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December 14, 2008
Why can't we get rail? One word: Boneheads

Mike Thomas | Orlando Sentinel COMMENTARY
December 14, 2008

All aboard?

We have this jinxed relationship with choo-choos.

Whether it is light rail or commuter rail, we get all the planning done, get the money lined up, get the Editorial Board fired up and then -- bam! -- we get chopped off at the caboose.

To quote Thomas the Tank Engine: "Bust my buffers!"

But keeping hope alive, the political powers that be are preparing to shop their commuter train in the Legislature next session after getting rejected earlier this year.

The planned 61-mile route would link four Central Florida counties.

It is not often that you can buy a mass-transit corridor through the heart of an urban blob. It would be like giving an amoeba a backbone.

And then to this backbone we would attach ribs -- smaller rail lines or shuttle buses -- creating at least a disjointed structure to our budding Los Angeles.

Tying our future to Interstate 4 commutes is like tying a rock around our necks and jumping in Lake Apopka.

I have taken issue with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer on many things. But he understands this, even if it is from a parochial vantage point.

Buddy envisions downtown Orlando as the sparkling heart of a growing urban jungle.

People will flock there to be entertained -- to eat, watch movies, see Broadway shows, throw up on the sidewalk in front of Tabu and watch the Magic lose to the Clippers.

But long-term, none of that works without this train.

There is not the road or parking capacity required to bring in all the bodies needed for all this planned fun -- assuming Orlando remains solvent after paying for it.

This train will begin as a commuter line to get people to work.

Over time it will grow into much more than that. It will become a transit and trade corridor, our version of China's old Silk Road.

This is why I am so bemused by those in Winter Park -- the City of Angst -- trying to get out of a deal to build a station next to Park Avenue.

Imagine the merchants of this chic shopping district severed from the region's major trade route.

A developer has picked up on this lunacy and is lobbying to get the station moved to his planned project closer to Winter Park Village. He understands the future.

Those who would give up this rail stop on Park Avenue understand the past. This rail line will create and condense development along its path because commerce travels the path of least resistance.

This is how the new world is shaping up, and how the Old World in Europe has adapted with gasoline prices that are more than triple what we pay.

And now we have President-elect Barack Obama ready to pour billions into the effort.

But we also confront crashing tax revenues, a plague of foreclosures, rising unemployment, uninsured children, closing schools and laid-off teachers. Demand for state services is skyrocketing while money to pay for them is rapidly diminishing.

The train money has been set aside -- but raiding it for other needs is only a matter of mustering the votes to do so.

Competition for money always is intense and fierce.

It is about to get ruthless and savage.

Opponents of this rail project will use the budget crisis to try to kill it. These foes include trial lawyers, who fear the deal won't allow them enough profit from train wrecks, and Lakeland Sen. Paula Dockery, who fears freight traffic routed around Orlando to accommodate commuter trains will wind up in her district.

It is incredibly shortsighted, but Tallahassee is all about the here and now.

So I'm not counting on the jinx being broken. And that's a shame not just for us but for the entire state.


Mike Thomas can be reached at 407-420-5525 or mthomas@orlandosentinel.com.