efforts to get their support.
SunRail support, generally, has been strong among local officials in Volusia County. Only one County Council member – Councilman Jack Hayman – has voted against it, citing uncertainties about long-term costs and ridership.