(The following column by Brian Ackley appeared on the Lake Wales News website on December 12, 2009.)
LAKE WALES, Fla. — Although the vote was hundreds of miles away, the Florida legislature’s green light to a massive high-speed rail project in the state could pay dividends sooner rather than later here on the Ridge.
CSX spokesperson Gary Sease confirmed Friday that passage of the so-called SunRail package means that development of a rail transfer facility just west of Lake Wales likely will be built sooner rather than later.
That’s because some of the rail-giant’s operations in Orlando will have to be moved once 61-miles of track in that area is purchased.
The site is expected to create 100 full time jobs, and local officials have said there is the possibility of hundreds more jobs there once warehousing and similar storage and transportation complexes are built on the land, just off State Road 60.
CSX officials first announced plans for the project, which would cover more than 300 acres in its initial phase, in early 2006, and had hoped to break ground on the facility as soon as 2008. The economic slowdown, however, has meant there hasn’t been enough demand for CSX to go through with the project.
Until now.
“With the SunRail vote, once we meet with the Florida Department of Transportation and understand their timetable in Orlando, that will help us determine the timetable for the intermodial terminal. We’re going to have to move the business that we conduct in Orlando, some of that business is going to have to shift to Winter Haven.”
The project would actually be developed by Evansville-Western, an affiliate of CSX. Although close to the Lake Wales border and State Road 60, the land is actually owned by the City of Winter Haven.
“I think in Tallahassee, people were really looking at ways to spur job creation, and certainly construction of the Winter Haven terminal will be part of that whole package,” Sease added.
It remained unclear shortly after the bill’s passage how quickly the controversial sale of existing tracks for the proposal Orlando SunRail commuter train would get rolling.
State transportation officials said the legislation had one more stop before it authorized them to buy 61 miles of freight tracks to begin construction of the Deland to Poinciana commuter rail in Orlando.
“We don’t have a hard and fast date,” Florida Department of Transportation spokesman Dick Kane told the News Service of Florida Wednesday. “The bill has to be signed into law first. Then we would look at when we would close. We didn’t have a time frame.”
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, however, said that process could begin in earnest right after the first of the year.
“We anticipate in January or February that the federal government will let us know about the allocation of (Federal Railroad Authority) stimulus funding,” he said. “We’ll know whether we have a piece of that, but (the next step) is to move forward with the right-of-way acquisition, and when we do that, then we’re able to enter into a full funding agreement with the Federal Transportation Administration and we start work.”
Gov. Charlie Crist’s office said Wednesday that it had received the rail bill. The governor, a vocal rail supporter, has until Dec. 24 to sign it.
Perhaps to ease the bill’s passage through the gridlocked Senate, backers sought to downplay aspects of the three-part legislation that allow for the development of SunRail, which became controversial over a two-year fight to pull the train through the chamber. But a key backer of the train said after the final votes that it was the last piece of the SunRail puzzle.
“We had the funding set aside for SunRail some time ago,” Orlando’s mayor told reporters minutes after the Senate approved what he has long called the city’s top legislative priority. “The last piece to move forward on the acquisition of the right-of-way was to finalize language that established liability in the event of accident somewhere on the line and also delegate authority to the department and eventually a SunRail commission to purchase liability insurance. So that was a big piece.”
SunRail is projected to cost $1.2 billion, with plans calling for $641 million to be paid to CSX for use of the track and an additional $600 million to build stations and purchase equipment. Backers say SunRail will create 13,000 jobs and generate $4.6 billion for the construction sector over 20 years.
Supporters have also said the train would spur 113,000 construction projects within a half-mile range of its 17 stations and remove the number of cars that fill one lane of Interstate 4 during weekday rush hours. Construction plans now call for the trains to begin rolling in 2012 on the first phase of SunRail, 31-miles between DeBary and Sand Lake Road in Orange County.
The remainder of the line would be on line in 2013, supporters have said.
As lawmakers debated the sweeping rail package, much was made about the correlation between the creation of SunRail and the state’s high speed rail plans, especially in the eyes of the federal government. But Senate President Jeff Atwater cautioned after the vote Tuesday that passing the rail did not mean stimulus dollars would automatically roll in.
“The bill wasn’t that we had to have a bullet train when it was over,” Atwater told reporters. “I think we made that clear in the dialogue. This was about can we create a framework where the partnerships (between private companies and government) can develop locally and maybe our federal partners will say it’s time to support Florida and some of its longer term goals.”
Just as quickly though, Atwater said passing the rail bill put the state a lot closer to winning the stimulus money.
“But in Washington they made it very clear … if we ever decide that Florida is right for high speed with this grant, we’re not going to put a bunch of parking garages at every stop,” he said. “You build connectivity.”
And the rail bill’s passage was already reverberating in Washington. Sen. Bill Nelson’s office was touting it as a reason the state was being granted $40 million to “jumpstart a rail system that will serve commuters in Central Florida” by Congressional budget leaders in a broad transportation, housing and military expenditure bill.
“Talk about back-to-back great news for Floridians who are tired of traffic jams – this is it,” Nelson, who had long urged the Legislature to approve the rail project, said in a statement. “The miracle of miracles has happened.”