Florida High Speed Rail Officially Announced

[thelakelander]

Orlando Conference Identifies High-Speed Rail's Success Factors

Industry experts say focus needs to be on safety, environmental benefits, convenience.

ORLANDO | High-speed rail's success in Florida and the rest of the United States lies in effectively promoting and selling it as a safe, convenient, environmentally friendly mode of transportation.

That was the message about 250 consultants and vendors attending the High Speed Rail 2010 conference in Orlando were told Thursday.

But to do that, leaders have to communicate openly with the public and plan routes and station locations that will create jobs, revitalize communities and get people where they want to go efficiently.

The two-day conference at the Hilton on International Drive was organized by US High Speed Rail Association of Washington, D.C., to promote high-speed rail projects across the United States.

Thursday's conference featured presentations by Florida public officials, high-speed rail company representatives and legal, financial, development, engineering and media experts. They discussed how Florida's project - and any other high-speed rail project - should be planned, promoted, built and used for economic development.

Ed Turanchik, a longtime Tampa leader for improved transit, said the way Florida handles the project is crucial.

"Florida high-speed rail will determine the success of high-speed rail in the United States," he said.

Phase One of the high-speed rail, which just received transportation stimulus money, will run between Orlando International Airport and downtown Tampa. In between will be only three stops: the Orange County Civic Center, Celebration and a stop in Polk County.

"We are the state that can build it faster than anyone else in the country," said Nazih Haddad, chief operating officer for the Florida Department of Transportation's Florida Rail Enterprise.

Haddad said state officials are still consulting with the Federal Railroad Administration on technical details, but said he hoped to "have something on the street in six months."

The Polk Transportation Planning Organization board recently recommended the USF Polytechnic location as Polk County's high-speed rail station site, with the Kathleen Road area as its second choice.

Outside the meeting room, companies that operate high- speed rail systems in Korea, Spain and elsewhere had set up tables with models of their trains.

Speaker after speaker touted the benefits of high-speed rail as everything from reducing greenhouse gas emissions to reviving Florida's economy.

The location for the conference appeared to be a nod to Florida's seeming head start in developing the first high-speed rail route in the United States.

But it takes more than good intentions to make the system work, said Ceceila Ribalaygua, a Spanish academic whose research has focused on high-speed rail in Europe.

Ribalaygua, who is associated with the Universidad de Cantabria, said it's important to put stations in the right locations, where there's room for economic development and where the transit infrastructure is in place.

In addition, communities need to make stations architecturally inviting and to come up with ways to package high-speed rail with tourism and business travel, a concept she called "gray matter travel, not goods."

"The train won't help by itself; you need strategies to take advantage of it," she said.

One key strategy ahead of the project is to make sure it doesn't lose public support, said Michael Kehs of Hill & Knowlton, a public relations company that has been hired by the US High Speed Rail Association.

Although the project has a lot of things going for it, Kehs said, very little is really known about the public's support.

Superficially there appears to be support, but one of the challenges is to make sure people understand that high-speed rail is different from commuter rail, light rail and freight rail, he said.

Kehs said an aggressive public information campaign is necessary to define the project in the public's mind and to deal quickly with misinformation.

He said there are other potential obstacles that include fiscal conservatives who object to the spending, people who are uncomfortable with the foreign involvement in the project and disputes over land-use and environmental issues.

Mary Hamill of Global 5 Communications, a firm specializing in transportation issues, said it will be important for Florida to be transparent about public funding and jobs.

In addition, it will be important to use Web sites to direct passengers to other transit connections and to form partnerships to promote tourism and business travel and to provide customer service.

Today's agenda includes a seminar on real estate development around rail stations. The luncheon speaker is U.S. Congressman John Mica, R-Winter Park.

http://www.theledger.com/article/20100304/NEWS/3045084/1410?Title=Orlando-Conference-Identifies-High-Speed-Rail-s-Success-Factors

[tufsu1]

Only $900 to attend this 2 day conference...what a deal!

[buckethead]

Fast trains are cool . . . and very expensive
By CARL HIAASEN

Of all the ways Florida could blow through $1.25 billion in federal recovery funds, a bullet train is certainly the flashiest.

Connecting Tampa, Orlando and Miami by high-speed rail is a scheme that's been chugging around for decades, and the prospects for profitability are the same today as they always were: Nil.

The money delivered by President Barack Obama last week in Tampa should have come with a note: ``Here's a gift from Uncle Sam. Now go build yourselves something you can't possibly afford to operate.''

Almost every passenger rail service in this country bleeds red ink and requires massive public subsidies, from Miami-Dade's infamous Metrorail to long-struggling Amtrak.

That didn't discourage Florida officials from eagerly petitioning the Obama administration for stimulus money to fund a sleek high-speed train.

The $1.25 billion grant announced by the president was the ``down payment'' for an 84-mile leg between Tampa and Orlando, braking at major tourist attractions along the way. The second phase, 240 miles, would link Orlando and Miami.

``An attractive and competitive transportation alternative for residents and visitors'' is what the government calls it. An extravagant fantasy is what it really is.

Fast trains are very cool, and these babies will streak along at average speeds of 168 mph to 186 mph. Unfortunately, such a high-tech rail system can't pay for itself.

Ridership depends on friendly ticket pricing. Consequently, every mile traveled on the bullet train will end up being bankrolled by public dollars.

Thirteen years ago, when the debate was in high gear, a national transit consultant released a 55-page report predicting that a high-speed railway between Central Florida and Miami would be a fiscal disaster.

Wendell Cox of the James Madison Institute said that not enough people would take the train, partly because it was cheaper for families to rent a car and drive the same routes. He estimated that the high-speed rail would cost Floridians between $14 billion and $39 billion in ongoing subsidies.

Unlike the U.S. government, states can't print their own money. Florida's Constitution requires a balanced budget, which means that running the bullet train would siphon precious funds away from schools, social services and public works projects.

Despite the manifest drawbacks, the dream of connecting South Florida and Central Florida by modern rail has refused to stall. Between 1996 and 1998, the Legislature appropriated $77 million just for bullet-train research.

Over the years, the project has had avid proponents in both parties, including Bob Graham and, more recently Sen. Bill Nelson and Gov. Charlie Crist.

An exception was Jeb Bush, who as governor led a charge that rallied voters to repeal a constitutional amendment authorizing funding of a bullet train. Bush believed the project was too costly, and he was right.

In those days, supporters touted high-speed rail as a way of easing highway congestion and spurring commerce between the state's key urban centers. Now, with unemployment sky-high, the bullet train is being hyped more as a jobs program.

There's no doubt that building a railway will put thousands of people to work for a few years. But, once the project is finished, it is estimated to leave only 600 permanent jobs.

Weigh those against the enormous long-term cost of maintaining and subsidizing a 324-mile train system, which will necessitate cutting or scrapping other state programs that currently employ hundreds of workers.

To be sure, high-speed rail will be a windfall for the consultants, developers and builders involved in the construction phases. The state agency handing out the contracts is the Department of Transportation, which has long pushed for a bullet train.

If you know anything about the inside politics of mass transit, the thought of entrusting $1.25 billion in stimulus money to the DOT is heart-stopping. Good luck trying to keep tabs on it all.

True, many capital projects being launched by recovery funds -- bridges, roads, levies -- will provide only temporary boosts to local economies. Yet you can also argue that, for somebody who's out of work, a construction job lasting six months or a year is better than no job at all.

The problem with the bullet-train boondoggle is that the back-end costs will smother the front-end benefits, and create a perpetual sucking drain on Florida's frail budget.

We'd be better off using the money to pave potholes.


http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/01/31/1454259/fast-trains-are-cool-and-very.html

[JeffreyS]

I am no big fan of this first leg of the Florida HSR but CARL HIAASEN doesn't have a clue as to what the problems with it are. His we should spend the money on roads rant is just dumb. As if roads pay for themselves. He clearly did not spend five minutes trying to inform himself on the subject.

[buckethead]

I am no big fan of this first leg of the Florida HSR but CARL HIAASEN doesn't have a clue as to what the problems with it are. His we should spend the money on roads rant is just dumb. As if roads pay for themselves. He clearly did not spend five minutes trying to inform himself on the subject.

I read that as tongue in cheek. (paving potholes would be as cost effective)
Are you saying you disagree with the basic premise of the article: HSR will be a finacial debauchle?

[tufsu1]

Here's a more serious version asking similar questions

http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=463426

[JeffreyS]

I am no big fan of this first leg of the Florida HSR but CARL HIAASEN doesn't have a clue as to what the problems with it are. His we should spend the money on roads rant is just dumb. As if roads pay for themselves. He clearly did not spend five minutes trying to inform himself on the subject.

I read that as tongue in cheek. (paving potholes would be as cost effective)
Are you saying you disagree with the basic premise of the article: HSR will be a financial debauchle?

It is a tough call.  I am kind of on his side that this isn't a great place to start. I just don't agree with the "if it isn't going to pay for itself it shouldn't be done".  Transit is one of the few government run programs that attempts to pay for itself and somehow that makes it worse fiscally than those that generate zero revenue.  I want transit I just feel a radical Amtrak higher speed rail expansion throughout the state would give us more bang for the buck.  Or perhaps streetcar projects in the core of our cities would give us smarter growth and save money in many areas.

[urbanlibertarian]

Roads and highways don't make a profit but the subsidies for them in $$ per passenger mile are tiny compared to rail.  Air travel subsidies are even tinier in $$ per passenger mile and don't need much use of eminent domain for ROW aquisition.  With the goverment in charge of it I expect this HSR experiment to turn out a lot like the Skyway has.

[buckethead]

I agree with that assessment. He should have refrained from the "profitability" mantra. Otherwise, his article makes sense.

I don't recall much praise for Jeb Bush from him in the past.

[tufsu1]

Potential rail hub at OIA?

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/os-goaa-high-speed-rail-20100317,0,1341824.story

[Ocklawaha]

Roads and highways don't make a profit but the subsidies for them in $$ per passenger mile are tiny compared to rail.  Air travel subsidies are even tinier in $$ per passenger mile and don't need much use of eminent domain for ROW aquisition.  With the goverment in charge of it I expect this HSR experiment to turn out a lot like the Skyway has.

Really? Who have you been reading? There was a story by the highway lobby that stated how much cheaper airlines were then rail, but it's so full of holes it won't hold up to any serious investigation. Actually the per passenger subsidy in the USA for airline passengers runs from around $40 to as high as $600.  Even the most conservative think tanks place Amtrak at about $35 and they make no attempt to catalog high density urban rail.

I would agree with you that Orlando has seen too many rainbows and this particular project, on these particular routes smell worse then the south end of the proverbial northbound mule. Building a hub at OIA makes about as much sense as JTA building our own "transportation center" in Lawtey. If we tried something that stupid, would the press then jump onboard to explain how many millions are going to ride it to Gainesville? If your city is called MICKEY  I mean Orlando, I guess it does.


OCKLAWAHA

[CS Foltz]

Yeah buddy! Rat Rail here we come! This makes about as much sense as the coming OIA HUB.........watch! The name should be change to the "Central Florida $kyway"!

[urbanlibertarian]

Ock, not per passenger.  Per passenger mile.

[thelakelander]

Here are a few renderings of the Orlando airport station:

[tufsu1]

Politicking for the next phase is in full swing

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/04/1611582/florida-pledges-to-seek-funds.html