Centtal Florida Folks Huddle On Commuter Rail

Central Florida folks huddle on commuter rail posted by Aaron Deslatte on Dec 11, 2008 3:42:13 PMDiscuss This: Comments (0) TrackBack (0) Linking Blogs Add to del.icio.us Digg itOrlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, state Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, and state, local and regional chamber folks huddled for about an hour Thursday at City Hall with editors, reporters, editorial writers and columnists for the Orlando Sentinel to air out plans for winning legislative approval of the Central Florida commuter rail project in the 2009 session.The meeting between news side and editorial Sentinel folks, and city, state and regional backers was an "informational" briefing to hash over what sank the deal in the spring legislative session and the chances of passage in the coming year."Last year, we went into the session not anticipating the level of opposition," Dyer said.Dyer called Cannon "our champion in the House," and the region was "very fortunate" to have Sen. Lee Constantine, R-Altamonte Springs, tapped as Senate Judiciary chairman and Sen. Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, as Transportation chair -- the two substantive committees the insurance arrangement will go through on the Senate side. Dyer also called Sen. Mike Fasano, the New Port Richey Republican who chairs the transportation and economic development budget committee, a "supporter." He wasn't exactly a strong backer last spring, so this is noteworthy.The message from the meeting was that backers have rallied their troops and need to re-market the project. In January, Dyer's office will be leading a large group of lawmakers and folks involved with the project up to Charlotte, N.C., to put them on a commuter rail line, backers said.In the last week, a few influental folks like Senate Majority Leader Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, Gov. Charlie Crist, and the Florida Association of Counties have come out early in favor of the insurance liability agreement the region needs before CSX Corp. will sell its 61 miles of rail to the state for the project. Dyer and Cannon both said it was big to have the governor out front in support of the plan, and Dyer noted in the meeting that "other newspapers around the state have not been very kind to the project."Central Florida rail backers through MetroPlan Orlando have met privately with their counterparts in Jacksonville, Tampa Bay and South Florida over the last six months to get all four regions on the same page behind Central Florida's plan.For starters, expect backers to launch a new marketing campaign for the project dropping the Central from Central Florida Commuter Rail and calling it something other than commuter rail."All four markets understand the importance of this, not just to us here in Central Florida, but to all of them," Harry Barley, executive director of MetroPlan Orlando, told the group. He called a Nov. 6 meeting with all four regions a "home run," with all agreeing to back a list of priorities including protecting transortation trust fund dollars and commuter-rail.A few Sentinel folks in the room wanted to know how backers planned to appease the trial lawyers who successfully roadblocked last spring with the help of unions and Lakeland Sen. Paula Dockery.The trial bar last session had heartburn with extending government immunity from injury lawsuits to third-party companies that would be hired to run the rail line. Dyer said without the immunity language, the project would cost more for insurance."If we don't get this done, this will be our biggest failure," Dyer said. "Light-rail was a failure, but we have a second swing at the bat."