(The following story by Aaron Deslatte appeared on the Orlando Sentinel website on April 12.)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The state’s commuter-rail deal with CSX Corp. is starting to pick up steam in the Legislature.
The House Economic Expansion and Infrastructure Council on Friday advanced a bill that limits the railroad’s liability for accidents on the 61-mile rail line through Orlando that the state is buying for commuter rail. It also sets up a $200 million fund from which the state would pay victims of any accidents.
“Our population in Central Florida’s going to double in the next 20 years,” said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, one of several Central Florida officials who traveled to the capital to testify. He called the rail plan crucial “to relieve congestion on I-4, which is significant for us not for the next 10 years, but the rest of our lifetimes.”
Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty called it “a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the region.”
The $641 million agreement narrowly survived a frontal assault in the Senate earlier this week when lawmakers, concerned about its price tag and the fact it was secretly negotiated in 2005 by CSX and the administration of then-Gov. Jeb Bush, tried to divert some of the money.
Only $150 million of the total goes to buy the rail line. The rest will go for improvements — including crossing bridges — on another CSX freight line and relocating the freight hub now in Taft to Winter Haven. The improvements will help CSX grow its business but also send more freight trains through Lakeland, where residents — and legislators — are opposing the change.
That opposition, especially by Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, has stalled the issue in the Senate. The legal liability agreement hasn’t had a single committee vote; Senate Transportation Chairman Carey Baker, R-Eustis, said this week he is waiting to see if trial lawyers and unions opposed to it can be accommodated.
To deal with the opposition, CSX has stepped up its presence in Tallahassee, giving at least $35,000 to the state Republican and Democratic parties so far this year and hiring CoreMessage, a capital PR firm run by a former spokesman for ex-Gov. Bush.
On Friday, House Democrats tried unsuccessfully to change the plan to protect union jobs and complained that the liability arrangement would unfairly protect the huge railroad even from negligence.
“We have a wide array of improvements we’ll be making on this private company’s facilities, and I haven’t really seen the public benefit of that yet,” said Rep. Susan Bucher, D-West Palm Beach. She cast the only opposing vote.
The council did approve an amendment by Rep. Gary Aubuchon, R-Cape Coral, requiring the Department of Transportation to study future inter-city rail needs and the impact the CSX project will have on smaller cities such as Lakeland.