(The following story by Jim Saunders appeared in the Tallahassee Journal on December 6, 2009.)
TALLAHASSEE — Florida lawmakers dug into a 49-page bill Friday that conjures a future of passenger trains zipping through the state.
But for the proposed SunRail commuter-rail system in Central Florida, the bill comes down to this: Will lawmakers go along with a legal agreement that is critical to the project?
The agreement would help shield railroad company CSX Transportation from financial liability if one of its freight trains collides with a SunRail commuter train.
Without the agreement, CSX won’t sell 61 miles of tracks to the state. And without the state owning the tracks, SunRail won’t happen.
“This is the big deal,” said House sponsor Gary Aubuchon, R-Cape Coral, when asked about the liability issue by another lawmaker Friday.
Bills that called for similar legal protections died in the Senate in 2008 and spring 2009, jeopardizing the SunRail project that would ultimately stretch from DeLand to Osceola County.
But legislative leaders, in a special session that started Thursday, have offered a revised proposal to try to ease concerns about the CSX agreement.
Also, as supporters seek to gather enough votes in the 40-member Senate, they have folded the liability issue into a broader package that could eventually lead to high-speed rail and other commuter projects across Florida.
Despite the changes, some lawmakers raised questions about the liability issue this week.
Sen. Paula Dockery, a Lakeland Republican who led efforts to kill the earlier bills, issued a statement that blasted the agreement.
“The caveats in this slapdash legislation do little to protect taxpayers from having to pay for accidents caused by CSX on state-owned tracks,” said Dockery, who also is running for governor in 2010.
But Bob O’Malley, a CSX vice president, said the agreement would not expose taxpayers to large losses. He said the state would be covered by a $200 million insurance policy that CSX would help fund.
House members spent about three hours Friday discussing the bill and are poised to approve it Monday. The Senate could vote Tuesday or Wednesday, though it remains unclear whether the measure has enough support to pass.
Debates about SunRail during the past two years have veered into a wide range of issues, including the billion-dollar cost that is expected to be split between state, local and federal governments.
But the only part of the project that lawmakers need to approve for SunRail to move forward is the liability agreement with CSX.
Under the SunRail plan, the state would pay $432 million to CSX to buy the Central Florida tracks, with assurances that CSX would plow money back into upgrading its lines in the state. Lawmakers do not have to approve money for the purchase because it is already included in state transportation-funding plans.
While the state would own the 61 miles for the commuter system, CSX would continue to use the route for freight trains.
CSX has long made the deal contingent on receiving legal protections if freight and commuter trains collide.
O’Malley said adding commuter trains to the track would expose CSX to lawsuits that it does not currently face. He also said CSX could become a target for attorneys, because state law limits the amount of damages that a government can be forced to pay — a concept known as sovereign immunity.
O’Malley said it “would be irresponsible for us to expose the company to that level of risk.”
A key part of the agreement would shield CSX from having to pay damages to commuter-rail passengers after a collision, even if CSX was at fault. CSX would be responsible for injuries or losses sustained by its employees or property.
Supporters describe the arrangement as a “no-fault” system.
One of the revisions in the new bill would force CSX to pay up to $10 million if an accident is caused by “willful misconduct” of a company employee or if punitive damages are awarded against the company.
That is designed to ease concerns, for example, that a CSX employee could become intoxicated and cause a crash with a commuter train. Without the revision, CSX would not have been financially responsible for the state’s losses or injuries to commuters.