SunRail

[JRS1]

Mica is at OIA at 11:30am news conference

[leclercnlakenona]

Since being new to the city of Orlando; I'm not that up to date on the whole commuter issue other than finding out that the project seems like its DOA. Question: All the money that was set aside for this project including the widening of I4 with 4 additional lanes; that's also dead? Gone? This is the only city where I lived that didn't have some sort of mass transit system and for the first time in 20 years I have to buy myself a extra vehicle, which I'm not keen on doing. Even though I love living in Florida, I sometimes wonder why I moved to Orlando. Very frustrating.

[FLheat]

Since being new to the city of Orlando; I'm not that up to date on the whole commuter issue other than finding out that the project seems like its DOA. Question: All the money that was set aside for this project including the widening of I4 with 4 additional lanes; that's also dead? Gone? This is the only city where I lived that didn't have some sort of mass transit system and for the first time in 20 years I have to buy myself a extra vehicle, which I'm not keen on doing. Even though I love living in Florida, I sometimes wonder why I moved to Orlando. Very frustrating.

Yeah, if we don't act this year, all those millions will go to Alaska to build another bridge to nowhere.

[JRS1]

apparently, there is a meeting going on all day at OIA on this issue; we probably won't know anything at least until the end of the day today...

[steve_o]

Why shouldn't CSX be considered the bad guy in all this ?

Thought this was interesting. A quote from a Jacksonville rail consultant (from the railroads perspective) that I borrowed from Skyscraperpage.com:

It's as if you owned a family chain of "Dollar Stores". Just for the sake of ideals here lets say the Five and Dime stores were dying off nationwide. You hung on, bought out the remains of a local group and started a whole new marketing plan. Boom! Business suddenly exploded, you went from 8 stores to 28 stores in 7 Northeast Florida Counties. Your income is in the millions and you've attracted the interest of big box retailers everywhere. Suddenly, as if by magic, the state of Florida passes a strange new social medical plan. The Leadership in Jacksonville and the North Florida counties have decided they fall far short of the required number of pharmacys in order to qualify under the states new medical plan. YOU are informed that Tallahassee and Jacksonville as well as a group of local towns have decided to place a CVS Pharmacy department in every one of your stores. You MUST make space for them, within your regular business. Oh the State is going to pay you for it, but with business busting at the seams, it hardly seems possible. We'll even toss in some new stores over near highway 301 says Tallahassee. This ought to balance the business space you lose down in Orange Park and Palatka. Oh and by the way, if a CVS customer falls in your doorway, its YOUR FAULT, YOU PAY! Off you go to the attorneys, soon they are taking the fight to the capitol itself. "PLEASE UNDERSTAND" you beg, "We want to help, we just don't see why we should pay... Can't we split the costs? What if our store catches fire? Will we have to pay for the losses over at CVS? That hardly seems fair either..."

Therein lays the problem in a nut-shell. We need to understand what we're asking CSX to do, we need to understand we are asking for the virtual abandonment of 150 miles of 79 mile per hour railroad. At the same time we are all ticked off because the railroad is moving things around with a "windfall" of money from the taxpayers. WINDFALL? or more like DEADFALL! This knife will be felt for years to come within the industry and the quicker Florida gets it and swallows it's own Transit Dead medicine in locating a cure, the better for Orlando, Lakeland, Winter Haven, Tampa and most of all for JACKSONVILLE!

[bulldogger]

I read the language of the CSX immunity deal and it didn't sound like they were completely immune to liability when it solely involved their freight trains. It seemed to make sense to me. I think the lawyers group is being ridiculous in that they want more than 40% of a settlement involving accidents. So if a cap of $200M is set (or $240M), they want the ability to claim $80M of that for "reasonable" attorney's fees. That just seems like too much to me. Way too much greed when they aren't the ones suffering if you ask me.

[Dale]

John Mica has just announced that President Bush will sign a transportation bill, next week, which will secure federal funds for the project for another year. Mica is supremely confident that commuter rail will go forward and projects no more than a six month delay in the start-up date.

FWIW, I'm not inclined to sympathize with either CSX or the trail lawyers.

[Go Gators]

Special Session. It's looking like it could happen...

[pip]

Special Session. It's looking like it could happen...

Thats the first good news in a while.

[prahaboheme]

Special Session. It's looking like it could happen...

Special session when?

[Migman]

Special session when?

Yeah, what's the deal with it?

[Go Gators]

Special session when?

To early to tell. Probably some time this summer.

[mgsports]

It's not like it's going to connect the whole state of Florida just Central Florida.

[uncreativeusername]

pertinent much?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/business...nyt&emc=rss

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS

Published: May 10, 2008

DENVER

[bic]

The price of premium here in South Beach has already hit $4.23/gallon so I wouldn't be surprised to see $5 by the end of the year.

Nine days later, the price of premium at the same gas station has gone up to $4.43/gallon. Not relevant to Orlando so much but just thought it was interesting.

[FlaNatv]

I heard that if Orlando got this CSX deal to go through that it would help Tampa and Lakeland get rail transit. I did not here how that would work out though. If you have more freight demand on those rails in Tampa-Lakeland how is that goning to leave room for Transit? Sorry, if I missed the answer on a previous post. The word did not get out here in Tampa as to HOW we benefit.

[uncreativeusername]

I heard that if Orlando got this CSX deal to go through that it would help Tampa and Lakeland get rail transit. I did not here how that would work out though. If you have more freight demand on those rails in Tampa-Lakeland how is that goning to leave room for Transit? Sorry, if I missed the answer on a previous post. The word did not get out here in Tampa as to HOW we benefit.

I think the premise of that statement was that if the project isn't approved for Orlando based on issues with liability, etc., no future projects would be approved elsewhere in the state because CSX would still make the same requests w/ regard to liability. Also, it would be hard for Florida to get additional Federal support if we're perceived to have squandered this opportunity for federal funding.

[Boomer136]

Whatever happened to that idea of a train running along the center strip of I-4 that all the bridges had to rise to 16' along I-4 for?

[HeartofFlorida]

Whatever happened to that idea of a train running along the center strip of I-4 that all the bridges had to rise to 16' along I-4 for?

Died with high-speed rail plan.

[bulldogger]

I think the idea of special session just died today...

Crist signs state budget

[spenser1058]

This is good news:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/or...,2456950.column

Something we never really had during the light rail battles (during Glenda's reign at City Hall) - the support of the business community. Also, DOT is behind this and the idea of bringing other regions on board is also good (Tampa needs this every bit as much as we do).

[spenser1058]

From Thursday's Lakeland Ledger:

http://www.theledger.com/article/20080703/...r_New_Rail_Deal

A bit of posturing from a State Rep who represents the 4 corners area and Andy Gardiner, who is running for a FL Senate seat which includes the area in his district. This close to an election, if they're bringing it up, they must believe it's a winner for them. Hopefully good news for progress on this front eventually.

[Migman]

How can we be sure this thing will be profitable? The U.S Congress just bailed out Amtrak with 80 Billion dollars. Amtraks spokes person is quoted as saying "we are not set up to be profitable."

If this light rail fails are we going to be stuck footing the bill for a worthless goverment agency that will never go away?

You made two fundamental mistakes in your post. First of all, you somehow had the gall to compare a nationwide rail system with a regional rail system. I don't think I need to tell you that these are two completely different animals. Your erroneous comparison negates any qualm you may have with CFRail. Second of all, CFRail is not a light rail system. It never was, and never will be. CFRail is classified as commuter rail. I'm not going to go into the differences between the two (wikipedia is your friend), but the very nature of commuter rail almost guarantees profitability, especially in traffic congested metro Orlando.

[FLheat]

You made two fundamental mistakes in your post. First of all, you somehow had the gall to compare a nationwide rail system with a regional rail system. I don't think I need to tell you that these are two completely different animals. Your erroneous comparison negates any qualm you may have with CFRail. Second of all, CFRail is not a light rail system. It never was, and never will be. CFRail is classified as commuter rail. I'm not going to go into the differences between the two (wikipedia is your friend), but the very nature of commuter rail almost guarantees profitability, especially in traffic congested metro Orlando.

Gawd, could your post be even more condescending? Maybe UCF needs to offer a course in tactful postings. Redstar has a valid point.

With an investment now running about $1.25 billion, the amortization over 50 years costs nearly $70,000 per day outside of any further maintenance and operations costs. The fact that CTX or any private company isn

[cwetteland]

How can we be sure this thing will be profitable? The U.S Congress just bailed out Amtrak with 80 Billion dollars. Amtraks spokes person is quoted as saying "we are not set up to be profitable."

If this light rail fails are we going to be stuck footing the bill for a worthless goverment agency that will never go away?

Besides the "Light Rail" and the unreasonable comparisons between CFRail and Amtrak ...

I must ask a few questions ...

We spend hundreds of millions on I-4. Is it "profitable?" We widen SR-50 ... is it "profitable?" They are currently widening Rouse Road ... Will it be "profitable?" Since when does a local government which is tasked to provide basic services (which includes transportation) ask will it be profitiable?" The question they should ask (and do) is, is it needed?" Do they provide police because it's profitable? Do they provide garbage collection because it's profitable?

Edited July 4, 2008 by cwetteland