SunRail sank Tri-Rail

[JeffreyS]

The effort to rescue the flailing SunRail project by tying its fate to the noble cause of saving South Florida's Tri-Rail system was shameless at best.

Tri-Rail, which serves a three-county area and has been in existence for 20 years, has built up its ridership to 15,000 daily commuters. Despite attempts over the past four years to become self-sufficient, Tri-Rail has not been given a dedicated funding source by the Legislature.

If passed, the Central Florida Commuter Rail System, also known as SunRail, would have eventually covered four counties. The project, over a 30-year period, would have cost $2.66 billion for a projected ridership of only 3,500 commuters, with the hopes that it would reach 13,000 riders in 20 years. It appears history was doomed to repeat itself, as no dedicated funding was being proposed for the operations and maintenance of this system, either.

When it became apparent that the SunRail legislation wasn't going to make it on its own, a plan was devised to try to force senators from South Florida into backing this costly project with low ridership in exchange for protecting their commuter rail, which was providing a service to a record number of riders.

This plan would have allowed a supermajority vote of each of the three county commissions to enact a $2 rental car surcharge that would need to be ratified through a public referendum within five years. When the SunRail legislation failed, $198 million of the $641 million cost to purchase the tracks from CSX was already included in the state budget despite our $6 billion revenue shortfall.

Sens. Nan Rich, D-Weston; Dave Aronberg, D- Greenacres; Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton; Dan Gelber, D- Miami Beach; Frederica Wilson, D-Miami Gardens; Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood and Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, joined me in crafting a letter urging the governor and the presiding officers to use a portion of those dollars to keep Tri-Rail operating at current capacity for the coming year.

These senators should be applauded for not putting taxpayers on the hook for a poorly negotiated deal that could not stand on its own merits and for fighting for funding for the Tri-Rail system that serves so many of South Florida's workers.

To tie funding for Tri-Rail to the problem-plagued SunRail was the same Hobson's Choice of demanding off-shore oil drilling in exchange for funding the popular land conservation program, Florida Forever. In the end, both deals met the same fate: Funding for good programs was sacrificed by legislative gamesmanship.

Paula Dockery represents the 15th District in the Florida Senate

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-tri-rail-forum-m060709pnjun07,0,4230161.story