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In Florida, The Fourth Time Could Be the Charm
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Reasons to hope for speedy improvements to make rail travel more convenient in the Sunshine State.
Hundreds were in attendance at the Florida Department of Transportation’s rail forum on December 2nd in Orlando, including every manufacturer of railroad vehicles in the world and many other industry professionals. The conference came in advance of the Florida legislature’s historic vote to invest in a new commuter line in the Orlando area and make a down-payment towards Orlando-Tampa-Miami high-speed rail. This is the fourth time that Florida has tried to jumpstart construction of a new system of fast trains, but the momentum seems to have built to a crescendo this go-round.
DOT officials speaking at the forum emphasized that these investments are only a first step. The state is looking eventually to buy new trainsets capable of 220-mph operation, though speeds on the initial line segment (Orlando-Tampa) will be limited to 168 mph. Though the DOT is currently operating under a less-than-desirable framework of running this segment down the median of Interstate 4, precluding downtown-to-downtown service to existing stations between Orlando and Tampa, the final routing will largely be determined by the contractor that makes the best bid.
Beyond the initial start-up, the state plans not to contribute a penny towards the service. The DOT wants future capital funding to come from federal grants, while the private sector covers the operating costs. It remains to be seen whether this scheme will prove viable once work begins.
Here’s hoping that the encouraging news out of the Sunshine State this month will lead to real results. Florida still lags far behind many states that have made serious strides in passenger rail over the past two decades, but its involvement is better late than never. While many aspects of the plan still need to be worked out, rail advocates cannot afford to make the perfect the enemy of the good. If this first phase is successful, we should begin to see incremental progress towards fast, frequent service connecting all the peninsula’s population centers that will begin to chip away at the state’s worsening traffic and suburban sprawl.
—Malcolm Kenton
Posted by Malcolm Kenton
Tags: fast, florida, florida dot, frequent, funding, high-speed rail, improvements, rail, results, sunrail, trains, travel,©2010 National Association of Railroad Passengers | » NARP website
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