Dockery: Scott’s Journey to the Dark Side is Complete

[FayeforCure]

Dockery: Scott’s journey to the dark side is complete
Uncategorized â€" posted by aaron deslatte on July, 1 2011 1:05 PM


TALLAHASSEE â€" Sen. Paula Dockery, a Lakeland Republican who sat on Gov. Rick Scott’s transition team, released a scathing response to his decision to green-light SunRail today, saying he had completed a “transformation from businessman to political insider.”

Dockery, a longtime supporter of high-speed rail who has been one of the fiercest SunRail critics, said the governor had made a decision to “betray the trust of the conservative electorate who put him in office.”

Here’s her full release:

“This morning, Governor Scott had his Secretary of Transportation announce that he will betray the trust of the conservative electorate who put him in office by moving forward with the least cost-efficient commuter rail project in the nation.  This decision has completed the governor’s transformation from businessman to political insider.

When the SunRail/CSX commuter project is viewed from a purely business vantage point, the project falls so far below what a savvy business owner would accept that it is quite baffling.

It is unclear if when making the decision the governor had a change of heart, if he simply succumbed to the desires of the big money special interests, or if he has a severe case of amnesia and thought that he was supposed to be representing CSX instead of Florida’s taxpayers. Governor Scott’s general counsel, a former CSX executive, admitted to giving blatantly false financial facts regarding High Speed Rail in front of the Florida Supreme Court. For that reason, it is overwhelmingly disappointing but not altogether surprising that the facts about SunRail, a sacred cow of special interests, would be ignored and the decision would be based upon arguments put forward by highly paid public relations consultants, using Floridians tax dollars.

The facts are as follows:

nationwide, this is the lowest rated project for cost-effectiveness by the federal government, low ridership estimates, excessive liability is transferred from a for-profit corporation onto all Florida citizens, and it is a blank check waiting to be written by the taxpayers for any and all cost-overruns and operating subsidies.

While ‘warnings’ were given to the local governments during Tuesday’s dog and pony show, this fact remains: the agreement between the federal government and the State of Florida clearly places the financial responsibility for all but $300 million of a $2.6 billion project squarely on the backs of Florida taxpayers.”

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2011/07/dockery-scotts-journey-to-the-dark-side-is-complete.html


How blatently ironic! What was it again that Scott repeated over and over again about HSR?

"The state would be on the hook for cost overruns," which in the case of HSR was patently untrue.

Now, for Sunrail, Rick Scott is absolutely willing to put the state on the hook for $2.3 billion!!!!!

[wsansewjs]

Basically, you are saying that it should be the other way around. Kill the Sunrail, but re-plan the HSR and approve it.

Florida, The Dysfunctional State (Send the "Sunshine State" back to California, please)

-Josh

[FayeforCure]

Basically, you are saying that it should be the other way around. Kill the Sunrail, but re-plan the HSR and approve it.

Florida, The Dysfunctional State (Send the "Sunshine State" back to California, please)

-Josh

So true!!

Florida's ($2.6 billion) HSR monies primarily went to CA. That's the kind of sunshine gift CA welcomes with open arms!!!

[danem]

Dockery, a longtime supporter of high-speed rail who has been one of the fiercest SunRail critics, said the governor had made a decision to “betray the trust of the conservative electorate who put him in office.”

Why would someone be for the HSR as planned but against the commuter rail in Orlando? The latter seems a lot more useful to me.

[FayeforCure]

Dockery, a longtime supporter of high-speed rail who has been one of the fiercest SunRail critics, said the governor had made a decision to “betray the trust of the conservative electorate who put him in office.”

Why would someone be for the HSR as planned but against the commuter rail in Orlando? The latter seems a lot more useful to me.

The two are not comparable.

1. One will benefit 2,000 commuters per day (Sunrail), whereas the other primarily relies on tourist ridership of 3 million per year which translates roughly to almost 30,000 riders per day

2. Sunrail is primarily paid for by state monies, whereas 95% of construction costs of HSR would be paid for by federal dollars.

So which one serves more people and costs our state least?

Aha, it's HSR!!!

[JeffreyS]

There is no reason to for the discussion to be HSR or Sunrail. They would have complimented one another if they were both built.  Yes the HSR designs needed to be improved but the rfp had not gone out yet so we do not even know how great it could have been.  Sunrail is a good state plan HSR is an ok national plan.  The Governor probably only will sign off on Suntrail to cover his foolishness of killing HSR.  Which he did to sway the tea party and be anti Obama not on the projects merits. Even if you do not like the HSR plan you have to admit it was foolish to kill it weeks before the private sector was allowed to weigh in.

[acme54321]

1. One will benefit 2,000 commuters per day (Sunrail), whereas the other primarily relies on tourist ridership of 3 million per year which translates roughly to almost 30,000 riders per day

What 3 Million tourists would be riding HSR between Tampa and Orlando?  I don't see that.  If you're in Orlando for vacation why would you want to go to Tampa?  What is there really to do there? Not much.  I could see people riding it to Cocoa Beach, but they train would have to go right out to the beach.

I thought HSR was for supposedly people commuting from Tampa to Orlando anyway?

Personally I think the first HSR line in FL needs to service the east coast I-95 corridor from Miami to points north out of Florida to bring the tourists in.  If you drive your car on vacation to Florida why would you want to get on a train and ride to Tampa or wherever leaving your car behind?  You wouldn't.

[thelakelander]

The HSR line was envisioned to connect South Florida with Orlando and Tampa.  The Orlando/Tampa segment got the nod first because it was shorter and cheaper to get off the ground.  However, the Orlando/Miami segment would have began construction and completed soon after the first segment was completed.  Holisitically, that thing would have been just fine with the connection between Orlando and South Florida as a part of it.  Unfortunately, we can't see past the trees when we plan and destroyed the thing before fully evaluating the pros and cons.

[acme54321]

Yeah I'm sure a connection to So Fla from Orlando would have helped a lot with ridership.  But I still think that we need to start with bringing people in from up north, maybe Atlanta, maybe straight to Orlando.  Then focus on building feeder lines out from there. 

[thelakelander]

While I agree (well not about going from ATL to Orlando by bypassing Jax), that could have been done in addition to dead HSR plan.

[Ocklawaha]

There is no reason to for the discussion to be HSR or Sunrail. They would have complimented one another if they were both built.  Yes the HSR designs needed to be improved but the rfp had not gone out yet so we do not even know how great it could have been.  Sunrail is a good state plan HSR is an ok national plan.  The Governor probably only will sign off on Suntrail to cover his foolishness of killing HSR.  Which he did to sway the tea party and be anti Obama not on the projects merits. Even if you do not like the HSR plan you have to admit it was foolish to kill it weeks before the private sector was allowed to weigh in.

As long as FHSR ignores Orlando's metro area and runs from it's airport, to an amusement park, to a parking garage, it would NEVER see 3 million passengers. In fact I'd bet money that it would be the biggest gift to CSX in history because within 10 years it's weed choked tracks would be good for nothing else. NOBODY is going to travel from most anywhere in the Orlando metro to that damn airport in order to go to Tampa. The numbers were completely pie-in-the-sky, while Sunrail's are understated. We'll never know what the RFP would have shown but the state had already made it clear that it's stupid freeway plan, from airport to garage was the way it was going to be built. FHSR would have brought down the house on rail projects for the next 40 years, giving the Republican-Tea Party types all the ammunition they needed to kill HSR, kill AMTRAK, and Kill COMMUTER RAIL.

OCKLAWAHA

[thelakelander]

^I believe commuter rail with express trains, in the center of I-4, would have worked.  However, instead of 5 stops between the cities, you would need at least 17 local stops. There's a string of major attractions immediately adjacent to I-4 between DT Tampa and Orlando's airport to make it worthwhile.  In addition, it follows existing commuter patterns between the three metros.  Just off the top of my head, here is a list of stops along the dead HSR corridor that would have made commuter rail along the same path feasible, imo.

(From DT Tampa to Orlando International Airport)

DT Tampa
Ybor City
Seminole Hard Rock Casino/Florida State Fairgrounds/Amphitheater
County Road 579 (Seffner)
Thonotosassa Road (Plant City)
County Line Road (Plant City/Lakeland)
US 98 North (Lakeland Square Mall) - (Lakeland)
USF Poly (Lakeland)
US 27/Posner Town Center (Four Corners)
Champions Gate/Reunion Resort
Celebration
Walt Disney World/Downtown Disney (Lake Buena Vista)
Orlando Premium Outlets/Palm Parkway (Lake Buena Vista)
Orange County Convention Center/Sea World/I-Drive (Orlando)
Florida Mall (Orlando)
Orlando International Airport (Orlando)

^That's a powerful list of existing destinations within walking distance of I-4.  Couple that with infill TOD and you have yourself a winner.  Want to go into downtown Orlando?  A quick switch to Sunrail at a Secaucus Junction style station near 527, will get you there.

Unfortunately, the focus was on HSR along a corridor that should have catered to everyday commuters just as much as tourists.  After all, locals work at all those theme parks, hotels, resorts and shopping malls too.  My hope was to get the infrastructure in and once HSR ridership failed to materialize, we'd be forced to revise operations to serve the needs of people who drive the I-4 corridor everyday.

[Ocklawaha]

You'd need some things to make it work, like coming off the CSX south of Orlando, so that the line would run on the CSX tracks (Sunrail) then veer off along I-4. You'd need clustering transit buses to meet the train at each stop, and rail connections to Amtrak, as well as St. Petersburg, Brooksville etc... Lastly you would soon need the CSX line anyway as a secondary. You'd need to run into Tampa Union Station, and find a way into Lakelands station at a point where the line might again leave the highway for the rails of CSX. All told, something like that, running THROUGH the Orlando metro would indeed work.

HSR wouildn't work without about half of the above improvements, most of which would slow it down, but load it up. 

As I've said all along, I love HSR but forget it between Tampa and Orlando when that is clearly commuter territory. It all goes to prove that Florida can't plan a workable railroad line.

OCKLAWAHA

[Ocklawaha]

If you were preceptive, you knew the game was rigged when FHSR turned what should have been it's primary feeder (Sunrail) into a whipping boy, and created an 'us' against 'them' war, ignored Tampa Union Station, ignored ORLANDO, and ignored Floridians. The only thing it would have gotten fast was bankruptcy, and the operator bouncing back across the pond, never to be heard from again.

Also all of the people pushing or wishing for some sort of Orlando hub are out of touch with railroading, geography and historic travel patterns in Florida. Frankly we'd be better off with a CAL-TRAIN type system of fast frequent corridor trains connecting everyone with the organic hub of the states rail system, from which SEHSR could someday take us on to Washington. Oh that hub? A place they call JACKSONVILLE. 

OCKLAWAHA

[thelakelander]

You'd need some things to make it work, like coming off the CSX south of Orlando, so that the line would run on the CSX tracks (Sunrail) then veer off along I-4. You'd need clustering transit buses to meet the train at each stop, and rail connections to Amtrak, as well as St. Petersburg, Brooksville etc... Lastly you would soon need the CSX line anyway as a secondary. You'd need to run into Tampa Union Station, and find a way into Lakelands station at a point where the line might again leave the highway for the rails of CSX. All told, something like that, running THROUGH the Orlando metro would indeed work.

HSR wouildn't work without about half of the above improvements, most of which would slow it down, but load it up. 

As I've said all along, I love HSR but forget it between Tampa and Orlando when that is clearly commuter territory. It all goes to prove that Florida can't plan a workable railroad line.

OCKLAWAHA

Both routes have their pros and cons. The CSX corridor hits DT Lakeland and Tampa's Union Station but there's nothing else along the route that would pack in the riders that missed destinations like Seminole Hard Rock Casino, Florida State Fairgrounds, Lakeland Square Mall, USF Poly, Posner Town Center, Celebration, Disney, I-drive/convention center and Florida Mall would.  Historically, it would be great to reopen stations in smaller cities like Plant City, Auburndale, Lake Alfred and Haines City again.  But to be honest all those cities have grown towards I-4 that last 40 years.  So with either route, the majority of the residents would have an equal drive to their nearest station.  In any event, I agree that HSR doesn't make sense if it was just going to run between Tampa and Orlando's airport, but that wasn't the plan.  The plan included a second line to Port Canaveral and down the east coast to West Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami.  That's where the lion's share of HSR riders would have come from.  Given the distance between the cities, commuter rail with limited stop express trains or an Amtrak corridor service should have always been the plan for the entire state.