(The following story by Dan Tracy, Aaron Deslatte and Mark Schlueb appeared on the Orlando Sentinel website on January 15, 2009.)
ORLANDO, Fla. — Central Florida’s planned commuter train rolled a little closer to reality Wednesday when the state’s powerful trial-lawyers association dropped its opposition to the $1.2 billion project.
That group, along with Polk County legislators, succeeded last year in derailing legislative approval of the proposed 61-mile system, now known as SunRail. Rather than fight them again this year, backers of the rail system agreed to abandon language that would have restricted lawsuits against the system’s operators.
But while the lawyers’ decision not to oppose the system in this year’s legislative session is significant, backers warned that the project still faces a tough fight when lawmakers reconvene March 3.
“We still don’t have the votes yet,” said Sen. Lee Constantine, R- Altamonte Springs, who chairs the powerful Judiciary Committee, adding that he knows several senators who have found other reasons to oppose the bill now that trial lawyers weren’t fighting it.
“Although this was a very positive thing that happened, it certainly doesn’t guarantee anything. It’s certainly one less hurdle we’re going to have to jump over,” he said.
Sen. Paula Dockery, the Lakeland Republican who led the charge against the project last year because it would route more freight trains through her hometown, echoed Constantine.
“Quite frankly, the votes are still very good in my favor on this issue,” she said.
Legislative approval is critical this year. An agreement with CSX to acquire its tracks through Orlando — and $300 million in federal funds — will expire in June.
Julie Townsend, director of the Downtown Lakeland Partnership, vowed to keep fighting, arguing that the project represents a windfall for CSX. The rail company would be paid more than $430 million for its tracks and improvements.
Townsend and Dockery have made no secret they intend to go after this money, which the state has set aside in a trust fund. Legislators signed off Wednesday on a bill raiding other trust funds for hundreds of millions of dollars to patch a $2.3 billion deficit. Next year’s deficit could hit $4 billion.
Dyer ‘talking to everybody’
Still, neutralizing the trial lawyers was a major victory for backers of SunRail, which hopes to begin initial operation in 2011.
Although Townsend said Dockery “did all the work to get the votes,” the trial lawyers were considered by many to be the muscle that really killed commuter rail.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, chairman of the commission overseeing SunRail, said he started approaching lawyers and Dockery not long after the train’s defeat in May.
“Since the end of last [legislative] session, I’ve been talking to everybody who has an interest in this,” Dyer said.
Peeling away the attorneys, Dyer said, “is significant. This and addressing Lakeland’s concerns are the two biggest issues.”
The sticking point for the lawyers was a provision that any private companies hired to operate and maintain the commuter trains be granted the same legal status as the state — called sovereign immunity. That would make it virtually impossible to sue the contractors if an accident occurred.
Led by Dyer, rail supporters recently stopped pushing for that protection, saying the companies could buy their own insurance — though that would drive up SunRail’s costs. The state will buy a $200 million liability policy to cover accidents involving the trains.
On Tuesday, the board of directors of the Florida Justice Association voted to end its opposition as long as the sovereign-immunity language is not in the bill, which is not yet written. Paul Jess, the association’s general counsel, called sovereign immunity “an archaic concept . . . that’s an offensive concept to us.”
CSX: It’s ‘valuable property’
CSX spokesman Gary Sease said sovereign immunity was never an issue for his company. Its big concern, he said, is ensuring that liability for accidents is split appropriately between SunRail and CSX. That provision is part of the bill the Legislature will consider.
As for Townsend’s charge that the state is paying CSX too much, Sease said: “We view it as providing valuable property for the use of commuter rail. As a private company, we don’t just give up private assets without compensation. Our stockholders wouldn’t appreciate that.”
SunRail would have 17 stops, running from DeLand in Volusia County through downtown Orlando to Poinciana in Osceola County. The first 31 miles could open in 2011, if the state Legislature approves it this year.