Too bad U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s pitch on Monday for SunRail didn’t play out in front of state lawmakers in Florida who still oppose the commuter train. Instead, he delivered it in Orlando to a room packed mainly with SunRail supporters, leaving it to them to spread the message.
That message came in three parts. First, anyone dreaming about Florida also landing a high-speed rail system should wake up. It’s not going to happen, LaHood said, unless Florida legislators first approve SunRail. That’s because officials in Washington plan to award the $8 billion set aside for developing high-speed rail systems to states or regions that already support passenger train service.
They don’t view Florida as one of them — unless its Legislature approves the 61-mile SunRail system, which would link Orlando and Tampa.
LaHood and Federal Transit Administration head Peter Rogoff, who appeared with LaHood on Monday, acknowledged Florida’s Tri-Rail system, which serves commuters from Miami to West Palm Beach. But they did so harshly. Rogoff noted that Tri-Rail, because it can’t attract the financial support it needs from the state and local governments, may need to reduce service and cast off workers — an occurrence that could trigger Washington to seek repayment of some of the $500 million it invested in Tri-Rail. Second message: The state’s failure to commit to Tri-Rail, underscoring its failure so far to embrace SunRail, tells Washington that Florida’s not nearly as far along in its embrace of passenger trains as other states.
Third, LaHood reminded his mainly transportation-minded audience of rail’s other obvious benefit: It’s a boon to the economy. The federal government’s investment in high-speed rail comes tethered, after all, to the stimulus plan that’s intended to bolster employment. The systems it helps create will produce tens of thousands of jobs. As would SunRail.
Should legislators spurn SunRail and with it, high-speed rail, LaHood said it would be tantamount to legislators in the 1950s rejecting the interstate highway system for Florida — had they been that daft. The secretary maintained the next generation of rail, like the interstate system before it, is the way forward.
But it won’t be for Florida unless legislators first pass SunRail — and LaHood’s message, alone, might not make the difference. Backers of SunRail and high-speed rail who heard it need to add to it.
They need to convince legislators that they can’t just pass SunRail — they’ve got to do so by the first of the year in a special session. That’s when Washington will determine who gets the high-speed stimulus grants.
Meanwhile, South Florida leaders who traveled to Orlando to hear LaHood need to press their legislative delegation to support both a $2 rental car surcharge and SunRail for Central Florida. Their support for SunRail would be enough to speed it through the Legislature. It also would signal LaHood that Florida is as serious as anyone about train travel, and eager, too, to take on high-speed rail.
— The Orlando Sentinel
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