Photo/Leo King
Metroplan Orlando’s Harold Barley asked the North Florida TPO for help with its commuter rail project. His Jacksonville counterpart, Denise Bunnewith, is seated at the table.
“Central Florida’s top transportation priority is SunRail,” said Harold Barley. He is the executive director for Metroplan Orlando, the Central Florida transportation planning organization. He is the “Denise” of the Central Florida TPO. Denise Bunnewith is the North Florida TPO executive director.
SunRail is the commuter rail project for the three-county area in Central Florida – Orange, Osceola and Seminole Counties.
He was speaking to the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization directors meeting Thursday at its monthly gathering.
“We’ve had our struggles over the last two years,” he said, “and, frankly, I want to ask you for your help.”
He explained, “A lot of the controversy that you heard about having something to do with the SunRail project is change. Very often it’s the North Florida TPO and Metroplan Orlando that are most often cited throughout the state as kind of setting the standards for regional thinking, regional cooperation, regional transportation planning.”
He said they have a 19-member board and a population of 1.8 million.
He launched a PowerPoint presentation. The first slide was of a donkey pulling a street car over tracks laid in a dirt road in what appeared to be a rural setting.
“Here’s an interesting picture that takes us back a while. Sometimes it’s difficult to see the long-term impact in transportation planning, but here’s a picture from 1890 that is a transportation project in Central Florida. Sometimes it’s hard to see the long-term impact in transportation planning. As in life, what was once in style often comes back.”
Somebody quipped, “High-speed rail?”
It drew laughter.
“This is low-speed,” Barley continued, “but it worked pretty well. Some of those rights-of-way are still in place and actually figure into some of our plans.”
The location in the photo is now part of the I-4 corridor, he said, in downtown Orlando.
He said the Metroplan board, over several years, developed their plan for their part of Florida, and included land use planning, “which included a variety of forms of transit. That commitment begins with the SunRail project.”
Barley explained, “This is 61 miles of commuter rail serving Volusia, Seminole, Orange and Osceola Counties, along with the City of Orlando.”
They were also working with the Volusia MPO.
“We joined with them in partnership. It’s really intended as an alternative for the I-4 corridor,” he noted. “Another nice piece of this is that it also happens to complement Congressman Mica’s district. We’re grateful for his help.” U.S. Rep. John Mica (R) is from Florida’s 7th District.
Barley said, “The capacity of SunRail is equivalent to adding and additional lane on I-4 in each direction,” he declared, “So it really does have a tremendous carrying capacity.”
He said despite the “legislative setbacks we’re had the last two years – remember how difficult that change process is – we still have a strong commitment from all of the local funding partners, even in these tough economic times.” Those partners are the four counties and Orlando.
He explained the feds will pay half the costs, the state will contribute one-fourth and the rest will be local money.
“The federal commitment also remains strong. SunRail was approved for final design over a year ago, one of three projects in the nation that were approved by the Federal Transit Administration to enter the final design process.”
Without a federal okay, nothing happens.
“Our challenge remains at the state level. It’s something that should be of particular interest to this board.”
Sen. Paula Dockery, (R-15) was strongly opposed to SunRail in the last session in Tallahassee arguing CSX would be held blameless even if an accident was caused by one of its employees. It was a liability issue. She is now a candidate for governor in Florida’s 2010 general election.
Barley continued, “It has to do with liability and insurance provisions that are necessary to finalize the agreement between the Florida DOT, and CSX Transportation to do the transaction.”
“The type of liability and insurance provisions we’re looking for are identical to what has been in place for probably close to 20 years with Tri-Rail in South Florida. This is nothing too radical.
Getting this thing resolved, having to do with insurance and liability is not just about SunRail. It is also about future rail projects in South Florida, in Tampa Bay, and here in the Jacksonville area.”
He noted, “This project is also intended to complement the high-speed rail (HSR) project throughout the country. When we first saw this map” of the various HSR lines “one of the first things we went to was the Florida peninsula. We found it kind of peculiar that this thing is missing.” He was pointing to a gap between Jacksonville and Orlando.
“Now such a large part of the federal theme is connectivity. I honestly thought it was a drafting mistake...”
USDOT
The route map shows a continuous line from Portland, Maine to Boston, New York City, Washington, Atlanta and Jacksonville, then from Orlando to Miami with a branch to Tampa.
“It’s such an oversight. It’s a connection to the rest of the country.”
Florida’s Legislature may meet in special session soon, although no date has been set.
“I would like to ask that, for those of you who have relationships with your legislative delegations –Senate members and House members – please speak to them about the importance of this; not just for Central Florida but for our state.”
In an interview with Examiner, Barley said of Dockery, “She’s still at it. Something is being discussed having to do with cases of extreme negligence, with ‘extreme negligence’ needing to be defined. In the instance of extreme negligence, it would not be no-fault, shared liability.”
He explained, “Let’s say a CSX operator was high on cocaine resulting in some tragedy or something, not shared responsibility; CSX is responsible. If an operator of a commuter rail train were drunk or something and something happened, not shared liability. It’s the commuter rail system’s fault; full liability on that party.”
He added, “Some of this is being discussed with CSX to come up with a different deal involving instances of negligence.”
He said he is “not sure if this will be a deal-changer. I’m not sure this will be enough for her to change her position. She has all sorts of issues with the project.”
Dockery’s husband, C.C. Dockery of Lakeland spent more than $1 million of his own money to get a change to the Florida Constitution to allow high-speed rail between Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville. Voters approved the change, but former Gov. Jeb Bush (R) was able to convince voters about a year later they had made a mistake and got the change repealed.
The St. Petersburg Times reported on February 8, 2001, Dockery's wife, Paula, [is] a Republican representative from Lakeland who sits on the [House Transportation] Committee.
“As her husband continues his push to get the controversial bullet train built in Florida, Rep. Dockery will be there to help. She plans to be a chief sponsor of legislation that will set up financing for the train -- including $70-million a year in state money -- and establish a train route that will spur development in communities in its path.”
Barley said, “She has told me repeatedly she likes transit, but she does not think this is a good deal for the state of Florida.”
He said, “When you ask specifically what don’t you like, it changes every conversation. If you’re going out to buy a house, and the real estate agent show you three houses in your price range and meet all your criteria, you’ve got a choice. If you’re trying to buy a railroad, you don’t have a lot of choices out there. Every measure of fairness… looking at it from a financial standpoint, this is a responsible deal, in terms of buying that 61-mile corridor from CSX.”
Comments
These talking heads are out of touch. THe number one priority for Central florida is tax cuts. THis is a freight and developer bailout to the tune of 3 billion. THis is why Dockery willl defeat McCollum ( the ultimate insider).
Maybe these people should look at Amtrak current ridership along Deland to Sanford To Orlando. with nine out of ten seats empty. Sunrail will be run by the state and we all know how capable ALL state run projects are. Vote NO on SUNRAIL !!!!!!!!!!!!
AMTRAK is passenger rail NOT commuter rail.
If you rode AMTRAK to work say from Trenton,NJ to New York you would pay a higher price.I know I did it.
If you rode a COMMUTER line like NJT, which rode the same rails but made more stops,it was cheaper.
This is not a bail out. Get your head out of the sand.
Orlando is getting larger, the climate is changing,fuel will not last much longer, so GO SUN RAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another state operated mess Trirail - Expect the same from Sunrail. NO TO SUNRAIL ---- With the lack of a funding mechanism and expected cuts from the county commissioners, Tri-Rail is looking to operate with an $18 million deficit, caused by a loss of $3 million-plus per county and the $9 million in matching funds from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). After being asked by the board to present a new budget taking the $18 million loss into account, Tri-Rail officials also pointed out that it is in jeopardy of having to pay back monies - a total amount of $258 million - to the Federal Transit Administration for a double-tracking agreement that stipulated the system runs 48 trains a day in 20 minute intervals.
"If we drop back to 30 trains a day, we won't be fulfilling our agreement to the feds and, in theory, they could come back and sue for that money," Arnold said. "It's a mess. It definitely isn't paradise anymore."
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