Another rail project on verge of being derailed?

[thelakelander]

TALLAHASSEE -- 
On the heels of killing high-speed rail, Gov. Scott is taking aim at another train: SunRail.

Scott's got a big decision to make about SunRail and its ultimate effect on Polk County.

SunRail is a planned 61-mile commuter line between Daytona Beach and Orlando.

Lawmakers have already committed to spending more than $400 million to buy the track from the railroad company C-S-X.

But, Scott has put the project on hold.

"I want to make sure the community understands the fact that this money's coming out of their allocation out of the Florida Department of Transportation, and then, finally, making sure I understand what I can and can't do," Scott said.

The governor said he'll make a decision by the end of next week.

Privately, some SunRail supporters say if the governor does decide against the project, they'll consider suing. They say Scott has no authority to kill SunRail because the money's already been allocated and the contracts have already been signed.

http://www.baynews9.com/article/news/2011/june/266861/Another-rail-project-on-verge-of-being-derailed

[ProjectMaximus]

wow. it's like a crazy movie!! You can't make this stuff up...what this governor has done since taking office. Unbelievable. He's determined to ruin this state, which if you look at the silver lining, means he's gonna hand FL right back to Obama in 2012.

[JeffreyS]

Everyone in this state who did not vote against him should feel real shame.

[tufsu1]

Everyone in this state who did not vote against him should feel real shame.

well a new poll (by a conservative leaning group) says he's not as unpopular as we might think...only 51% disapprove while 42% approve of his job performance

[jcjohnpaint]

I would question that poll.  He is not going to move up that fast in his approval rating in a few months unless he changed his way, which he has not. 

[Jdog]

NY Times front page article today regarding Sunrail:




ORLANDO, Fla. â€" Here in sun-parched Central Florida, workers are ready to break ground this summer for a 61-mile commuter rail project that the federal government ranks as one of the least cost-effective mass transit efforts in the nation. 

With a price tag of $1.2 billion at completion, the rail line is expected to serve just 2,150 commuters a day when it starts operating in three years. It will not link to the Orlando airport or Disney World, among the region’s biggest traffic generators. Florida’s governor is even considering killing the project, worried that local government officials will rebel if they have to cover any shortfalls at the fare box.

But the so-called SunRail project has survived, at least so far, a testament to the ability of one congressman to help push through hundreds of millions of dollars in federal spending, even at a time of deep concern over ballooning federal deficits.

Representative John L. Mica, a Florida Republican and chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has spent years badgering federal agencies, bullying state officials, blocking Amtrak naysayers and trying to bypass federal restrictions to build support and squash opposition to the commuter line.

While Congress is often stalled or bitterly divided in dealing with some of the biggest issues facing the nation, its members are often remarkably successful in promoting industries or more parochial concerns. Mr. Mica’s championing of the SunRail project has won praise among many officials and business leaders here, who say it is vital to the future of the traffic-clogged region.

But skeptics question whether Mr. Mica’s real goal is to give a taxpayer-financed gift to CSX, the freight rail giant and a generous Mica campaign donor, which would get $432 million for its tracks and for upgrades to tracks it owns elsewhere in the state. Other Florida businesses close to Mr. Mica also stand to benefit if the project is built.

“His dedication to SunRail is not for mass transit â€" it is for helping CSX to get government funds for its private freight lines,” said State Senator Paula Dockery, a Republican and a chief critic of the project.

The congressman is unapologetic about SunRail. “Everybody has different vested interests,” Mr. Mica said in an interview. “But you look at what is being proposed on paper, and it just make sense.”

Mr. Mica first proposed the commuter system in 1992 after he won his first race for the House after a career that included stints as a real estate developer, a lobbyist and chief of staff to Senator Paula Hawkins, Republican of Florida. The CSX track, which for decades has also been used by Amtrak, already connects a string of communities north and south of Orlando. Commuter rail, Mr. Mica argued, could carry many more passengers and be far less costly than adding a single lane to an Interstate highway.

“For as long as I have been in Congress, Central Florida has been sending its mass transit money to New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and now to other cities â€" that is where our gas tax dollars have gone,” he said.

But getting even a small fraction of the 2.3 million people living along the rail corridor to ride trains may be difficult, state officials acknowledge. Separating drivers from their cars would be like forcing Mickey and Minnie Mouse to divorce.

The federal government, wary of financing boondoggle projects, has strict rules on how ridership projections are calculated. Florida’s Department of Transportation, mindful of Mr. Mica’s keen interest, looked for ways to push up the number of projected riders, efforts that federal regulators found dubious.

Florida officials, for example, assumed that large numbers of commuters heading from one point in the suburbs to another would be willing to undertake a bus-to-rail-to-bus trip, a travel pattern that federal officials told them “cannot be found on any existing commuter rail service in the United States.”

Mr. Mica describes himself as a fiscal conservative, arguing that “all taxpayer-funded infrastructure projects must be wise investments.” But he has pulled strings in Washington to get special consideration for the project.

That included at least $4 million in federal earmarks he lined up to buy the first rail cars for the project â€" at least a decade before any trains would run. The federal grants, approved in 2003, effectively forced Florida officials to buy experimental rail cars â€" now temporarily in use in Miami â€" from a Colorado company whose top executive has been a campaign contributor to Mr. Mica.

In 2008, Mr. Mica helped insert language into a federal highway bill that, at least in SunRail’s case, eliminated a Bush administration ban on federal financing for rail projects that did not meet certain cost-effectiveness standards. The Obama administration has since eased the eligibility rules, clearing the way for federal support for the project.

“He has been the single, clarion voice for commuter rail in central Florida for 20 years,” said Mayor Ken Bradley of Winter Park.

But opposition had started to brew around Central Florida, including in Mr. Mica’s hometown of Winter Park. Beth Dillaha, a former regional manager at a vitamin store chain, had never been involved in politics but was disturbed at what she heard.

The 61-mile project would be built in two phases, the first covering 31 miles mostly north of Orlando. During most of the day, the train would run only every two hours, with no weekend service. Even during rush hour, it would run only every 30 minutes. Initially, it is expected to serve 4,300 riders a day (about 2,150 commuters taking round trips).

If fares do not cover operating costs after seven years, Winter Park and other communities with stations, which will already subsidize the construction of the system, would be required to make up any revenue shortfalls.

“This is basically an open checkbook,” Ms. Dillaha said. Questions were also raised by some Florida officials and Amtrak about who would cover the insurance damages if there were an accident. Ms. Dillaha, who was inspired to run for a seat on the Winter Park City Commission, and other critics grew even more skeptical as they examined the plan more closely.

Campaign finance records show that many of the contractors that worked on the project, including an engineering firm, Parsons Brinckerhoff, have been major contributors to Mr. Mica’s re-election campaigns. So have businesses and individuals who could benefit from the project, including ICI Homes, a real estate developer that owns several sites close to a proposed SunRail station, and Florida Hospital in Orlando, whose $250 million expansion plan is contingent on getting a station on its property.

Executives at ICI Homes, or their relatives, have contributed nearly $70,000 to Mr. Mica over the last decade. An additional $35,000 in donations have come from staff members and lawyers at GrayRobinson, a Florida law firm lobbying for the project.

The most pointed questions have been raised about the $432 million deal with CSX. Florida officials agreed to let the freight company use the tracks it would sell to SunRail for its own trains at night. They also committed to pay for improvements to a second freight rail line owned by CSX, which would shift freight traffic in Florida to a more rural route, allowing more freight trains to run at a faster speed. Because of cost overruns, that deal might ultimately cost the state an estimated $640 million.

Ms. Dockery, who led efforts to at least temporarily block state financing for the SunRail project, has suggested that Mr. Mica has, all along, been seeking to help CSX.

Mr. Mica, in an interview, said he realized that the package would help the freight company, which is based in Jacksonville. The company’s executives, including Michael J. Ward, its chairman, have donated nearly $60,000 personally or through the company to Mr. Mica and his political causes in the last decade. But both Mr. Mica and a CSX spokesman disputed any suggestion that the package was a sweetheart deal for the company.

“Obviously, they get a benefit,” Mr. Mica said. “But this is one of the best deals I have seen for the taxpayers.”

Federal transit officials â€" after at first expressing open skepticism about SunRail â€" have recently grown more supportive. The project is still ranked last in cost effectiveness by the federal Department of Transportation among all projects in final design in the country. But SunRail ranks better in other categories, including its potential to drive economic development and improve the region’s air quality, giving it an overall “medium” rating that allows for federal support.

Still, Florida’s new governor, Rick Scott, a businessman who drew Tea Party support, came into office in January unconvinced that the project was worthwhile.

He froze four contracts, worth a total of $235 million, to build rail stations and buy the first full fleet of rail cars and locomotives. He also put off the payment to CSX for its tracks, pending a final decision expected this week.

Mr. Mica has campaigned hard to win over the governor, meeting with him and soliciting local government officials to reiterate their support for the project. He also hinted that he might hold up other federal aid, telling a radio news reporter in April that money for dredging the Miami port might be at risk.

“I get to authorize the project for the deepening at the federal level,” Mr. Mica said. “Right now I’m studying them very closely, as the governor is studying the rail project very closely.”

Mr. Mica said he was determined, one way or another, to get the trains running. “I am like the guy with the broom and the shovel at the end of the parade,” he said, “trying to keep it moving.”

[acme54321]

Sources: SunRail is back on track
     
By Dan Tracy, Orlando Sentinel

10:16 a.m. EDT, July 1, 2011
The SunRail commuter train in Central Florida is a go, several sources told the Orlando Sentinel today.

Ananth Prasad, secretary of the state Department of Transportation, is expected to make the official announcement during a Tallahassee news conference at 11 a.m.

The sources said staff members of Gov. Rick Scott are calling top Central Florida leaders about SunRail this morning. They asked not to be identified because they feared upstaging Prasad.


The decision sets the stage for SunRail to begin operations as early as May 2014, running between DeBary in Volusia County, downtown Orlando and the south edge of Orange County. Within another couple of years it supposed to go to DeLand in Volusia and Poinciana in Osceola County.


The approval ends the region's 30-year quest to devise a transportation alternative to cars and buses. Previous attempts ranging from magnetically levitated trains to light rail options have failed

While Scott closely held his decision, he did leave hints that he would give the go-ahead, most prominently by setting aside more than $269 million for SunRail in the state budget that takes effect today.

That money largely is slated for CSX, the Jacksonville-based railroad company that owns the tracks the state would buy for the commuter train.

The state Department of Transportation is in charge of getting SunRail on the move and will oversee operations for the first seven years. After that, the local governments would take control.

An estimated 4,200 construction jobs is supposed to be created by the train, along with an untold amount of development planned around the 17 stops on the 61-mile system. One of the biggest expansion plans revolves around the Florida Hospital campus just north of downtown Orlando.

More than $70 million in taxpayer dollars has already been spent gearing up for the project, first proposed in 2005 by former Gov. Jeb Bush.



http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-sunrail-scott-decision-20110701,0,5568328.story

[Ocklawaha]

Okay kids I'm 10 for 10 now...

Next up on the crystal ball will be some movement on South East High Speed Rail

OCKLAWAHA

[FayeforCure]

Government bought and paid for by private enterprise..........and no, I do not mean small businesses that are the engine to (70%?) of all jobs, I mean the mega corporations that employ countless lobbyists in addition to outright funding (buying) our congressmen as the NY Times article clearly shows:

Campaign finance records show that many of the contractors that worked on the project, including an engineering firm, Parsons Brinckerhoff, have been major contributors to Mr. Mica’s re-election campaigns. So have businesses and individuals who could benefit from the project, including ICI Homes, a real estate developer that owns several sites close to a proposed SunRail station, and Florida Hospital in Orlando, whose $250 million expansion plan is contingent on getting a station on its property.

Executives at ICI Homes, or their relatives, have contributed nearly $70,000 to Mr. Mica over the last decade. An additional $35,000 in donations have come from staff members and lawyers at GrayRobinson, a Florida law firm lobbying for the project.

The most pointed questions have been raised about the $432 million deal with CSX. Florida officials agreed to let the freight company use the tracks it would sell to SunRail for its own trains at night. They also committed to pay for improvements to a second freight rail line owned by CSX, which would shift freight traffic in Florida to a more rural route, allowing more freight trains to run at a faster speed. Because of cost overruns, that deal might ultimately cost the state an estimated $640 million.

Ms. Dockery, who led efforts to at least temporarily block state financing for the SunRail project, has suggested that Mr. Mica has, all along, been seeking to help CSX.

Mr. Mica, in an interview, said he realized that the package would help the freight company, which is based in Jacksonville. The company’s executives, including Michael J. Ward, its chairman, have donated nearly $60,000 personally or through the company to Mr. Mica and his political causes in the last decade. But both Mr. Mica and a CSX spokesman disputed any suggestion that the package was a sweetheart deal for the company.

“Obviously, they get a benefit,” Mr. Mica said. “But this is one of the best deals I have seen for the taxpayers.”

Federal transit officials â€" after at first expressing open skepticism about SunRail â€" have recently grown more supportive. The project is still ranked last in cost effectiveness by the federal Department of Transportation among all projects in final design in the country. But SunRail ranks better in other categories, including its potential to drive economic development and improve the region’s air quality, giving it an overall “medium” rating that allows for federal support.

It reminds me of a saying I once read:

If elections were effective (for the citizens) it would be made illegal

Part of that is an ongoing effort by Republicans to do everything they can to eliminate people from voting.

Luckily, the powers that be allowed us to elect Alvin Brown............such a breath of fresh air. Hopefully we don't just get "change in name only" as we did with Obama.

[FayeforCure]

Since CSX already got their excessive pay..........this is no surprise:

Rick Scott approves SunRail



By Janet Zink, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Posted: Jul 01, 2011 11:11 AM


TALLAHASSEE â€" In an affront to his tea party base, Gov. Rick Scott on Friday announced he will allow SunRail, a commuter rail project in Central Florida, to go forward.

"This decision was made after a long, deliberative process," Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Ananth Prasad said in a morning news conference. "All stakeholders will be held accountable."

The controversial, $1.28 billion, 61.5 mile Central Florida project has been on hold since January, when Scott started a review of $238 million worth of SunRail contracts.

The project is a high priority for Central Florida business and political leaders, who say the line is a job creator and economic development tool that offers a mass transit solution to congested roads. Projections put ridership at about 2,150 passengers a day when SunRail opens.

Prasad called SunRail a "judgment day" project. If it fails, it could stop future commuter trains from coming to Florida, he said.

The decision is at odds with Scott's position on another rail project.

Early this year, he rejected $2.4 billion in federal funding for a bullet train connecting Tampa to Orlando, saying he was concerned about potential costs to Florida taxpayers. But Scott has said SunRail, which connects Orlando to neighboring communities, is different from high-speed rail because the state's commitment is capped and Central Florida governments will be responsible for much of the ongoing financial obligations.

Earlier this week, Scott dispatched Prasad to meetings with Orlando area residents and elected officials to emphasize that they'll be on the hook if the SunRail fails. And if local governments can't cover the costs, the money will come out of the region's state transportation dollars, which means there will be less money for roads and bridges, Prasad said.

SunRail has backing from a cast of powerful Central Florida politicians, including House Speaker Dean Cannon and U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park, who is chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

After rejecting SunRail in two full legislative sessions because of concerns about a state payment to freight operator CSX Corp. to use the company's tracks, lawmakers approved the project in a special session in December 2009 called by Gov. Charlie Crist to lure federal money for high speed rail.

Agreements call for the federal government to pay for half of SunRail's $615 million construction costs. The state and local governments will pay 25 percent each. Florida taxpayers will also pay $432 million to CSX for the right to share Orlando-area tracks and upgrade the company's freight operations in other parts of Florida. The state also has liability for any accidents that occur on the shared tracks.

Florida and local taxpayers will split payments for construction cost overruns. The state will cover operating losses for the first seven years of SunRail's operation. Local governments are responsible for operating losses after that.

A grant funding agreement with the U.S. Federal Transit Administration requires trains to be running by May 2014.

Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or (850) 224-7263.

[Last modified: Jul 01, 2011 11:15 AM]

[thelakelander]

So I assume CSX will now spend $40 million in their profits on upgrading the rail facilities for JAXPORT?  Also, this means commuter rail to Clay County is a lot more viable than it was yesterday, from a capacity standpoint.

[fsujax]

commuter rail to green cove springs....all aboard!

[Ocklawaha]

Since CSX already got their excessive pay..........this is no surprise:

So I'm really trying to understand this, you were all for a railroad deal that half the railroaders in the country were making jokes about, and you are against a railroad deal that will give the prisoners of I-4 some badly needed choices.  I get the feeling that you would support a HSR enterprise of untold billions running from Green Cove Springs to Chiefland as long as Mica said it was useless.

Really Faye, the CSX deal could have, should have, been much better for the state, but in the end we will have the opportunity for massive passenger rail expansion in this state as a result.  There will also be a progressive trend toward the complete purchase of the 'A' line from CSX, from JAX to TPA.  Add in 3 commuter railroads, each operating 30-90 miles out and suddenly there are no gaps between Jacksonville and the bay... commuter rail becomes corridor rail... becomes a prime feeder to SEHSR.

The FEC project will move too, but it may or may not be under governor 'tea party Scott' (whom I believe is a distant Cousin! - man talk about sucidal thinking) But its strong enough to stand alone and if the state walks away Amtrak itself might be persuaded to make the move anyway.

Meanwhile did I hear a JAXTRAX commuter train this morning? Right after Scott signed on the dotted line?  Illusion? or apparition?.  Or a sweet illusory dream... And the K5LA on the P40CH sounded AWESOME!

TRAIN'S COMING!

OCKLAWAHA

[FayeforCure]

Really Faye, the CSX deal could have, should have, been much better for the state, but in the end we will have the opportunity for massive passenger rail expansion in this state as a result.  There will also be a progressive trend toward the complete purchase of the 'A' line from CSX, from JAX to TPA.  Add in 3 commuter railroads, each operating 30-90 miles out and suddenly there are no gaps between Jacksonville and the bay... commuter rail becomes corridor rail... becomes a prime feeder to SEHSR.

I absolutely agree with your bolded portion above. With better efficiency we can get far more done, and serve more passengers. And yes, there is always a silver lining to an overly expensive project............that it is the start of something bigger.

But the investment in Sunrail is more than $500,000 per rider, and absolutely excessive!

($1.2 billion for about 2,000  daily riders)

All cryonism begets us something, but is it in the best interest of the tax-payer to overpay? NO, a resounding NO!!!

BTW your statement:

I get the feeling that you would support a HSR enterprise of untold billions running from Green Cove Springs to Chiefland as long as Mica said it was useless.

is out of line.......

Here is an instance where I whole-heartedly agree with John Mica:

Representative John Mica, a Florida Republican and the new chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told reporters Wednesday that he had tried but failed to talk Mr. Scott out of turning down the project.

Mr. Mica said the “federal government has done everything” it can, including agreeing to put up 90 percent of the rail link’s financing. He added that it “defies logic” that Mr. Scott would cancel the rail line before the state had received bids on the project.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/us/17rail.html

[thelakelander]

Does the $1.2 billion include costs needed to upgrade the S-Line and to facilitate the construction of the Winter Haven yard?  If so, what's the estimated ROI and job creation on the freight side of the deal?