The trimmed state budget blocks starting the main Tampa-Orlando route and extending it to St. Petersburg.
By JEAN HELLER
Published May 31, 2003
TAMPA - The state budget approved by the Legislature this week will stall efforts to bring high-speed rail to St. Petersburg and Miami and to create a link between Tampa and Orlando.
Now it is doubtful that the state can meet the constitutional mandate to begin construction of the bullet train by November.
The budgetary impediment is the latest development in a struggle between supporters of high-speed rail and its opponents, including Gov. Jeb Bush. The Legislature is divided; some members tried but failed during the regular session this year to put the measure back on the ballot and give voters a chance to change their minds.
But the constitutional amendment requiring high-speed rail, which voters approved in 2000, remains the law.
The fact that some of the project will be stalled surprised some members of the state High Speed Rail Authority, which met Friday in Tampa.
"You mean there's no money in the budget for St. Petersburg?" board member William Dunn asked.
Nazih Haddad, staff director of the authority, nodded.
Haddad said the agency requested $11.2-million. That included money to study how to extend Phase One of the rail system, the Tampa-Orlando leg, to St. Petersburg and Miami.
But the budget approved by lawmakers provides $7.2-million, effectively eliminating planning for the expanded system, at least for this year.
According to Haddad, the budget bill also requires the authority to go back to the Legislature for approval before it enters into a contract with either of the two consortiums that want to build the first leg of the rail. The authority can indicate which contractor it prefers, but nothing gets signed and sealed without legislative approval.
The Legislature will not have the opportunity to take up the rail issue again in a regular session until next year, well past the amendment's November deadline for starting construction.
Furthermore, Bush has yet to sign the budget and could exercise a line-item veto that would put the authority out of business for the year.
The budget also contains $4.9-million for the authority to study intermodal centers in Tampa, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale. Intermodal centers are hubs that link high-speed rail, light rail, airports, buses and other forms of transportation.
State Sen. Jim Sebesta, R-St. Petersburg, urged the authority board to complete the study of the intermodal centers before it makes final decisions on high-speed rail routes.
"Right now, the plan assumes that the Tampa station will be east of downtown, but is that the right place for it?" Sebesta asked. "Maybe the intermodal center ought to be at West Shore. Maybe it should be farther east. I don't know. Should there be one for the bay area or should there be two, one in Tampa and one in St. Petersburg? Nobody knows.
"You don't want to build the center in one place and have the track wind up somewhere else."
Craig Lentzsch, president and chief executive officer of Greyhound Lines, seconded Sebesta's concerns about the need for intermodal centers.
"High-speed rail can only be successful if it is high-speed," Lentzsch said. "Every stop makes it slower."
He said it is critical to let the train link up with other modes of transportation that can travel "the last mile."
Despite the budgetary limitations, the authority board plans to decide on a preferred route for the Tampa-Orlando leg as early as next month.
The route selection is more important in Orlando than in Tampa because of an edict that if the train stops near International Drive, home to Disney competitors, then Disney won't allow a train station near its complex. That could rob the train of 2.2-million riders a year.
The authority also plans to decide between its two competing contractors by October, even though it can't make any commitments to the winner.
