Our position: Commuter rail's benefits can extend far beyond Central Florida

I can only imagine how bad central florida traffic will continue to get. In the DC area around 10% or so of the commuting public uses the DC Metro system. If the cheapskates in the Metro DC area got there way and Metro closed down, the already scary commute into and around Washington DC would be impossible. Central Florida needs to at least begin the process of a base rail system from which future expansion could be made more easily. Cars will continue to populate the Central Florida highways and we all know what's happening with the price of fuel.

This editorial is so dumb--Jane, you need a delete key before writing things. The things that you mention are NOW happening are exactly the things that rail supporters should have been doing all along. It's only after they couldn' shove this deal down every one else's throat that they now have to sit down and negotiate. I don't know why they even let you write for a paper any more. Really, the public should not be subject to your elementary grade rantings. This paper will continue to suffer until you're goine.

How about printing statistics about how much public money has been and is being spent per rider on Tri-Rail? How many people in central florida could reliably get to a commuter rail station without driving a car? How long of a commute would it be for the average person to get to a rail station and take the train to where they needed to go?

The answers to these questions are not favorable for those who support commuter rail. That's why you don't hear anything mentioned about them.

This story reminds me of someone who says that they'll work for you on your kid's birthday and then changes their mind. What is the deal? Is there still a chance or not, because if there's no chance, I'm tired of reading these articles. It's like talking about a vacation that you decided you couldn't afford. If it still is a possibility, keep writing articles, if not, quit pulling off the band-aid and let this poor decision rest in peace with all of the others that our Florida government has made.

ENOUGH!

Ax it and ax it good.
The boondoggle is not wanted - kill it.

Dead or not wrote:

This story reminds me of someone who says that they'll work for you on your kid's birthday and then changes their mind. What is the deal? Is there still a chance or not, because if there's no chance, I'm tired of reading these articles. It's like talking about a vacation that you decided you couldn't afford. If it still is a possibility, keep writing articles, if not, quit pulling off the band-aid and let this poor decision rest in peace with all of the others that our Florida government has made.

Congressman John Mica won't let it die. Just because the people of FL have spoken and said no, Mica owes it to CSX to keep it going. Mica's loyalty is to CSX not the people.

Please do not re-elect John Mica. He does not earn the trust or the vote of the people.

ALL you anti rail people should go and take a look at all the other succesfull rail systems already in place. This would only be the first phase and i would hope to one day see branches going from one end of the 408 to the other, with stations along the way that will feed the bus lines on those roads. Or how about to airport, disney universal, Imagine a rail that would take tourist up to wekiva. Now let's think a little further into the future. This rail could be connected all the way to Tampa. ITS CALLED PROGRESS PEOPLE!!!!!!

Two posting that reported the failure of S FL Tri-Rail have been removed from this blog.

Tri-Rail is facing many financial difficulties and may have to cut 60% with no weekend service.

The state of FL cannot afford to support Tri-Rail that is a fact. If there is no funding for the current Tri-Rail commuter rail, than we should not move forward with CFL-CR.

Contact Tallahassee and oppose CFL-CR. WE CANNOT AFFORD IT!!

"If the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority is forced to cut trains, the authority — and even the state, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties — could face a $275 million lawsuit by the Federal Transit Administration, Tri-Rail officials fear."

"A potential $18 million loss of operating funds from the three counties and the state would mean dropping from 50 daily trains to 20 and eliminating weekend service, said Joseph Giulietti, authority executive director."

"But Tri-Rail agreed to run 48 trains a day in accepting a $275 million transit administration grant toward its $338 million double-tracking project, completed in 2006."

copied from
http://miamitodaynews.com/news/080508/story1....

We may be more rural over here in Polk, but we are not against commuter rail, or light rail or any other mass transit.

We are against giving the private company a key to the state's treasury, and against destroying the downtowns of Lakeland and Plant City with too many freight trains. If Orlando is happy to be rid of the 21 trains a day, we understand; but understand why we don't want them to slice our city into two, stalling traffic here.(and that number may actually be more than doubled, sending train through two or more times an hour, on average)

We wanted the High-speed rail, which would have linked Tampa, Lakeland, and Orlando with other locations in the state, and lightened the load on I-4. Jeb and his friends killed that deal (so they could do one better for CSX?).

Help us help each other to redirect the freight through appropriate places, and help us help each other get the commuter, light, or high-speed rails we need.

RAIL SUPPORTER wrote:

ALL you anti rail people should go and take a look at all the other succesfull rail systems already in place. This would only be the first phase and i would hope to one day see branches going from one end of the 408 to the other, with stations along the way that will feed the bus lines on those roads. Or how about to airport, disney universal, Imagine a rail that would take tourist up to wekiva. Now let's think a little further into the future. This rail could be connected all the way to Tampa. ITS CALLED PROGRESS PEOPLE!!!!!!

Please check the facts not reported by OS.

S FL Tri-Rail is a failure and it is broke. They do not have the money to operate it. Something the OS failed to report. This is not called progress. It is called wreckless disregard for the welfare of the people. FL needs to fix the Tri-Rail mess first before it creates another financial disaster like CFL-CR.

I have met no rail haters. The correct term for us is "State/CSX bad deal haters". Let's be clear -- if commuter rail/inner city rail/high speed rail can be done in Central Florida then we ALL need to sit down and figure it out. That is ALL those of us in Lakeland ever asked for. But again, we were told you are "rural" and less valuable that "we" are so you have to take our unwanted freight while we kill the only link to Tampa from Orlando for commuter rail through Lakeland.

That is not OK. So we did the only thing we could do. We partnered with the trial lawyers and anyone else who would help us "kill" the liability because that was the only thing the legislature had any vote on.(Remember, this deal was chopped up into little pieces and sprinkled into growth management bills never mentionling CSX.)

But make no mistake, there is no masive celebration going on over here. We are meeting and planning frequently on how to solve the problem and actually provide the rail services Central Florida needs for the the future. Anyone who'd like to partake, feel free to contact me. info@downtownlakelandfl.com

kbinva wrote:

I can only imagine how bad central florida traffic will continue to get. In the DC area around 10% or so of the commuting public uses the DC Metro system. If the cheapskates in the Metro DC area got there way and Metro closed down, the already scary commute into and around Washington DC would be impossible. Central Florida needs to at least begin the process of a base rail system from which future expansion could be made more easily. Cars will continue to populate the Central Florida highways and we all know what's happening with the price of fuel.

In DC the subway is mostly
underground. Here they want to use existing tracks used by Amtrack and freight trains. Better to build a monorail from OIA to Disney, with a few stops along the way. If it works out good then later on add another line to Universal and I-Drive. Later on add a line to downtown. DC didn't have all the lines built at once, over the years they added routes.

FOR commuter rail - AGainst I-4 rail. More people commute on other roads than who commute on I-4. Plan it for the Orlando core first, for everyone sensible enough to live closer. Making an I-4 only rail plan is just feeding the monster of sprawl.

Yeah, Right. Yet they still won't take a single working stiff from their home to their job and back. I hope it's a dead issue.

Can we bring back the Florida High Speed Rail that Jeb axed?

Julie Townsend wrote:

But again, we were told you are "rural" and less valuable that "we" are so you have to take our unwanted freight while we kill the only link to Tampa from Orlando for commuter rail through Lakeland.

We are meeting and planning frequently on how to solve the problem and actually provide the rail services Central Florida needs for the the future. Anyone who'd like to partake, feel free to contact me.

Julie,

I appreciate much of what you've said, but one thing that you need to realize and unfortunately accept, is that CSX does not need this deal to send more freight trains through Lakeland.

With or without this deal, it is highly likely that CSX is going to shift things around within the next few years and start sending more freight down the S line through Lakeland. And the residents of Lakeland will have no say in things should CSX decide to do that on its own.

One other thing that the residents of Lakeland should also consider is that many of those rail cars are filled with the goods that residents of Lakeland, as well as the rest of Florida want and need. Without them, watch the prices on everything you buy jump even higher and faster than they are right now.

Redogg wrote:

How about printing statistics about how much public money has been and is being spent per rider on Tri-Rail? How many people in central florida could reliably get to a commuter rail station without driving a car? How long of a commute would it be for the average person to get to a rail station and take the train to where they needed to go?
The answers to these questions are not favorable for those who support commuter rail. That's why you don't hear anything mentioned about them.

Actually those questions get answered every day on many of the various commuter operations in this country. And in all cases, the answers are always favorable to commuter rail. That is why commuter systems where the State steps up to the plate and properly funds things, continue to grow.

The lastest example is New Mexico's Rail Runner service, which is exceeding the wildest expectations of officials. So much so, they are rushing to complete the next leg of the system.

FL Rail Transit Facts wrote:

Contact Tallahassee and oppose CFL-CR. WE CANNOT AFFORD IT!!

If you can't afford commuter rail, then you surely can't afford the costs that are going to be needed to build and fix all the roads that are going to have to be built in the future, unless Florida does something to improve its rail passenger services.

The only saving grace for many people in South Florida is Tri-Rail. I-95 is a parking lot every morning. Ask anyone who is riding on Tri-Rail, as they get to whiz by everyone sitting in their cars. For some, their work location doesn't permit any choice but the car, but the are also many people too foolish to get out of their car and get on the train. So instead they sit in traffic going nowhere.

And adding more lanes to I-95 will cost you far, far more than having the State pony up the needed funding to keep Tri-Rail running as it should.