(The following story by Lindsay Peterson appeared on The Tampa Tribune website on February 23.)
TAMPA, Fla. — Only one piece of the state’s multimillion-dollar deal with CSX Transportation remains to be settled, but obstacles to the plan are mounting, because of questions from state lawmakers and moves by federal officials.
The state plans to spend $491 million to buy 61 miles of CSX tracks in the Orlando area and help the company shift train traffic into a proposed Polk County hub.
At the center of the deal is the state’s plan to build a commuter system on the tracks purchased from CSX, between DeLand and Poinciana. Local governments would split the $600 million in construction costs with the federal government.
This month, the agency responsible for approving the federal expenditure, the Federal Transit Administration, excluded Florida from the list of projects it planned to recommend.
Last week, the agency also informed the state DOT it was requiring a new study of the effects of running extra trains on the CSX line into Polk County.
This comes in addition to mounting questions from state lawmakers, who are preparing for next month’s legislative session.
“I have great concerns,” said state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey and chairman of the Senate Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee.
He said he’s leery of the liability package that CSX wants the state to sign as the final piece of the deal. The state would be held responsible for any accidents on the commuter line, even those caused by CSX.
“I don’t think the state should take on that liability,” he said.
In a tight budget year like this one, he also dislikes the idea of giving millions to an investor-owned company for improvements to private property the public will never use.
The state plans to delay more than $500 million worth of transportation projects from the DOT’s five-year work plan, including more than $129 million in the Tampa area. Fasano said $491 million could go a long way toward keeping the work program intact.
Cost Effectiveness A Concern
His concerns rose this month when the transit agency released the federal project list that excluded Florida. Fifteen commuter projects from California to Virginia were recommended for a total of $1.1 billion in funding.
“Before we put up $491 million,” Fasano said, “let’s see the federal government put up their money.”
State officials say the commuter rail projects will be considered for funding in the next federal budget cycle. Fasano said he’s not sure the money will ever be approved.
The project faltered on the key issue of cost effectiveness, a measurement based on the project’s cost and projected ridership.
Florida’s costs were more than $29 a commuter-hour, $5 above the federal limit. The state also received low marks for making a case for the project.
A November 2007 federal report said the state described Interstate 4 as congested and getting worse. “But the ‘case’ for the project provides no justification that it will effectively serve I-4 travel markets.”
A major proponent of the project, U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Garden, dismissed the agency’s exclusion, saying its recommendation is “not necessary.”
Last year, Mica inserted a provision into a House bill to exempt the Central Florida project from having to meet the federal rules on cost effectiveness. The bill passed in the House and is awaiting a Senate vote.
Mica predicted the money eventually will become available, but he couldn’t say if it would come in time to finish the first segment of the route by 2010, as originally projected. Asked when that leg between DeLand and Orlando would be finished, he said, “I have no idea.”
Mica also downplayed the significance of the agency’s requirement for a new study of the effects of shifting CSX freight traffic to the rail line running into Polk County.
“It’s great news,” he said. “It will allay many concerns folks might have.”
Polk resident Sue Nelson isn’t so sure it will ease her concerns, but she was thrilled with the news that a study will be done.
She began e-mailing agency officials in September to ask whether they had looked at the impact of shifting freight traffic from the Orlando area to the rail line into Polk. That line runs into Winter Haven, where CSX plans to build a major rail yard.
After four months she still had no answer. “You have asked me time and again to be patient,” she wrote Jan. 4.
“I’m not against the Central Florida Commuter Rail Project. … All I would like to see is an analysis done for Polk County just like what was done for Orange, Seminole, Volusia and Osceola counties,” she wrote. “Without the proposed relocation of the freight trains to Polk County, the commuter rail project would never come to fruition.”
Noise, Vibrations Will Be Studied
The agency began talking to the state about doing such a study, but state officials argued it was not necessary. They said the commuter system and the state-funded improvements on the CSX rail line into Polk were two separate projects.
However, Mica linked the two in a December 2006 letter to then-state DOT Secretary Denver Stutler. He said that state officials needed to emphasize the $491 million CSX package in discussions with the agency over commuter rail funding.
For months, Florida DOT and federal officials had been wrangling over whether enough people would use the Orlando area commuter system to justify the federal expense. The state’s plans had several “unique” features, Mica wrote, including the effort to shift more freight trains to the line into Polk County.
It would “greatly alleviate surface street traffic congestion” in the Orlando area, he wrote.
Despite Mica’s letter, state officials always considered the commuter and freight projects to be separate, said DOT spokesman Dick Kane. The agency agreed but still called for the study, which will focus on the effects of noise and vibrations from the additional trains. It could take up to 60 days, Kane said.
Nelson said the study probably won’t take long. “The CSX corridor has been studied over and over again. Now, whether the state does the right thing with all that information remains to be seen,” she said.