Florida Dems not all aboard CSX rail boondoggle

According to a press release from Senate Democratic leaders Al Lawson and Nan Rich, Florida's secretly-negotiated and ill-advised CSX rail deal may finally face the scrutiny it deserves:

Alarmed by the determination of some Republican leaders to push ahead with the controversial $1.6 billion CSX deal despite Florida’s increasing job losses, Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson (D-Tallahassee) and incoming Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich (D-Weston) on Monday called on the legislature to reverse course on the project and return the money to whence it came.

“More than $600 million was siphoned from shovel-ready transportation and infrastructure projects in towns and communities thoughout Florida in order to deliver a sweetheart deal to a multi-billion dollar private company championing a train even Mickey Mouse can’t use,” said Senator Lawson. “This money needs to be returned to the districts to immediately begin those road and infrastructure projects derailed by the CSX deal. And the money needs to be used to offset skyrocketing hikes in “fees” Floridians are facing for basic motor vehicle services.”

"The Democrats’ alternative plan is twofold. It calls for slamming the brakes on the $159 million Republicans are proposing to raise on title renewals, drivers’ licenses and ID cards, and registration fees to offset the state’s budget hole. And it advocates using the remaining amount, more than $480 million to launch the many transportation and infrastructure projects throughout Florida indefinitely delayed by the state Department of Transportation as it quietly diverted the money to obscure accounts earmarked for CSX.

"This money was railroaded out of the state’s general revenue fund four years ago,” said Senator Rich, noting the disingenious arguments by some lawmakers that trust fund dollars earmarked for transportation couldn’t be directed away from the CSX project.

“Other than a private corporation with well paid lobbyists, there is nothing in law or the constitution to stop this legislature from returning the money to where it found it. If it found the will to divert the funds from the districts in the first place, it can find the will to return the dollars to Florida’s communities to fund the rebuilding of our infrastructure and create jobs.”

The call by the Democrats comes as Florida, along with the rest of nation, continues to reel from the latest unemployment numbers. Nationally, the unemployment rate rose to a 26-year high of 8.5%, with 660,000 Americans losing their jobs in March alone.

Florida’s latest job losses are expected to be disclosed April 17th. In February, however, the state unemployment rate stood at a staggering 9.4 percent.

“Subsidizing a private railroad corporation on the backs of our motorists and those desperately seeking jobs is unconscionable,” said Senator Lawson. “With almost one million Floridians out of work and the number rising, let them explain to the people whose money they’re spending, just what’s more important? New jobs or a choo choo to nowhere?”

See . . . .

• Central Florida commuter rail fast running out of steam
• Is an 'end-run' in the works for Sunrail?
• CSX executive sanctioned for misstated credential
• CSX-SunRail deal: Price tag grows unaffordable
• Wrong Track 4 Florida

Lakeland group vows to keep CSX deal in spotlight

Ledger photo

In a question-and-answer session with the Ledger, Julie Townsend, executive director of Downtown Lakeland Partnership, reflects on the current state of the CSX controversy:

Ledger: The fight isn't over: Keeping CSX deal in spotlight

Wherever you reside in Florida and whatever your view of the Florida-CSX deal -- a taxpayer outlay hatched in secret by outgoing governor Jeb Bush and now heavily lobbied by an array of special interests -- this is an interview worth reading.

You may not change your mind, but perhaps you will gain a different perspective as the fight over taxpayer money and the future of transportation and passenger rail in Florida continues.

See also . . .

Tampa Tribune: State budget crunch may push huge CSX deal off track

CSX rails run smoothly through Washington

In today's business section, The New York Times exposes more questionable links between CSX Corp and Washington politicians who benefit from the rail company's largesse:

CSX has managed to turn a proxy contest for 5 of 12 board seats (it is hardly a takeover, at least not yet) into a debate about national security.

Six senators (members of the Senate Banking Committee) wrote a letter to the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., last week suggesting, absurdly, that TCI (The Children's Investment Fund, based in London) is “anonymous and invisible to government regulators.”

What about all that support in Washington? The uproar is over the fact that in addition to transporting tens of thousands of other carloads last year, CSX also moved 9,575 military carloads as well as 312 carloads of nuclear material.

But take a look at where some of the senators and congressmen have been getting donations lately — and their pet projects — and the timing may seem a bit suspicious.

Two of the six senators who sent the letter — Mel Martinez of Florida and Tom Carper of Delaware — have been beneficiaries of CSX’s largess, receiving $5,000 each this year.

Representative Corrine Brown, a Democrat from Florida, who is chairwoman of the House subcommittee with jurisdiction over the rail industry, has been particularly vocal in trying to prevent TCI from getting on CSX’s board. She has received $38,750 since 1989, including $5,000 in the 2008 election cycle, from CSX, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. And CSX gave $25,000 to Edward Waters College, in Jacksonville, her alma mater. And then CSX’s chief executive, Michael J. Ward, personally donated another $1 million to Edward Waters College just over a week after Ms. Brown spoke out on behalf of the company. He had never donated money to the college before and has no connection to the school.

CSX grasping at straws to end battle

See also . . . RiskMetrics Group: CSX proxy fight review

Orlando scrambles to save the CSX PolitiCorp deal

The Orlando Sentinel, never recognized as a bastion of progressivism, reports (or rather, editorializes) on the faltering CSX-Orlando rail deal today and - guess what - continues the newspaper's campaign of misrepresentation of the issues and distortion of key points.

Sentinel quotations (in italics) are followed by logically inferred meanings:

Today is decision day for commuter rail

The House earlier this week signed off on the deal. But its chief hurdle has always been the Senate, where trial lawyers and unions, along with critics such as Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, and Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, have spent months building a barricade.

It's always those pesky lawyers and unions and a few "ferocious" and "foolish" politicians (the Sentinel's own creative labels; cute of us, huh?) who throw up the barricades. That's why we had to leave them out of the loop for as long as humanly possible.

Overlooked by our eyes - and rightfully so - are, among others, the only Democrat in the state Cabinet, editorialists from several major newspapers from all across the state, residents of communities that would be negatively impacted by the CSX deal, educators, nurses and providers of other public services, and the people they serve - and millions of taxpayers from Pensacola to Key West.

Barring a dramatic turnaround, CSX spokesman Gary Sease said the company would decide during the next few days how it wanted to proceed.

"We don't want to do things hastily," he said. "We want to consider all the options."

You know, like we wanted to, but forgot to, consider all the options during our secret negotiations to beget this baby.

"It's a great project for the whole state," said Noranne Downs, the Florida Department of Transportation's Central Florida head.

"The feds are ready for us. The locals are ready for us. The state House is ready for us. It would be a darn shame if it got this far and did not pass."

See, everybody's ready for this deal except the people who take the time to look at it objectively. That's what happens when the state's in a financial crisis, people are losing their homes and jobs and we're forced to provide more disclosure than the folks can handle. All this sunshine - it's "a darn shame."

But a frustrated Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said the federal funding won't wait.

"I think it probably kills any form of commuter rail in Florida for 20 years," Dyer said. "A lot of people haven't looked at the big picture."

Added Dyer, " Tampa and Lakeland will never in our lifetimes see commuter rail if this goes down, and they don't seem to understand."

It's darn near impossible that we the people pushing this deal are the ones who don't seem to understand, who refuse to look at the big picture. And we Orlando visionaries, facing a minor delay now because of a few little questions about secrecy, liability, and impact studies, will never, ever, lower ourselves to work on a comprehensive, long-term, state-wide plan, not in this lifetime, pal. You hear me, Tampa and Lakeland?

"There comes a point in time where there's not a lot more a lobbyist can do," said John Thrasher, a former House speaker and lobbyist for Orlando.

But I'll keep wracking my brain because I make good money shuttling between my old legislative associates and my corporate "acquaintances."

Rep. Dean Cannon had hoped to build a coalition of Senate votes by packing the rail deal with perks for other regions of the state.

Sorry, grandma, we had to cut your meds this year. Priorities and all, ya know. Congestion has become downright hellacious around here. Take an aspirin and call me next year.


The Sentinel's position: Siplin, Crist and Lynn are critical to today's momentous commuter-rail decision

Without commuter rail, Mrs. Lynn, the more than 30,000 commuters who drive each day from their homes in Volusia to their jobs in Orange and Seminole will remain I-4 hostages. Another generation of your constituents would be left suffering the miseries of high gas prices and wasted hours sitting in their cars instead of productive time at their jobs or enjoyable hours with their families.

Free the hostages! Save the planet! With commuter rail, Mrs. Lynn, I-4 may remain largely unchanged - but commuter rail could lead to further land development, business opportunities (wink) and urban sprawl - a good thing for your tax base. Our Orlando advertisers know what's best for you and your future. And keep this in mind: there are zero alternatives to the package our friends have delivered. It's this or nothing; now or never.

The more than $400 million the state would spend on commuter rail would mean construction jobs just as many of your constituents are suffering through this bad economy.

Maybe we can even hire a few of the laid-off teachers and nurses to fill all those new construction jobs. And we at the Sentinel have discovered plenty of money in parts of the state that, from all we care, are totally unaffected by "this bad economy." So get your slice of the pie or somebody undeserving will gobble it up.

But even more important are the exciting new housing opportunities and job centers that are likely to spring up along the 61-mile route from DeLand to Poinciana. No longer would families be trapped simply because they can't afford a second -- or even first -- car.

Trapped, in the very spot they chose to dwell. Forget how we got here, and they got there. Our plan is great for development. Just look at what we've built here in the City Beautiful. Ah, the grandeur... but I digress.

When folks start complaining about unfettered development, keep in mind there's always somebody all too happy to have the untenable consequences dumped on their heads. Look what we're doing to the country bumpkins in Polk County, bless their little hearts.

Mrs. Lynn and Mr. Siplin are being pushed hard by the state's trial lawyers. This special interest doesn't want the state to cover the liability costs in wrecks involving commuter rail, which would run on tracks owned by CSX freight company. Clearly, these lawyers are trying to protect the possibility of their own billion-dollar payday from a wreck. They have even gone so far as to threaten lawmakers by showing them the attack ads they'll see this election if they support commuter rail.

We hate lawyers, don't you? Without this deal, they won't make any money at all off commuter rail accidents because we won't have commuter rail. That's why they want to kill it. See how sneaky they are? So get busy, make them a deal they can't refuse. The taxpayers won't have to know the minor details. They'll be blinded at the sight of our sleek new trains.

Mr. Crist, only the weight of your leadership can overcome that kind of vicious politics. You've voiced support for commuter rail; now it's time for you to fight for it.

And this is commuter rail, so it's your lucky day. If you have ever supported or will ever support it, anywhere, under any circumstances, whatever the cost and conditions, you must support this deal. We know we can count on you.

Look, it's a vicious world out there. Paula hates us. Everybody hates us. We want what we want and we want it now, but we're weak. We have no voice. Woe is us. Can't you do for us what you did for John?

This is more than a Central Florida issue, Governor. If commuter rail dies today, it could be a generation before Florida gets another shot. Forget about projects in Jacksonville and Tampa. Forget about your legacy as a leader of the national effort to reduce pollution spewed by cars.

Life as we know it will cease to exist. You don't want that on your conscience.

Look, I'm stamping my foot! Do you believe me now?

NEWS UPDATE, 5:24 p.m.: CSX commuter rail project fails

Webster lashes out at opponents for meddling in 'a local issue'

With growing unrest over the specter of Florida taxpayers' paying for CSX negligence, Sen. Dan Webster, R-Winter Garden, said Wednesday night the project could proceed without lawmakers' doing anything this year.

"I think the liability issue is dead," Webster said. He lashed out at opponents' meddling in what he perceived as a local issue. (Ledger, May 1, 2008)

Webster said the state could move forward with every aspect of the rail plan except for the liability and immunity provisions. He said those issues could be addressed at a later time before the train goes on the tracks -- a strategy that appears to raise the possibility the state could ante up hundreds of millions of dollars with no guarantee the train would run.

"I didn't say we were going to spend it . . ." Webster said. "I just said there's nothing prohibiting us from doing that; we could go forward with any of that." (News Journal, May 1, 2008)

What a piece of work. Watch how easily he slides from the scare of "it's now or never, we can't wait," to "the show goes on, with or without taxpayer funding in 2008."
Beware this man and his connections - he has spent 28 seasons in Tallahassee and knows the meaning of power. If you blink, the next thing you see may be a freight train barreling down on you.

At the height of his hypocrisy, the Senate Majority Leader (supposedly working for the whole state) lashes out at his opponents for meddling in "a local issue."

• A "local issue" that depends upon taxpayers' money from every corner of the state and from Washington.
• A "local issue" that dumps his local constituents' problems on their non-local neighbors who weren't consulted, but are nevertheless expected to sit down, shut up and ante up for the privilege of relieving his "local" problem of traffic congestion.
  

That takes cojones. Obviously a handful of the legislative members supported the "bull-testicle law" with good reason. The dangling truck ornaments - had the House agreed with the Senate - could have become shameful reminders of Dan Webster and his cohorts in organized effrontery.

(Note: The House chose to avoid negative publicity by removing the dangling participle ban from the transportation bill. - News-Press)

Photo: Full-featured photo of a state senator. That's how the artificial commingling of unrelated issues works, as the senator knows.

Blow whistle on CSX

Although Webster insists that the project can go on without the Legislature's funding or blessing, he should admit that, as things stand, the "issue is dead."

START OVER, WORK IN OPEN

The Legislature should halt consideration of any of the CSX-related projects this year, either as a reconstituted plan or piecemeal.

It should order that the following be completed in time for consideration during the 2009 legislative session, and be undertaken in the open with time for full public comment:


• Negotiate with CSX for the Orlando tracks needed for commuter trains, minus any state indemnification.
• Complete the development of regional impact study for the Winter Haven freight hub, being sure to include downstream impacts such as additional freight traffic in local communities and the substantial increase of truck traffic on area highways.
• Undertake and complete a study to resolve the downtown Lakeland congestion from the CSX freight trains - whether by rerouting freight traffic around the city or by other means - and identify a method of funding the remedy. (Ledger editorial, May 1, 2008)

CSX plan carries too many costs, needs regional planning

It has been interesting listening to the rationalizations and justifications that seek to improve the conditions of one community to the clear detriment of others. [....]

We've also argued that no plan should move forward without critically necessary long-range regional planning.

I believe that we're headed in the wrong direction. First of all, this sends the wrong message: that quid pro quo supersedes principle. Moreover, the two should not even be connected. I believe proper planning would show that commuter rail should absolutely be established for Orlando - as well as for Tampa, and eventually Lakeland and other parts of Central Florida. But that in no way should ignore what I believe that planning will also show - that Lakeland's interests must not be set aside because of political posturing.

Frankly, you don't have to have a degree in planning to look at a large-scale map and recognize that there is a better route for the CSX freight line and a better location for the integrated logistics center. (R. Howard Wiggs, City Commissioner, Lakeland)

Florida's CSX rail plan: Do it right or not at all

(This is my response to a progressive thinker and commuter rail proponent who resides in the Orlando area. In view of the many positive aspects of the deal, he suggested that we would have blood on our hands if we killed it.)

'To rail or not to rail' is not the question

It's understandable that progressives from both sides of this issue view the problems and solutions from their own perspectives. From everything I have seen, though, I believe that the CSX rail deal offers a false choice between a faulty plan and no plan at all. When I see the bills that are being force-fed through legislative appropriations committees, I hear Stevie Wonder's "Here I am, baby; signed, sealed, delivered, I'm yours." The only options seem to be, take it or bend over and take it.

Regarding this rail plan, or any other, I have never suggested that "we abandon it altogether." Neither has anyone that I know in Lakeland. Like many cities over the past two decades, Lakeland (an urban area of 255,000, but known to the Orlando Sentinel only as the quaint Orlampa) - has spent millions of dollars revitalizing its downtown, building parks, saving historic architecture, encouraging responsible development including business and housing, even constructing an Amtrak/passenger rail station in the heart of downtown and providing leadership for a much more comprehensive approach to rail travel than the one on the table today (for example, see Bullet Train News). The city's approach to growth management and revitalization is what led me to buy a home in the historic district nearly twenty years ago, and I have not regretted it. (Obviously, I was not expecting to inherit Orlando's headaches.)

As a seventh-generation Floridian, I share your passion for protecting the environment and developing alternative energy sources. I have watched the gradual (and not so gradual in some cases) destruction of the state I always loved and thought I would never leave. But Florida no longer belongs to me and people like me - it belongs to developers, politicians, the NRA and carpetbaggers. And CSX Corp.

So for me the debate is not over whether Orlando should have commuter rail, but how both federal and Florida taxpayer dollars should best be appropriated to reach the goals that both of us agree need to be achieved. Any time a deal between government officials and private industry is cooked up in secret - including the need for signed confidentiality agreements - alarms should be tripped.

Artificial linkages

Before this deal saw the light of day, it was polished to a shimmering brilliance, of course. Commuter rail for Orlando may indeed be a good thing, but that's only one facet of this legislative gem. Getting rid of the rail and hub problem - not to be overlooked as a driving force behind the deal - is good for Orlando, we can agree. Trains in the area were a problem as far back as the early 1970's. Three decades later, the problems have increased significantly. In 2002, an Orlando-based planning group produced a paper titled: "Why Can't We Solve Orlando's Traffic Congestion Problems By Moving the Freight Trains?"

For good reason, then, mass transit is an easy sell in Orlando. But the CSX deal doesn't stop there. A crucial facet for CSX is a new logistics center to be built on 1250 acres in Winter Haven. That may be a good thing for Winter Haven's tax base and some members of the community (except for nearby homeowners or people who drive passenger cars on the same roads), but whether the site is the most appropriate location within the region is open to question. In a state the size of Florida, with millions of undeveloped acres, why here, why now? Was it in the public interest, or in the financial interests of CSX and certain developers and landowners? How much consideration was given to alternative sites north of Interstate 4 or in southern Polk County, using routes that would bypass major cities? Was any consideration given to old rail right-of-ways that may be only slightly less convenient than the "S" line down the center of the state and through the center of Lakeland? (See "Rails to Trails," for example.)

Follow the money

Consider the secrecy surrounding the initial negotiations and legislation in 2005; the rush to bypass local and regional impact studies on the Winter Haven rail hub and other impacted towns; the pressure on legislators for funding during "the worst government budget conditions in Florida's history"; the secret involvement of Jeb Bush and his appointees with this deal as well as the Florida East Coast Industries deal that benefitted his friends; the profit motives of politician-landowners, other major landowners, businesses and developers in Polk County and surrounding counties; the lack of timely regional and state planning necessary for development on a massive scale; the possible loss or indefinitely extended delays of commuter rail between Tampa and Orlando, and other cities; the future expansion of "the mother of all rail hubs" to accept containerized cargo coming from the US west coast and Asia through an expanded Panama Canal; transportation of increased cargo from Latin and South America through the Winter Haven ILC, Central Florida and outward in all directions via a proposed airport, expanded rail extensions to the gulf coast and points north, and new highways, including the proposed Central Polk Parkway and Heartland Parkway.

With the proposed deal, who are the major beneficiaries - Florida's taxpayers or special interests?

Avoid a stampede mentality

In addition to the up-front and long-term costs to the state and federal government - and not ignoring the proposed liability costs to the state - no one has calculated the hidden but very real financial, environmental and quality-of-life costs to a number of impacted communities. Demanding the acceptance of one option, with no comprehensive long-range planning, environmental and infrastructure impact studies, or involvement of the most direly affected communities, should be unacceptable in this state - the state of "government in the sunshine." Evidently it is not.

Too often, people without the time to study the issues are misled by politicians and vested interests. This deal is the perfect example. To accept the claim that it's the only plan on the table, so we should get on with it even if some of us are adversely affected (an understatement in itself), is not good public policy. We've been burned too many times by politicians relying on the stampede mentality. If this deal is important to Florida, it should be fixed before - not after - it is dragged and pushed through the 2008 legislature. What's worth doing is worth doing right.

We should not allow ourselves to be rushed into an artificial lumping together - with too few answers to major questions - mass transportation, freight transportation, energy demands and environmental concerns. We must not accept vague generalities and worthless promises from the crowd that has been less than forthcoming from the start - the same crowd that got us into the mess we're already in. It can always get worse.

And we shouldn't be overly concerned about "having blood on our hands," as you suggested, in the event that the deal is delayed until its backers are forced to correct its most glaring flaws. What I worry about is cutting funding for education, when Florida is already ranked near the bottom in the country. I worry about cutting crucial services to the sick and infirm, the young and the old. I worry about many things gone wrong in Florida.

I don't worry so much about whether someone will be driving a Prius or riding a train from Deland to Winter Park in 2012.

[Photo: WFTV News, Orlando, Feb. 13, 2008, Tuesday. Eyewitness News timed the CSX train sitting on the tracks along South Street. It didn't move for 30 minutes.]

Florida's 'leaders' wade deeper into the swamp

The fact that Florida's legislators, with the prodding of one governor and the acquiescence of another, have for a decade shown no shame in wrecking the state is in itself a shame greater than the combination of all their leadership failures.

The 2008 session completes the gestalt of shameless, self-serving, backroom deals and the avoidance of responsibility.

But so long as voters show more interest in hot-button social warfare than with substantive issues and legislative accomplishments, the elected legislative and executive leaders will continue to wade in their swamp of shame and shamelessness.

Come fall, it's time to drain the swamp.

Session of shame

What's wrong with Tallahassee? Is there no adult supervision in the political romper room called the Florida Legislature? Are our elected lawmakers really prepared to end the session this week by passing out an almost criminally negligent state budget that will do incalculable harm to Florida's education, health care, social service and criminal justice institutions?

This is far and away the worst session we've ever witnessed. We cannot recall ever seeing lawmakers conduct themselves in such an irresponsible manner and with so little apparent regard for the future of Florida and the well-being of its residents. The consequences of lawmakers' failure to take their responsibilities seriously will be dire and far-reaching.

This Legislature is a disgrace. In this final week of the session lawmakers are willfully putting at risk the health, safety and welfare of their constituents. Meanwhile, Gov. Charlie Crist remains largely silent and passive, as though he has little or no leadership role in the debacle that is unfolding in the House and Senate. - Gainesville Sun editorial, April 29, 2008Session of shame

On vital issues, legislators fail

Barring a Tallahassee miracle, when the Legislature adjourns Friday it will have failed in every respect to responsibly address the state's most pressing issues. It is hard to imagine re-election campaigns based on a record of imposing painful spending cuts, protecting special interest tax breaks, forcing universities to cap enrollments and raising local property taxes to keep public education limping along. But incumbents will try to paper over the sins of the spring with misleading campaign ads in the fall, and voters should not let them get away with it.

The Legislature's failures mean public frustration will continue to grow over unaffordable and often unavailable property insurance, inadequate health coverage, underfinanced higher education, inferior public transportation, unfair tax systems and poor growth management. - St. Pete Times editorial, April 29, 2008

One more reason to pull CSX deal

If Tallahassee were filled with reasonable people, the state would renegotiate the CSX deal to get Orlando the tracks it needs - without giving away the store and sending up to 56 trains a day through communities that never saw them coming.

But the capital is filled with people who acquiesce. To do otherwise risks losing a committee assignment or a hearing on a pet project.

Yet when lawmakers vote on the CSX deal this week, the last week of the legislative session, they will define themselves for voters in the fall.

Do they stand for good government or back-room deals? Do they believe in sound business practices, or anything goes with taxpayer dollars? Do they believe in the conservative value of self determination, or should a powerful part of the state be able to hurt communities that have little say?

No matter what Orlando lawmakers say, this contract is not the last shot at making commuter rail happen there. Indeed, while some say Florida would lose credibility with federal officials if it pulls the deal back, it's the feds who are asking the tough questions.

In making their decisions this week, lawmakers should cast a vote for good government.

It's so rare that someone does. - Tampa Tribune editorial, April 29, 2008

Update from The Orlando Sentinel, 1:54 p.m. . . . .

House opts to go with Senate commuter rail deal

No surprise there.

What hurts my heart is that House negotiator Dean Cannon is my friend. His roots are in Lakeland. Since his high school years I have expected great achievements from him.

Little did I know that one of his most significant accomplishments would be to railroad his own hometown for political expedience.

If I'm wrong, someone please correct me.

My reasons for opposing the CSX rail boondoggle

This is my response to a supporter of the CSX rail deal that is grinding its way through the Florida legislature:

Gene, as I have stated previously, I favor commuter rail - when and if someone comes up with a plan that passes the smell test. The one being ramrodded through the Florida legislature is a scheme designed to alleviate Orlando's rail problems and dump them on other, less politically influential, communities. Anyone familiar with the Orlando area knows that trains and the accompanying traffic issues there have been a source of irritation for decades. The city has long sought a way to rid rid itself of a major problem. It now has one. See 2005 state study cited freight traffic headaches

This rail deal does not represent progress. Your analysis - basically that rail is more efficient than autos, so "build it and they will ride" - misses the destination by a mile. You cannot predict ridership, so you cannot possibly have a meaningful formula to determine if and when fuel efficiency goals for this particular commuter rail project would ever be met - and at what additional costs above the millions already bandied about. See Does rail transit save energy or reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

As for freight rail efficiency, the deal does nothing. It does not take freight off trucks and move it onto rail, it simply takes trains that are already running and diverts them through communities like Lakeland and Ocala, towns which have used better judgment in making growth management decisions than has the city of Orlando.

You are correct on this point: CSX "currently has no liability for commuter rail." But of course. Please read Sweet deal with CSX may violate state constitution

You may care about the environment, but so do those opposing the CSX deal. Do you have any idea of how this deal in its entirety would eventually impact the environment of communities outside Orlando? If so, you must be way ahead of the people who attempted to bypass regional impact studies - studies that, now that they have finally begun, have not concluded even for the first 319-acre phase of development of "the mother of all rail yards" in Winter Haven. Not to mention the second 931-acre part of the plan. I don't have to tell you why the dealmakers, acting in secret and avoiding public hearings, divided the CSX project into two parts. Hint: To avoid scrutiny, i.e., Florida sunshine, perhaps? Even today, Jeb Bush refuses to answer questions on another of his "devious plans," and Charlie Crist has no interest in hearing from members of my community. (Tours with John and evenings with George are much more fun for "the people's guv'na.")

Yes, a few local politicians and developers support the rail hub in Winter Haven. It's also true that many of those fighting the hardest for the deal will benefit financially and/or politically from the "financial aid" package.

My personal interest

Most people take pride in their homes and community. I will support Orlando's efforts to improve life in their city, but not their right to disrupt the lives of people several miles away. The rail proposal goes well beyond dumping trash in my backyard. Noise pollution, safety concerns and deteriorated quality of life will extend directly into my living room. For politicians, or anyone else, to behave as if I should have no say in the matter - and that is exactly what has happened - is insulting almost beyond words.

The impact of this deal on me, personally, reflects that of countless others - perhaps more people than the eventual ridership of the Orlando train, should the legislative boondoggle be allowed to succeed. I live in a historic part of Lakeland, near Lake Morton and Florida Southern College (see map of Main St. and CSX rail line). I have worked all my life to pay for the home in which I had intended to live out my life in peace. Police and major medical facilities are located on the north side of town, across the railroad tracks from the majority of Lakeland residents. A quarter of a million people are served. Watson Clinic, for example, has more than 200 providers offering 38 specialties, and the Lakeland Regional Medical Center's emergency room is the second busiest in the state.

If the politicians, the developers and CSX get their way, I will, through no fault of my own decisions, live in a city split in two by tracks carrying dozens of freight trains (up to 56 trips daily) of unknown length running hour after hour, day and night, with constant rumbles and whistles that disrupt sleep, work, commerce, traffic flow through downtown and emergency services. Road conditions and highway safety will be impacted by greatly increased truck traffic flowing from the mother of all rail hubs in Winter Haven. No one supporting the rail-and-hub deal can give exact answers to either the increased rail or truck traffic. In light of past deceptions, projections made by CSX would not be credible anyway. If I choose to sell my home, its value will likely have plummeted. So, use whatever logic works for you to support the rail deal, but don't use my own tax dollars to diminish my quality of life. Don't pretend that it's a wonderful thing for mankind. Don't piss on my boot and tell me it's raining.

Those who live in greater Orlando do so for their own reasons. They understood the problems when they made the decision to live and work there. Freight trains and rail yards did not spring up near their homes overnight. For decades, new residents of Orlando saw the conditions, weighed the lifestyle opportunities against the problems, and made their choice. I chose a different community for my own reasons - to avoid the problems of a city like Orlando - and I resent being dumped on by morally bankrupt politicians who have no interest in fairness or in protecting my community. For a temporary, largely political fix, or for whatever other reasons they may employ to hoodwink the public, a group of powerful politicians are, with no integrity and little regard for anyone's interests outside their own, breaking arms to pass a deal that is contrary to the well-being of several communities, to the state of Florida and to good government itself.

Is my city considered a wasteland, made useful only by absorbing a major problem of a larger city? Am I to pay for Orlando's continued, unfettered "development"? The threat to my community is real. Promises of future amelioration are absent from today's discussion. In fact, there are no serious discussions of even having meaningful discussions, so help is not on the way. Once done, the damage will never be undone. Once done, the politicians will focus on a thousand priorities (or the the priorities of their corporate sponsors) that rank above fixing the mess they created.

If the deal were as beneficial to the state as supporters suggest, if it were for "the greater good," please explain the secrecy, the lack of comprehensive studies and optional plans, and a total disregard for the communities most negatively impacted. Florida taxpayers, many within the Orlando area itself, who have taken the time to study the issue do not want their tax dollars taken from education, health care and other pressing needs and used for a CSX deal to "get people out of their cars."

Beyond the obvious

I won't belabor the obvious, since over several weeks I have documented the points I am making. With the exception of CSX stockholders, who were treated to a 46% profit increase last quarter, it's a bad deal for most Florida taxpayers - even environmentalists - who live outside the immediate commuter route being proposed.

Here are two points that the citizens of Florida need to know:

1 - The Port of Manatee is gearing up for the expansion of the Panama Canal. That will allow increased freight from the US west coast and Asia to flow through Florida to the entire eastern United States. That's where the Winter Haven "mother of all rail yards" fits into the long-range regional planning:

"Primarily at the beginning it will feed the consumer demand of the state of Florida for goods coming from the West Coast ports," Hood said. "As the growth of the Southeast ports happens, like at Port Manatee, Tampa and Jacksonville, there's an opportunity to feed this as a distribution point for goods to the Midwest and the northern part of the country. If something comes in to the Port of Manatee and the destination is Ohio or Indianapolis, the containers could be sent to those destinations and beyond."

"It's one more important tool that we have to market the port," said Steve Tyndal, Port Manatee's senior director of trade development and special projects. "If a shipper in Asia knows that a sophisticated intermodal facility like the one proposed for Winter Haven is only an hour away, that means we could more easily sell Port Manatee as a port of entry.

"Port Manatee is already well served by CSX but the new facility in Winter Haven will help drive capacity, specifically for containerized cargo," Tyndal said. "And that's important because the Panama Canal is expanding and the port is taking a proactive measure now to be ready for when that happens." - Bradenton Herald, Sept. 20, 2007, Port hopes rail brings growth

2 - The CSX-Orlando deal is likely to delay, probably for my lifetime, commuter rail between Tampa Bay and Orlando. The fifty-six freight trains projected for CSX's S-1 line would eliminate the prospect of using those tracks for commuter rail, and the state is unwilling to invest in high-speed rail. Travel by automobile will worsen from the hundreds of additional trucks cruising to and from the Winter Haven hub, and all along the I-4 corridor from Tampa to Orlando.

That's one of the reasons the editors of the Tampa Tribune, as well as editors of other newspapers across the state, have condemned this mother of all corrupt deals, so putrid it was hatched and nurtured in the dead of night and hidden from the public for as long as humanly possible. See Secret deal for railroad hub lays bare shady practices at DOT

For these reasons and others I have made before in this blog, I will do whatever is possible to derail a deal that should never have seen the light of day - especially at a time when, in the words of Speaker Rubio, our state faces "the worst government budget conditions in Florida's history."


A note on the governor's 'leadership' . . . .

When pressed to comment on the CSX rail issue, Gov. Crist responded Monday with a boxcar full of evasions: "not necessarily," "it depends," looks "forward to reviewing it," depends on "what the purpose is and what the rationale would be," "kind of factor all those things," "will factor and weigh and make a responsible decision."

Thanks, governor. How reassuring.

Florida politicians: Protecting 'core services' -- or core interests?

"Florida is in a recession, resulting in the worst government budget conditions in Florida's history," House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, said in a statement released Sunday.

"It is important to remember that as bad as it may seem for government, our people are hurting even more. I am pleased that we have produced a budget that is balanced and protects core services."

. . . .

State officials negotiated a deal that would help shield CSX Transportation and state railroad contractors from lawsuits if accidents occur on the commuter system.

But lawmakers have to approve the liability protections, and the proposals have drawn criticism in both the House and Senate. The protections are a key part of the deal in which CSX would sell to the state 61 miles of tracks from DeLand to Osceola County.

-- Florida's major issues remain unresolved

Another sorry week in CSX-land

Bill giving railroad immunity is simply ludicrous
Most Floridians probably don't know that our state senators are quietly rushing through legislation that will benefit one of the nation's most profitable companies - CSX Railroad - at the expense of public safety and at tremendous cost to Florida taxpayers.

Even as they slash funding for schools due to the budget crisis, they are giving this wealthy company immunity for their future wrongdoings and forcing taxpayers to pay in its place. This could mean hundreds of millions of dollars or more for a corporation with a disastrous track record of putting corporate profits before public safety. (Tampa Tribune, April 24, 2008)

Florida's CFO criticizes railroad deal
In a harsh critique of the state's deal to bring commuter rail to Orlando, Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink said the $641 million plan was crafted under the "cover of darkness" and urged lawmakers to revise the controversial proposal. (Ledger, April 26, 2008)

If any of Florida's bills seem bad, just wait
Look on the bright side. There are still a few days left in the Legislature's session, and no matter what you think of any of these ideas, it is a lead-pipe cinch they will slip in something even worse before it's over. (St. Pete Times, April 26, 2008)

Webster's train deal plays loose with Florida's tax dollars
The deal that Central Florida strikes with CSX should not force hundreds of trains into communities that had no say. And if Central Florida wants to spend its share of transportation dollars on commuter rail, that's its call. (Tampa Tribune, April 24, 2008)

Webster not leaving Florida legislature quietly
Term limits are pushing Dan Webster out of the Legislature after 28 years. For some of his colleagues, he's not leaving quietly enough. (St. Pete Times, April 25, 2008)

Webster's rail bypass: Something for everyone
If Florida Senate Majority Leader Dan Webster wasn't already a family man, he might promise anyone around his first-born son in exchange for support of the proposed CSX-and-commuter-rail deal. The newest Webster revision survived a key Senate committee vote Tuesday, but only after Webster dangled some carrots around the Capitol. (Ledger, April 24, 2008)

Mom says it's commerce vs. kids
Graves says she can't understand why the state's considering a deal to give CSX around $640 million to buy rail lines near Orlando and improve privately owned tracks in Jacksonville -- while, at the same time, cutting services to kids. (Jacksonville, First Coast News, April 23, 2008)

Webster maneuvers the CSX boondoggle through his committee
By tucking the CSX liability provision into the massive bills, ironically known as "trains" in Tallahassee lingo because of their habit of picking up a hodgepodge of ideas, defeating the bills may be difficult for opponents of the plan. (Ledger, April 23, 2008)

Appeal to Committee on Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations
"This project changes the way we move freight trains in our state FOREVER. It concentrates freight trains in cities who were never consulted, never given the opportunity to be a part of the process. Instead we are pressured and intimidated.

"There is not a good answer as to why these communities were not included. Instead there are throw away comments about how metropolitan areas take priority in the state.

"Well, Lakeland is not a rural town. We are a responsibly planned and grown city. Our growth is not out of control. We are not overly congested. This is not by accident, it is by design. So Lakeland grows responsibly and we get punished? We get dumped on by our neighbor? The Lakeland metropolitan area serves a quarter of a million people. We have the second busiest emergency room in the state.

"Lakeland felt the pressure in this room and is trying to salvage something from this monster of a deal. But if the power in this room can bully and intimidate the second largest inland city - God help the small towns in our state." (Julie Townsend, Executive Director, Lakeland Downtown Partnership, April 22, 2008)

Lakeland residents want state to blow whistle on CSX deal
Lakeland residents don't want more freight trains as part of a commuter-rail deal the state is working on. (Orlando Sentinel, April 21, 2008)

US rails seen rolling along despite economy
Despite a wobbly economy and sliding freight volumes, U.S. railroads have chugged along in recent quarters thanks to strong pricing -- and barring a deep and prolonged recession they show no sign of stopping.

"I think the railroads' pricing power story is going to last for several more years at least," said Keith Schoonmaker, an analyst at Morningstar. (Reuters Market News, April 20, 2008)

The meaning of 'getting railroaded'
So why should we be "finding a way to make it work" when the real issue seems to be whether it should even exist at all? In spite of all these shortcomings and unanswered questions, the CSX deal is still speeding through the Legislature with tacit approval from the administration of Gov. Charlie Crist.

Once moving, the train continues to its final destination, unstoppable and undeviating from its predestined path.

Now, confused enemy of the state, you know why they call it "getting railroaded." (Ledger, April 20, 2008)

Planners: Questions remain for rail facility
Evansville Western officials still have not responded well enough to transportation and environmental issues for their application for a rail freight terminal in Winter Haven to proceed, regional planners said Friday.

Although the first phase of the CSX project is still under review, backers are looking ahead to the second phase, which would be an industrial park on approximately 931 acres surrounding CSX's proposed facility.

That development is not part of the application being reviewed by the planning council and no plans for it have been submitted. (Ledger, April 19, 2008)

More CSX deception from its cheerleader
But isn't that the real problem with everything that surrounds this CSX deal: half-truths and secrecy? (Tampa Tribune, April 18, 2008)

Rail project took long time to get on track
In recent months, The Ledger has examined hundreds of public documents, recordings, memos and other material in an effort to determine how the half-billion-dollar-plus project managed to get state approval without undergoing even a single public hearing. (Ledger, April 17, 2008)

Inquiry: Train plan railroaded secretly
Bush, who left office in January 2007, isn't talking about the subject.

He recently rebuffed reporters who sought to ask about CSX after he made a speaking appearance in Lakeland and he didn't respond to a subsequent e-mail inquiry from The Ledger. Among the unanswered questions are whether he gave any consideration to projections of greatly increased rail traffic through Lakeland and other "S" line cities before agreeing to the deal. (Ledger, April 16, 2008)

Does Rail Transit Save Energy or Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions?
Far from protecting the environment, most rail transit lines use more energy per passenger mile, and many generate more greenhouse gases, than the average passenger automobile. Rail transit provides no guarantee that a city will save energy or meet greenhouse gas targets.

Rail transit attempts to improve the environment by changing people's behavior so that they drive less. Such behavioral efforts have been far less successful than technical solutions to toxic air pollution and other environmental problems associated with automobiles.

Blog coverage in Lakeland . . .

• Lakeland Local
• Tales from the Delk Side
• Y-Lakeland
• Interstate 4 Jamming
• TBO Polk County News Blog
• Polk Politics

Fast train, wrong track

No, No, 649 million times - No, no no!

TAMPA - If you ever had any remote doubt what the term "getting railroaded" means, thanks to that buffet-line of glad-handers in Tallahassee, otherwise known as the Florida Legislature, sponsored by CSX - ahem, now you know.

From the very beginning, the CSX giveaway, hatched in secret and pushed through the Legislature with more winks and nods than a Skull & Bones alumni reunion, has stunk up the corridors of power in Tallahassee like it was five-day-old roadkill.

Fast train, wrong train

PALM BEACH - As the Legislature moved closer last week to draconian budget cuts, the state also moved closer to a terrible $641 million sweetheart deal with a private company.

Is there any wonder that the Florida Department of Transportation, then under Gov. Jeb Bush, negotiated the deal in secret?

Supporters claim that the deal would be cheaper than widening highways in and around Orlando. Why, though, does so little of the money go for commuter service? Why does CSX get so much of a break from liability? Why was it worked out in secret if it's such a good deal for the state? The deal should get an up-or-down vote on its own - not as part of a huge, politically popular bill - and the deal should change, or be voted down.

Just hire a CSX lobbyist

LUTZ - University budget cuts are not hard to fix. Just lay railroad tracks at every university. Then hire a lobbyist from CSX. Done deal.

Ahead of the bell: CSX target raised

NEW YORK - Lehman Brothers raised estimates and a price target on CSX Corp. Tuesday, saying the railroad operator's strong prices will likely help offset high fuel costs.

So far in 2008 shares of Jacksonville, Fla.-based CSX have risen 30 percent, while the cost of light, sweet crude has jumped about 16 percent.

Chase said the company's strong pricing will help sustain earnings estimates amid high fuel costs and lower volume. Much of the stock's potential is currently priced in, he said.

After the Bell: CSX Q1 Profit Jumps 46%

4/15/2008 7:16:51 PM - Tuesday after the bell, CSX Corp. (CSX), a railroad transportation company, announced a 46.3% rise in profit for the first quarter driven by 3.7 percentage points increase in operating ratio due to greater labor productivity and higher fuel efficiency.

'Sweet deal' with CSX may violate state Constitution

Today the Tampa Tribune exposed yet another sweetener in the secretly negotiated CSX-Orlando rail deal.

Florida's rail deal with CSX Transportation includes a benefit for CSX that goes far beyond the hundreds of millions the company will get from the state.

After selling 61 miles of tracks in Central Florida for commuter rail, CSX will retain the right to use the line for 12 hours a day. It will pay only a fraction of the state's operation and maintenance costs, however.

Is the deal fair - or even legal?

A lawyer who helped negotiate the deal for the state warned more than a year ago that the terms amounted to a subsidy for CSX - a possible violation of the state Constitution. State officials, however, say they struck a fair deal for the taxpayers and the railroad. [....]

It's a sweetheart deal that "gets sweeter" with the break on the access fees, said state Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, who opposes the package because of its costs and CSX's plans to raise freight train traffic through downtown Lakeland.

CSX will pay twice as much to use an 81-mile commuter line in South Florida. [In a similar deal in New Mexico, Burlington Northern Santa Fe covers about 95 percent of maintenance costs.]

Is a deal negotiated in secret - using CSX cost data - a bargain for taxpayers?

The state DOT negotiated the CSX deal in secret, with all the DOT staff members and consultants involved signing confidentiality agreements, at CSX's behest. The company said the information it would be providing should be barred from public view under the Sunshine Law exemption for trade secrets.

DOT negotiators used CSX's cost data to determine what the company should pay the state for access to the 61 miles, said Kevin Thibault, DOT's assistant secretary for engineering and operations.

"We feel like the money we're getting from them is adequate," Thibault said.

E-mail messagess obtained by The Tampa Tribune, however, show that one of the DOT consultants, lawyer John Bottcher, disagreed.

If the state didn't "recoup its costs of the investment and the ongoing costs of ownership, then CSXT would be receiving a subsidy," he wrote in December 2006, about a year after negotiations began.

"The Florida Constitution prohibits public financial aid to a private party without a commensurate public benefit," he wrote. "We know that carriage of freight in and of itself provides a substantial public benefit. But there is a point where CSXT's profits private sector benefit would exceed the public benefit. I think FDOT's proposed fee structure is close to that point."

The article describes another business model for determining what one railroad should pay another for the use of a line.

According to an expert with the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority in Southern California, purchase costs and maintenance costs of a railroad should be figured separately, "but both should be used to determine what the freight railroad should pay."

Also, if passenger and freight trains share the corridor, the bulk of the maintenance fees should be paid by the "longer, heavier, more damaging trains, which are freight trains," Preusch said.

"There's a lot of politics in these things," he said. "But the business model is what I described."

In New Mexico, Burlington Northern Santa Fe sold tracks to the state three years ago for a passenger rail system and worked out an agreement to continue to use the line. The freight trains will run infrequently, but Burlington Northern's fees will cover about 95 percent of the cost of maintaining the tracks, said Chris Blewett, director of Transportation and Planning Services for New Mexico's Mid-Region Council of Governments.

"Those freight trains are pretty heavy. They do a lot more damage than our little passenger trains," Blewett said.

Fee benefit makes rail deal 'sweeter' - for CSX

See also . . .

• FL: CSX commuter train deal keeps chuggin'
• FL: 'Sugar train' outruns the budget ax
• FL: Commuter rail: Find the will to work matters out
• NC: Downtown derailment of half-mile long CSX train delays Fayetteville drivers
• KY: Madisonville mayor blames CSX railyard for flood damage
• AL: CSX settlement brings $491,976 to conservation department
• MA: No fault? No way, CSX told by state's entire US congressional delegation
• Are government subsidies to railroads serving the public interest?

Senate vote keeps CSX-Orlando on track

The engine keeps chugging, but is this any way to run a government?

TALLAHASSEE - The Senate narrowly defeated an amendment to steer millions of dollars away from Central Florida’s commuter rail project Wednesday as the Legislature opened debate on the state's $65 billion proposed budget.

A bipartisan group of senators opposing the state’s $650 million-plus deal to buy the 61-mile rail line from CSX Corp. for commuter rail tried to divert $20 million of that pot to make up spending reductions to courts – arguing the rail deal was less important than courts.

Republican Sens. Alex Villalobos of Miami, Charlie Dean of Inverness, and Paula Dockery of Lakeland joined in with Democrats trying to transfer rail dollars from the Department of Transportation budget to other priorities like courts and elderly care. - Orlando Sentinel

Other updates on CSX Corp.:

• Palm Beach Post: People lose, trains win in Senate budget debate


• See how each senator voted ("N" is a vote for CSX; "Y" is a vote for taxpayers and transparency): Senate Bill 2900, A19


• JACKSONVILLE - CSX Corp. was the top performing Jacksonville-based company with a 27 percent first-quarter stock price gain, following a 28 percent rise in 2007. CSX's first-quarter performance stood out nationally as the sixth-best gain among all stocks in the S&P 500. - Black Enterprise


• MINNEAPOLIS - Agricultural giant Archer-Daniels-Midland filed a federal anti-trust lawsuit in Minneapolis made public Wednesday [Mar. 26], accusing the five largest U.S. railroads of a price-fixing conspiracy. ADM joins a growing chorus of companies that have filed such claims against the railroads since last year. - US AgNet

McKeel files amendment to transportation bill

TALLAHASSEE - Rep. Seth McKeel filed an amendment to the House transportation funding bill Friday that would require a comprehensive statewide plan for commuter rail and intercity transportation systems through 2028.

The amendment is designed to stop the piecemeal creation of commuter rail systems and come up with a comprehensive plan for the entire state with timetables and locations. The amendment would end complaints like the ones surrounding the CSX-Orlando commuter rail deal that the department negotiated privately on a limited scale with the railroad. It instead would provide a comprehensive step-by-step plan for the state.
- More . . . The Ledger

With so much at stake for so many, why would any thoughtful legislator oppose Rep. McKeel's common-sense approach?


Federal transit honcho praises rail project

ORLANDO - The head of the federal agency that could approve more than $300 million for Central Florida commuter rail praised the regional support he saw for the project Friday, even as state legislators battled over an insurance issue that could stop it in its tracks.

James Simpson, director of the Federal Transit Administration, took a tour of the route and also heard from dozens of politicians and business leaders from Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties on the urgent need for the 61-mile commuter-rail project to run from DeLand to Orlando to Poinciana.

Simpson made no guarantees or endorsements but seemed generally positive about what he saw.

"It's amazing," Simpson told a group of about 75 leaders who gathered in Winter Park to press their case.

"We can't get people in one county and certain cities to get together for a project, and to have four counties get together is really amazing."
- More . . . Orlando Sentinel

Not so amazing, Mr. Simpson, when the getting together involves powerful corporate interests and "dozens of politicians and business leaders" who will benefit financially and politically from the deal.

Not so amazing that Orlando-area leaders are gleeful at the prospect of dumping a massive amount of their traffic and infrastructure problems on neighbors to their north and west.

What is amazing is that legislators from Florida's other sixty-three counties would give serious consideration to a plot hatched in secret, rushed along without comprehensive regional and state planning, and financed with taxpayer money at a time when the state is cutting vital services.

I urge approval of Rep. McKeel's amendment.

The state of Florida has an opportunity - and an obligation - to divert a win for the special interests of four counties into a comprehensive, visionary plan that benefits the entire state.

CSX freight traffic: 'S-line' may carry 56 trains

WILDWOOD — Since last April, the number of freight trains traveling through Sumter and Marion counties has nearly doubled, according to officials with CSX Corp.

Early last year, CSX, a Jacksonville-based rail line, told Wildwood City Manager Jim Stevens that 15 CSX freight trains travel on the “S-line” through the city on a daily basis; by October that number had jumped to 27, according to CSX spokesman Gary Sease, who provided no explanation for the nearly 50 percent increase in freight traffic in less than six months.

The significant increase likely will not be the city’s last.

In November, the state of Florida purchased nearly 62 miles of track from CSX. That strip of track stretches from DeLand in Volusia County to Poinciana in Osceola County, and will be used to help establish a commuter-rail system through Central Florida, a taxpayer-funded project aimed at helping alleviate traffic congestion in and around the Orlando area.

As a result of the track improvements, CSX will be able to run up to 56 trains daily along the “S line,” nearly double the current level.

“If you ask me am I happy about it … no,” said Jim Stevens. The large increase in freight moving through Wildwood, combined with what he considers a failure on the part of CSX to keep him informed, has the Wildwood city manager annoyed. Stevens says he has yet to be contacted by CSX regarding the exact number of trains that run through Wildwood on a daily basis or the number of additional trains that would be added after the improvements are complete.

• More . . . The Villages' Daily Sun

In Massachusetts, CSX told no-fault is a no-go

WORCESTER, MA - While state transportation officials continue negotiations with CSX Corp. to buy the railroad tracks between Worcester and Framingham, the state’s congressional delegation is threatening legislative action if CSX doesn’t accept a liability policy based on fault. [....]

In an interview yesterday, U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, knocked CSX’s argument that it is simply asking to maintain an industry standard.

"It is bad public policy for the Commonwealth to give no-fault liability to CSX or any other railroad," Mr. McGovern said.

He pointed to the company’s contracts with Amtrak, which, he said, have forced taxpayers to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for liability claims that were caused by CSX negligence.

"CSX is being unreasonable here," he said. "It’s nuts, it’s crazy to enter into this kind of agreement."

• More . . . Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Psst, get yer gossip here

Today's Orlando Sentinel, with an eye to the deal that would shift massive rail, warehousing and trucking operations to Polk County, carried a report on Polk bloggers: 'Bloggers in Polk work to create connections'. (Hat tip to Chuck at Lakeland Local.)

Joy Townsend, communications officer for the City of Winter Haven, was quoted in the article. Apparently she doesn't cotton to local bloggers who don't share her support for building "the mother of all rail yards" in Polk County. Information from bloggers isn't always credible, she concludes. "It's another way of gossip."

Well, one person's gossip may be another person's facts. CSX Corp., politicians and developers - and spokespersons for special interest groups - are always credible, right? Especially when they are sworn to secrecy in orchestrating corporate welfare behind closed doors. So how's a lowly blogger in the wastelands of Polk to compete with their superior levels of accuracy and integrity?

Far be it from me to question Ms. Townsend's credentials as a no-gossip, all business all the time, spokesperson for the narrow interests she is paid to represent. But as a descendant of pre-1820 settlers to the Florida Territory, comments like hers make me want to hitch up the old horse and buggy, mosey on over that vast terrain to "New Orlando" (or is it "East Orlampa"?) and join her quilting bee for some old-fashioned small talk. What better way to pass the day than rockin', sewin' and spinnin' yarns?

Now, mind you, you didn't hear this from me - but here's the kind of chitchat we bloggers... uh, gossips, can't resist:

• Call it "Tamplando." Or maybe "Orlampa." Either way, that vast stretch of land between Orlando and Tampa is like a buffet table flanked by two sumo wrestlers who skipped breakfast. Eventually, planners say, these giants will gobble up whatever is closest and collide somewhere in the middle.
  
  In fact, U.S. census figures confirm, the feasting already has started. In the past decade, the seven counties considered the interior of the Interstate 4 corridor added 700,000 residents -- much to the delight of pro-growth and business types in Polk County, that thick slab of prime real estate smack-dab in the middle.
  
  "We like to say that Copernicus and Galileo were wrong. Polk County is the center of the universe," says Jim DeGennaro, the highly enthusiastic senior vice president of the Central Florida Development Council, based in - you guessed it - Polk County. - Kate Santich, of The Orlando Sentinel

• The Lakeland-Winter Haven-Orlando areas were among the fastest in the nation at turning land from rural to urban during the 1980s and '90s, increasing urbanized land by 92 percent, according to The Brookings Institution, which based its research on the Department of Agriculture's National Resources Inventory, which attempts to measure the actual uses of land every few years. [....]
  
  Forecasting into the year 2050, national researchers paint a bleak picture if growth isn't managed: more clogged highways, loss of open space and aging infrastructure. [....]
  
  The New Orlando [that would be the Old Polk County], many old-timers say, brings everything they hate: too many people, too much noise, not enough resources. - Kelly Griffith, The Orlando Sentinel

• The Orlando area has long considered freight train traffic a major traffic and quality of life headache. It wants to be rid of it. - 2005 state study cited freight traffic headaches

• Not to bore readers with more gossip, but the latest chatter on the CSX controversy comes directly from newspaper editorialists across Florida.

• And, don't forget to check the blog of Bob Gernert, Executive Director, Winter Haven Chamber of Commerce. That kind of professional gossip makes us amateurs want to hitch a rail car right out of Hub Haven.

My apologies for today's shortage of rumors and hearsay. No doubt I'll have more time to write when I'm waiting in the traffic backups caused by all those freight trains and cargo trucks that Orlampa's more "credible" sources are working to bring us. My hope is that I won't be writing from the back of a stranded emergency vehicle - while the doctor waits on the other side of the tracks:

• CSX train creates traffic, safety issues in downtown Orlando
• Freight trains causing traffic nightmares in Winter Park

Tampa Bay Business Journal wants your opinion

Railroad crossing: The CSX hub plan in Winter Haven

There’s been a lot of news lately on CSX Corp. and its effort to build a gigantic rail hub and warehouse in Winter Haven. CSX says the hub will employ 200 people. If a distribution center is built in a second phase, up to 1,800 warehouse jobs could follow. For some in Winter Haven and around the state, the project is seen as an economic slam-dunk that will help ensure the city’s long-term financial future and spin-off a ton of regional economic prosperity.

But the effort has been dogged by issues related to property acquisition cost increases, public trust and transparency throughout the process, and concerns over the impact of several more trains diverted through downtown Lakeland. Last week, a state House panel gave first approval to legal exposure limits that CSX Corp. wants as part of a $491 million deal to bring commuter rail to Central Florida. But even that element has been controversial.

Given all that has transpired on the project, the newspaper is interested in how readers feel about it now. Has your opinion about it changed in one way or another? Please be specific in comments.

Survey Question: Do you support CSX Corp.'s effort to build a giant logistics rail hub in Winter Haven? Submit your vote and comments here.


Any time now, the peep's gov will save us

TAMPA - With apologies to the late Curtis Mayfield, "People get ready, there's a shame a coming."

For despite the fact the CSX corporate welfare legislation is about as stinky a piece of political poo-poo-pa-doo to foul the air in Tallahassee, the Florida Legislature continues to chug along as willing handmaidens to do the choo-choo company's bidding.

And what a bid it is, too! If CSX gets its way, in a state facing a $3 billion budget shortfall your elected representatives are on the verge of awarding a secret, backroom, in the heart of darkness $649 million stocking stuffer to a corporation that ranks 261 on the Fortune 500 list of the top U.S. companies.

This is like a Katrina victim being expected to pick up the dinner tab for Bill Gates.

• More . . . Tampa Tribune

More Florida newspapers oppose CSX deal

Tampa Tribune: 'Secret deal for CSX hub lays bare shady practices at DOT'
Just when you thought the state's secret deal with CSX Transportation could not smell worse, more pollution comes flowing from Tallahassee. [....]

It's time for Crist to pull this contract and renegotiate it on behalf of all Floridians. Crist's silence is unbecoming for a governor who says he believes in transparency.

Gainseville Sun: 'CSX pot gets sweeter'
It was sinful that some in state government brokered this huge piece of corporate welfare in the shadows outside of the view of the public or most legislators. But what makes the state's arrangement with CSX even more outrageous is that taxpayers would be on the hook for paying damages related to an accident caused by anyone using the 61-mile commuter line, including CSX and its employees.

St. Pete Times: 'Put brakes on rail project in Orlando'
There is a legitimate state interest in bringing commuter rail to the Orlando area. But the cost and the route have to be right, the impacts have to be reasonable and the public has to have the opportunity to shape this instrument of growth in the region. The Legislature should slow down and demand more answers before moving ahead with CSX.

Ledger: 'The tale of two states'
While many legislators in Tallahassee are rolling over for CSX, those in Massachusetts are asking some hard questions. Rep. Robert P. Spellane, said CSX wanted "the taxpayer to assume all liability, regardless of fault, which to me is just fundamentally wrong."

Polk County Democrat: 'Subsidy to CSX is needed in other places'
We think the Legislature needs to devote a lot more study, and let a lot more Florida Sunshine focus on this proposal. As a minimum, we think this is a project that the state, in its current financial condition, cannot afford. If it’s a great idea this year, it will still be a great idea next year. And by then, perhaps its greatness would pass muster with the taxpayers.

Ocala Star-Banner: 'A capital railroad job'
It is shameful that our former governor and our lawmakers, notably state Sen. Carey Baker, R-Eustis, allowed this deal to be tip-toed through the Legislature without any conversation.

Shame on the architects of the CSX deal. The people got railroaded on this one.

Palm Beach Post: 'Block railway bailout'
The sweetheart deal that the Florida Department of Transportation negotiated behind the scenes last year and signed with CSX Corp. would give even the term "corporate welfare" a bad name.

Everything about this deal is wrong for the state, which is why Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink opposes it. To make things worse, state transportation officials signed a confidentiality agreement as they were negotiating it, then tucked the deal into a larger bill.

On Tuesday, Gov. Crist held a media event to praise Sunshine Week, the celebration of the state's open-records and open-meetings laws. If he's true to that sentiment, the governor also will reject a deal - if it gets to his desk - that excessively subsidizes a private company and puts the public on the hook for that company's wrongdoing. This trade-off doesn't work for Florida.

This list of editorials was compiled by Julie Townsend, Downtown Lakeland Partnership.

CSX Rail Updates - March 24-29

CSX deal shaky as price tag rises 32 percent
TAMPA - The cost of the state's commuter rail deal with CSX has risen by a nearly a third, from $491 million to $649 million, according to the latest Florida Department of Transportation estimates.

"The project seems to be growing in costs every time we turn around and ask more questions," said state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey. He's one of several state lawmakers who are questioning whether Florida should spend so much money on railroads in a year when needed highway projects are being cut from the state budget. [....]

The railroad company won't sell its Orlando area tracks unless the state signs a deal that frees the company of liability in a commuter train accident. The House Infrastructure Committee approved a bill including the provision last week. [....]

It makes Florida taxpayers liable for harm that may come to commuter passengers, regardless of who is at fault. - Tampa Tribune

CSX freight train hits Boston commuter train, 150 injured
CANTON, Mass. - Investigators are trying to figure out how a runaway freight train car could roll nearly three miles before slamming into a commuter train in Canton Tuesday, injuring 150 people.

The CSX freight car, loaded with lumber, rolled from where it had been parked at a lumber yard and traveled onto the Stoughton commuter rail branch line, then onto the main line where it struck the passenger train's locomotive near Canton Junction just before 5:30 p.m. - Story links

Lakeland softens CSX strategy
TALLAHASEE - The city of Lakeland worked the halls of Tallahassee on Tuesday, morphing from the community that had a train problem to a problem-solver for the state.

Lakeland officials are trying to become a player rather than a spoiler in Orlando's quest for a commuter train system as they press for ways to soften the impact of a plan by CSX to route more rail traffic through Lakeland.

Pitching mostly to the Polk legislators, City Commissioner Gow Fields pushed for separate commuter and freight rails - a plan he said would ease traffic along the Interstate 4 corridor by leaving commuter rail lines near people and rerouting freight rail somewhere else. [....]

In the terse resolution earlier this year, Lakeland asked for an analysis on rerouting trains and the impacts of a new rail hub in Winter Haven. The city wanted the Florida Department of Transportation to get those answers before spending $491 million in a deal with CSX that would buy 61 miles of track for Orlando's commuter rail, move a rail hub to Winter Haven and prompt a shift in the freight line that would bring more trains through Lakeland.

The FDOT has since agreed to do a study on the impacts from the rail center and the feasibility of rerouting freight traffic around Lakeland. That analysis is expected to cost about $750,000 and begin next month. - Lakeland Ledger

Lawyer sues state over CSX deal
TALLAHASSEE - With costs going up and some lawmakers cringing over liability risks, the $650-million commuter rail project for Orlando faces another complaint over its handling by state officials. A lawyer running to be a Leon County Circuit Judge, Mark E. Walker, sued the Florida Department of Transportation this week over a confidentiality agreement it struck with CSX in 2006.

"My visceral reaction is it doesn't smell good," said Walker, whose case says the information isn't exempt from public records laws. - St. Petersburg Times

CSX predicts 'negligible' traffic and environmental impacts from 'mother of all rail yards'
BARTOW - Traffic and environmental issues won't be major problems, CSX officials are claiming in an extensive response to questions raised in January regarding a proposed rail freight terminal in Winter Haven. [....]

The January round of questions sought more details of the project's transportation and environmental impacts. The 318-acre site, which CSX purchased from Winter Haven for $6.9 million in September, is planned as a facility that will transfer automobiles and other freight from rail cars to trucks, which will then transport the goods to businesses throughout Central Florida.

The proposed facility would combine the functions of a CSX freight yard at Taft in southern Orange County and an auto transport facility near Tampa International Airport. - Lakeland Ledger

Plans are laid for enormous growth of intermodal terminal
The projected $100 million facility would off-load containers from trains for placement on trucks headed to distribution centers, said Richard Hood, assistant vice president of CSX Real Property. It will be located on 1,250 acres with two miles of rail frontage, according to Hood, who said it is the first development of its kind east of the Mississippi.

"Primarily at the beginning it will feed the consumer demand of the state of Florida for goods coming from the West Coast ports," Hood said. "As the growth of the Southeast ports happens, like at Port Manatee, Tampa and Jacksonville, there's an opportunity to feed this as a distribution point for goods to the Midwest and the northern part of the country. If something comes in to the Port of Manatee and the destination is Ohio or Indianapolis, the containers could be sent to those destinations and beyond."

"It's one more important tool that we have to market the port," said Steve Tyndal, Port Manatee's senior director of trade development and special projects. "If a shipper in Asia knows that a sophisticated intermodal facility like the one proposed for Winter Haven is only an hour away, that means we could more easily sell Port Manatee as a port of entry.

"Port Manatee is already well served by CSX but the new facility in Winter Haven will help drive capacity, specifically for containerized cargo," Tyndal said. "And that's important because the Panama Canal is expanding and the port is taking a proactive measure now to be ready for when that happens." - Bradenton Herald, Sept. 20, 2007, Port hopes rail brings growth

See also. . . NAFTA rail deal: Whistleblower says it's about carrying cheap China goods