There’s some mutterings about the over $1 billion Florida received in HSR stimulus money yesterday. After all, we’re trying to hurl the U.S. into the new century and galvanize the country’s transportation system — so what about the West and Ease Coasts? Well, look closely and you’ll see that Florida does have some major benefits going for it. As Brookings Scholar Robert Puentes noted, the Tampa-Orlando corridor is more “shovel ready” than many of its competitors — it already cleared the environmental impact assessment stage, as well as other procedural hurdles, and successfully leveraged private sector funds — the Disney Corporation donated $25 million in land for one of the station locations. Plus a private partner, as opposed to the state, will assume the risk of ridership revenue to cover the system’s costs. The state also owns a whopping 90% of the right-of-way along the route, a result of the state’s gunning for high speed rail for years now — since 2000, to be exact. Shouldn’t the early entrant be rewarded?
Plus, as Puentes states, Florida has the potential to be a national showcase project: “One lesson our European competitors have taught us is that it is important to get the initial investment right. Then demand for additional investments increases, political and public support follows, and the national system is built incrementally.”
As for Florida’s economic impact, Adie Tomer at the New Republic brings up some good points:
The Tampa and Orlando metropolitan areas, along with their sandwiched neighbor Lakeland, were home to almost 3.4 million people in 2008. That year their economies produced $230.6 billion of economic output, more than the Czech Republic. A huge part of this is the vibrant tourist industry: Few places in the world give visitors simultaneous access to many top theme parks, multiple world-class beaches, and bona fide big city culture all within 120 miles. A pleasurable and useful train ride won’t just benefit Floridians, and could become an additional beacon to visitors across the country.
And as an added bonus, the state projects to have the corridor built by 2015 — over a decade sooner than California. And if it becomes the first completed HSR line in the country, just imagine how a successful line could motivate other states to complete their own. And heaven knows, with costs in the multi-billions, motivation will be much needed.
January 29th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Florida isn’t building a Tampa-Orlando-Miami corridor. It’s building a Tampa-Orlando Airport corridor. This makes Florida the second government in the world to build its HSR starter line away from its largest metro area. The first is Saudi Arabia, which is building its HSR away from Riyadh, serving Mecca and Medina instead to handle the crush loads of Hajj pilgrims. And while Disneyland is a major tourist destination, its crowding is nowhere near this of Mecca, and at any rate the crowds would probably want to go to Miami more than Tampa.
January 29th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
Hi Melissa,
I just wanted to correct something in your post. I work for the CA High Speed Rail Authority—we project having our first phase of our system from San Francisco to Anaheim up and operational by 2020. We might have some corridors functioning in some capacity as soon as 2017-2018. Reference: http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/images/chsr/20091223222521_CHSRA_Business_Plan_Dec_2009.pdf#page=54
Congrats to Florida and the other states that received high-speed rail funds! We wish them all much success and we will be watching them all, especially Florida, very closely.
January 29th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
[...] of spending won’t be enough for even one true high-speed line”, while Infrastructurist explains why the prioritization of the Orlando-Tampa line, which is slated to receive $1.25 billion, makes [...]
January 29th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
“One lesson our European competitors have taught us is that it is important to get the initial investment right. Then demand for additional investments increases, political and public support follows, and the national system is built incrementally.”
So the question is… Is this Tampa-Orlando route the right initial investment? I dont mean just the Tampa-Orlando market but also the routing/termini within that corridor.
Is there somewhere where one can see the specifics like RoW, station locations, preliminary schedules, travel times, potential for TOD, connecting transit, parking, onboard services, station services, avg speed, etc.
I have no doubt this will be successful if built right and goes all the way to downtown miami, downtown tampa, downtown orlando, their respective airports, disneyworld, florida east coast, etc.
January 29th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
That corridor looks really convenient for the fast buildout, but if it doesn’t develop ridership, then it will be a convenient whipping boy for the highway lobby.
January 29th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Please. Anything that quotes Tampa or Orlando as being bona fide big city makes me wonder what the heck they’re smoking. Big sprawl is all they are. And of course as Alon has rightly pointed out, Orlando isnt even on the route. Its going from WDW to the airport. Which as a tourist from the north who used to live there I have no problem in my personal only use. But as someone who wants this to be a correct and well thought out job and rail line, i go back to my what the heck are they smoking.
I personally am a bit disappointed this system got so much money. But hey I understand it. Large swing state. They’re trying to buy votes. That’s all this is. The plan is poor. The routing is poor. And the people they’re getting to defend them sound like they’ve never been on a train in their life or out of the local area.
January 29th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
@Chris, I couldn’t agree more! This Florida Rail plan is ill-conceived. Jamming tracks between a 6 lane highway isn’t the way to move forward in bringing passenger rail back to The States. This project would ignore Tampa’s beautiful Union station only so the politicians can have another “ground-breaking” photo op north of Downtown at the site of an old jail.
Connectivity is KEY! without it, this and other projects will fail, and rail will be set back for a couple more decades…
As a side note, Florida was requesting $250 million or 1/10 of this project’s cost to re-install 90 mph amtrak service 300 miles along the east coast from Jacksonville to Miami, with 8 stations close to the main streets of those communities, did that get funded? NO! we want the Mickey Train!!~!~!~!
January 29th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Yes, it is true the HSR will go to Orlando International Airport. But, it is incorrect that it is building away from Florida’s largest cities. OIA is less than 10 miles from Downtown Orlando, hardly “away from the metro area”. What you also fail to mention is the plan to connect with a local light rail system that will service the local neighborhoods. Taking the bullet train through Downtown Orlando would require using existing surface right-of-way, or condeming miles of private property. It would also make the connection to the next phase, the link to Miami, much more difficult and expensive. The light rail system is designed to use existing surface right-of-ways, and perform in congested areas.
As with air travel, the HSR’s main purpose is to bring travelers between cities. To bring a bullet train through a congested city on surface tracks would be dangerous and irresponsible. Placing the terminal at the airport meets the needs of connecting major cities, just as airlines do. It also services the tourists, who will make the HSR profitable. Connecting it with a local light rail system serves the local residents. As a resident of Downtown Orlando, it seems to be a perfect solution, bringing the highest benefit to the greatest number of people.
January 29th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
[...] While many people don’t want a Tampa-Orlando link now (partially because of the lack transit connections at each terminal), the St. Petersburg Times editorial describes the specific types of trips people would make. Last October, the Disney corporation said it supported the train and would donate 50 acres of land for a station. Lastly, Infrastructurist provides a closer look at why Florida was ahead of the pack. [...]
January 29th, 2010 at 7:17 pm
Bill M: everywhere else in the world, HSR stations aren’t 10 miles from downtown - they’re the historic downtown stations. The one major exception, Shin-Osaka, is 2 miles from Osaka, the farthest among major cities in the world; it’s connected by one subway line to downtown Osaka and multiple commuter lines to the rest of the region’s important cities, all with easy transfer opportunities to the rest of the rapid transit network, which is the second largest in the world, after Tokyo’s.
Intercity service needs to be competitive not just on travel time on the main segment, but also on access and egress times. At a conference of California rail expert, the consensus was that California HSR was a great idea, but it needed more connecting transit. While the connecting transit to LA Union Station and SF Transbay Terminal isn’t the best, it’s light years ahead of what will ever be available at Orlando Airport.
Diverting traffic from air is easy. Even total failures like Eurostar have a high share of the air/rail market. The traffic that distinguishes failure from success is induced demand and diverted car traffic. If it takes 10 miles of light rail to get to the HSR station, then it will be faster to just drive the whole way. You can’t treat HSR like a flight on rails; it needs much higher traffic levels than air to be a sound investment.
January 29th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
As a Florida native and a civil engineering student I would like to be my two cents in about the Florida HSR system. The major problem I believe the system will face at first is that it needs metro light rail systems in the major cities to be fully functionally. Imagine being able to catch a local neighborhood train that can take you all over the city or to a HSR station with access to the rest of Florida. A new right system will take years to build and cost billions but what choice do we have? Comparing cost per mile building tracks is cheaper than adding lanes to highways. Also rail systems done right will decrease pollution, traffic congestion, and spark dense urban development in cities. The Tampa to Orlando route is the first step in creating a whole new transportation system that will make moving around the state a lot easier. As a state and nation we need to be patient and supportive about fixing our infrastructure problems because they developed over years of poor planing and under funding.
January 30th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
A little more imagination would voice support for Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) to collect and feed riders to the HSR stations. PRT will soon be in a test production application supporting Heathrow Airport moving riders between Terminal 5 and a parking lot. Benefits include swift connections without waiting for a bus (no schedule; on demand) and no drivers so it runs 24/7.
January 30th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
everywhere else in the world, HSR stations aren’t 10 miles from downtown ….
You are assuming that Orlando has a downtown….
February 1st, 2010 at 5:09 pm
Umm hate to break it to the author, but there is already a HSR line in the US, the Acela line running from Boston to NYC.
Alas, the train rarely reaches its top speed of 150 mph because of tilt-laws rich residents don’t want a bullet train blasting through their neighborhoods along the coast.
Obama should have given the Northeast the money to finish a project started years ago, and finish it right. Then he could showcase that and have it done in 2-3 years. Instead, we got shafted in funding.
February 1st, 2010 at 10:16 pm
Chris, I think the NIMBYism in Connecticut is more against curve straightening than about higher speeds. The main constituency for keeping the Acela slow is Metro-North, which likes all trains to go at the same speed in order to be able to run trains at high capacity without needing timed overtakes at stations. In a better world Amtrak would be threatening Metro-North with throttling all of its sister agencies, which use Amtrak infrastructure at Penn Station and on the Shore Line east of New Haven; in the current world, Amtrak’s resigned to low cant deficiencies and slow speeds.
March 8th, 2010 at 8:02 am
High speed rail network helps to the transportation made easy in Orlando. such projects are needed to implement in the countries like India, where transportation and traffic is a huge barrier to travel.