SHARE:
Transportation
Making Tracks
Two pending deals between the state and CSX will reshape freight and commuter transportation in central Florida. Did everybody get a good deal?
In other words, the state wanted a commuter line in metro Orlando badly enough to spend $491 million for it.
And the expenses won't stop with the outlay for track and upgrades. The estimated startup costs for the first two phases of the commuter rail are $474 million, with the federal government paying half, 25% from state government and 25% from the four counties. Preliminary estimates show the local financial breakdown of $11.7 million for Volusia County, $39 million for Seminole, $44.3 million for Orange and $22.3 million for Osceola.
Overall, the commuter line's startup cost is about $7.8 million per mile. By comparison, state reconstruction costs for 22 miles of I-4, including adding two express lanes in each direction and interchange improvements is expected to cost $2.3 billion, or about $104 million per mile.
Commuter rail has been discussed in central Florida for more than a decade, driven in large part by U.S. Rep. John Mica, a Republican who represents parts of Orange, Putnam, Seminole and Volusia counties.
The initial phase of the Central Florida Commuter Rail will run 31 miles, linking 10 stations from DeBary in Volusia County to the Orlando Amtrak station. Olore says the plan was developed by FDOT in conjunction with its local funding partners, including the counties and jurisdictions that have stations.
One community, however, says it was never approached about having a station -- which it couldn't afford in any event -- and is unhappy with the plan. Edgewood, a middle-class community of about 2,000 south of Orlando, passed a resolution opposing commuter rail, saying it will make traffic problems worse on the Orange Avenue corridor because of continuous east-west traffic flow interruption. "You're literally going to triple the number of trains," says Gary Heath, president of Edgewood's city council. "It is going to cut our city in half."
FDOT says that service on the line could begin as early as 2009, just as a major reconstruction project on I-4 begins. Commuter rail cars would have exclusive use of the tracks for morning and evening rush hours, a total of 12 hours a day. From midnight to 5 a.m., freight trains will have exclusive use of the tracks. Passengers and freight would share the corridor during non-rush hour daytime hours. Once at their rail station, passengers would use the Lynx bus service and its Lymmo downtown circulator and Volusia County's public transit, VoTran, to get to their final destinations.
Phase two of the commuter line would extend service from Orlando through Kissimmee to Poinciana Industrial Park. Later plans show an extension of the northern part of the line to DeLand's Amtrak station. "We expect the ridership to be approximately 9,000 to 11,000 passengers per day," says Olore, adding that during peak hours the rail line would move as many passengers as one lane of I-4. But most startup rail systems only serve about 3,500 to 4,000 passengers each workday, according to Central Florida Commuter Rail's website.
Unlike the ill-fated Mobility 20/20 project, the local money will come out of general revenue, says Orange County Commissioner Bill Segal, so there will be no need for a referendum. In Orange County, funding will come from Orlando and perhaps other municipalities as well as the county. Heath, the Edgewood council president, is skeptical that central Florida commuters will be happy with the scheme. "I think most people aren't paying attention to what's about to happen," he says. "The trains have been turned down by the voters in the past. This is just another way to get it."
For the counties, there are several financial sweeteners for the project: The state will pick up the operations and maintenance costs not covered by passenger fares and a federal subsidy for the commuter rail for the first seven years, for example. Also, CSX will pay a yet-tobe- determined per-car charge for freight that runs at night on the A-line track to be purchased by the state. The CSX per-car charge along with fares paid by passengers will reduce the ongoing operations and maintenance costs for the counties when they begin paying those costs after the first seven years of operation.
Still, those ongoing costs could be steep. A July 2005 report projects operating and maintenance costs for the system to be about $6.2 million in 2009 but rising to almost $27 million in 2015. Typically, passenger fares cover about 20% to 30% of a commuter rail's operating costs with a federal subsidy paying 30% to 45%. The balance will be paid by local governments.
The CSX initiative isn't a done deal yet. The first phase of the Winter Haven land purchase is not expected to close until 2007. As of early November, the CSX/ FDOT deal was still just an agreement in principle. If completed, it's clear that CSX will benefit from the deal, but what about central Florida commuters and taxpayers? "It looks good on paper," says Edgewood's Heath. "But it isn't going to remove that many drivers from I-4."
