(The following story by Dan Tracy appeared on the Orlando Sentinel website on March 3, 2009.)
ORLANDO, Fla. — The proposed Central Florida commuter train rolls into its first Senate hearing Wednesday with a full contingent of supporters and likely passage onto the next stop.
But no one who backs the project known as SunRail expects an easy time in the Senate, where the venture was defeated last year and one and possibly three more hearings could occur before there is a final vote.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who will be in Tallahassee for Wednesday’s session before the transportation committee, believes SunRail has the 21 votes necessary to pass.
But “you never know until they (votes) are cast on the floor of the Senate,” said Dyer, who will be joined by Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty and some 20 Central Florida business and civic leaders.
Opponents, led by Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, are attacking the train as an expensive boondoggle that is unaffordable in a deteriorating economy that is already forcing the state to cut billions from its annual budget.
She recently released a statement pegging the ultimate cost of SunRail at nearly $2.7 billion – a figure that Dyer and others consider to be highly misleading. They point out that her estimate includes 30 years worth of interest payments, as well as $500 million in fares paid by riders.
Dyer also disputes the inclusion of some $200 million for five grade separations between roads and train tracks and $32 million for a new road and a rail yard south of downtown Orlando.
“Anybody saying that is certainly being disingenuous,” he said.
That money, Dyer maintains, would be spent by the state and partly repaid by local governments whether SunRail becomes a reality or not.
But that money should count toward the deal because CSX, the railroad company that is selling 61.5 miles of tracks to the state for SunRail, either gets the funds or benefits from the expenditure, said Julie Townsend, a Lakeland businesswoman who is working with Dockery.
The grade separations, either under way or planned for intersections in Alachua, Marion and Sumter counties, make it easier for CSX to switch freight trains west from the SunRail line to another set of tracks running down the interior of the state.
And, Townsend said, the $32 million greatly aids CSX in its plan to build a new yard in Winter Haven, which would handle freight trains, including those rerouted because of SunRail.
“Like I’ve said many times, this is a freight deal, not a commuter deal,” Townsend said.
CSX spokesman Gary Sease said his company always intended to move a rail yard from Taft south of Orlando to Winter Haven in Polk County and switch freight trains to its western line. There was no firm time table, though the state payments hurried the pace.
“It would have been driven by business demand and other priorities,” Sease said.
On Wednesday, Dyer and Crotty will testify before the Senate committee about the benefits of SunRail, which would run 61.5 miles from DeLand in Volusia County through downtown Orlando to Poinciana in Osceola County.
“Instant stimulus,” is Dyer’s description of SunRail. Like other proponents, Dyer contends the train will create thousands of jobs if the Legislature approves an insurance plan covering its operations.
“It is the most significant transportation project,” Dyer said, “to come along in Central Florida in a couple of decades.”
He pegs the price of SunRail at close to $1 billion. But that is a bargain, SunRail enthusiasts say, when compared to the estimated $7 billion it would cost to add one lane in either direction to Interstate 4 for the 61.5 miles covered by the train.