- Members: Chair: Senator Mike Fasano (R) Vice Chair: Senator Anthony C. "Tony" Hill, Sr. (D) Senator Alex Diaz de la Portilla (R) Senator Paula Dockery (R) Senator Andy Gardiner (R) Senator Christopher L. "Chris" Smith (D) Senator Ronda Storms (R)
A Call for Help from the Executive Director
We are in a battle for dedicated funding in the Florida Legislation. I do not use the term "battle" loosely, because we are truly in a fight for survival. I am calling on you to support us as we need you more than ever!
We are facing reduced funding from the counties and the state legislature!
The counties cannot be faulted for their decision to reduce funding; they are struggling just as we are. As I announced at last Friday's meeting of the Governing Board, if the counties reduce their funding assistance and the legislature provides no dedicated funding source, we will have no choice but to reduce service to potentially as few as 30 trains a day and suspend service on the weekends and holidays, as of October 5, 2009.
I know these service reductions will create tremendous hardship for those of you who have come to depend on Tri-Rail to get you to work, school, medical appointments or for leisure travel. Your Governor, State Representatives and Senators need to hear about what these hardships will mean to you and your families.
Last year, more than 7,100 of you responded to our request for help. I cannot urge you strongly enough to let your voice be heard again this year. To send a message of support for dedicated funding to your elected officials in Tallahassee, log onto www.tri-rail.com/FundOrFail
I thank you for your continued support at a time when it is so important.
Joe Giulietti
Executive Director
South Florida Regional Transportation Authority
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This letter follows on the heels of these recent newspaper editorials and news articles:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-editdltrirailpnmar22,0,6744946.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board
March 22, 2009
The recent announcement that Tri-Rail will cut service later this year shouldn't surprise anyone. Tri-Rail has been on the financial ropes for some time. The fact that county budget cuts forced the service reduction is unsettling, however.
Starting in October, Tri-Rail will run only 30 trains during the workweek and offer no service on the weekends. The service cuts will undermine efforts to boost mass transit in South Florida and help convince federal transportation officials in Washington that Florida is a bad bet for commuter rail.
Officials in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties long have sided with the commuter line's operators in urging Florida lawmakers for a dedicated funding source to replace state general revenue and local government appropriations.
In recent years, Tri-Rail and its local government advocates have come close to procuring the elusive funding source. Unfortunately, this isn't horseshoes.
Efforts to create a new $2 rental car tax have stalled - again - in the Florida Legislature. All this comes at a time when lawmakers are considering legislation to start a similar commuter rail operation in Central Florida. While there's little in the SunRail proposal to prevent the new line from suffering the fate awaiting Tri-Rail, hard facts don't seem to be slowing down efforts to start a new rail line.
So now South Florida officials are left in limbo, hoping the Legislature does the unexpected. A new rental fee would not only help Tri-Rail , but also SunRail and at least two other regional commuter lines local officials in Tampa and Jacksonville hope to one day implement.
Unfortunately, state leaders are heading down the wrong track. Their insistence that local governments raise enough revenue on their own to operate commuter rail lines flies in the face of economic and political reality. But that won't become clear until Tri-Rail collapses and takes down Florida's hopes for successful, viable commuter rail service with it.
BOTTOM LINE: As goes Tri-Rail , so will Florida.
Reader comments at: http://www.topix.net/forum/source/south-florida-sun-sentinel/THNFOGEVLKL1R59NV
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Broward County version:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/custom/consumer/sfl-flbrail0328sbmar28,0,6212484.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Tri-Rail considering raising fares, eliminating weekend service
Reported by Michael Turnbell
Related links
March 28, 2009
Passengers could pay more to ride Tri-Rail starting in June.
But looming larger this fall, there could be drastically fewer trains on weekdays and no service on weekends.
Tri-Rail's board of directors will hold a public hearing April 24 to discuss raising fares by 25 percent, the first increase since 1995. If approved, one-way fares to travel the full 72 miles between Miami International Airport and Mangonia Park would rise from $5.50 to $6.90 on June 1. A monthly adult pass would cost $100.
With the three counties it serves threatening budget cuts, Tri-Rail is trying to persuade the state Legislature to approve a new $2 rental car tax in South Florida.
If no new dedicated revenue source is found, Executive Director Joseph Giulietti said Tri-Rail will reduce service from 50 to 30 trains on weekdays and no weekend service starting Oct. 5.
Reader comments at: http://www.topix.net/forum/source/south-florida-sun-sentinel/T5BTGV5B2COG1TRM4
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Palm Beach County version:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/custom/consumer/sfl-flprail0328pnmar28,0,234928.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Tri-Rail might raise fares 25 percent, sharply reduce service
Palm Beach County weighs funding cut
By Michael Turnbell
March 28, 2009
Passengers could pay more to ride Tri-Rail starting in June.
But looming larger this fall, there could be drastically fewer trains on weekdays and no service on weekends.
Tri-Rail's board of directors will hold a public hearing April 24 to discuss raising fares by 25 percent, the first increase since 1995. If approved, one-way fares to travel the 72 miles between Miami International Airport and Mangonia Park would rise from $5.50 to $6.90 on June 1. A monthly adult pass would cost $100.
With the three counties it serves threatening budget cuts, Tri-Rail is trying to persuade the state Legislature to approve a new $2 rental car tax in South Florida.
Cash-strapped Palm Beach County officials have said they will cut Tri-Rail's annual subsidy from $4.1 million to $1.5 million in the next budget year. If that happens, Broward and Miami-Dade counties are expected to do the same.
If no new dedicated revenue source is found, Executive Director Joseph Giulietti said Tri-Rail will reduce service from 50 to 30 trains on weekdays and no weekend service starting Oct. 5.
Under that scenario, Tri-Rail could be in jeopardy of defaulting on more than $300 million in federal grants it received to build a second track. The Federal Transit Administration gave Tri-Rail the money in exchange for a pledge to run at least 48 trains on weekdays.
Michael Turnbell can be reached at mturnbell@SunSentinel.com, 954-356-4155 or 561-243-6550.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/columnists/sfl-dlcol28sbmar28,0,885706.column
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
TriRail derailment a bad sign for SunRail
Douglas C. Lyons, Senior Editorial Writer
March 28, 2009
"And where is Tri-Rail?"
The words hung in the air, like a foul odor.
State Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, earned his reputation as a steely enforcer, going back to his days as the House Majority Leader who'd sit in on committee meetings in stony silence to make sure his fellow Republicans voted the right way. State Sen. Durell Peaden Jr., R-Crestview, a fellow Senate Judiciary member, apparently drew Fasano's ire by bringing up Tri-Rail while questioning a bill before the panel that would allow the state to pay more than $2 billion to use a stretch of CSX tracks in the Orlando area for a new commuter line called SunRail.
Peaden, staring out at an audience of lobbyists, local politicians and representatives of various business interests who had come to Tallahassee two weeks ago to support SunRail, worried that the state's seven-year commitment to pay to operate the rail line would take money away from other worthy programs, like educating schoolchildren or caring for the sick and elderly.
But Peaden apparently crossed the line when he mentioned Tri-Rail and then offered an amendment that would create a designated funding source that would take the financial burden to pay for commuter rail lines off local governments.
Fasano wasn't having it. After making sure Peaden knew Tri-Rail's location, he, in essence, went on to declare that if the residents of South Florida wanted Tri-Rail, they'd have to pay for it. This from the man who chairs the Senate committee that appropriates money for road construction and mass transit projects in Florida.
The audience seemed appreciative, but I'm not sure they got the point. Fast forward from that earlier hearing to yesterday, when Tri-Rail officials announced they would reduce the number of trains during the week and end weekend service because of cuts in local funding and the state's failure to come up with a designated funding source. Tri-Rail, they said, could cease operating within three years.
If SunRail becomes reality, its operators will discover the hard truths of running a commuter rail line on a wink, nod and annual appropriations from state and local governments, something their counterparts in South Florida have known for some time.
Doug Lyons can be reached at dlyons@sun-sentinel.com, 954-356-4638 or 561-243-6601.
Reader comments at: http://www.topix.net/forum/source/south-florida-sun-sentinel/TVH8RLF4S23A7GMAF
The only comment here so far, is a very well-written one from J. Bruce Richardson of Jacksonville, who is President of United Rail Passenger Alliance, whose bio is here: http://www.unitedrail.org/about/bio/j-bruce-richardson/
See also: http://www.unitedrail.org.
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Talk Back South Florida blog, from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel editorial board
(formerly known as The Slant)
STATE SEN. MIKE FASANO SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT.
Douglas C. Lyons, Senior Editorial Writer
March 30, 2009
First he has no problem with Tri-Rail obtaining a designated funding source. He just doesn't think the state government should do it.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-editdltrirailpnmar22,0,6744946.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Tri-Rail's success is critical to mass transit's future in Florida
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board
March 22, 2009
Tri-Rail may be breaking ridership records, but it's on fiscal life support.
Since its inception, Florida's only commuter rail service has been operating hat-in-hand, relying on the collective charity of annual contributions from the state and the three counties in which it operates. That's a poor substitute for the way all other commuter rail lines across the country are funded, namely with a reliable, dedicated revenue source, and it is a funding recipe for disaster in a state that hopes to expand mass transit to other parts of Florida.
Currently, the Florida Legislature is considering a bill that would establish a new commuter rail line, called SunRail, along a section of CSX tracks in the Orlando area. The proposal, according to its proponents, is critical to revitalizing Central Florida's economy and ultimately create a commuter rail line along the I-4 corridor.
Unfortunately, the SunRail proposal comes with an upfront $1.2 billion price tag, and critics have raised doubts about contractual language that could transfer all liability from the CSX freight line to Florida taxpayers. It's a very sweet deal for CSX, but apparently, such is the price one pays for using existing freight lines for passenger service in this state.
The deal also sets up SunRail enthusiasts for a future conundrum that South Florida has learned too well via its own experience with Tri-Rail. The state of Florida, along with the federal government, will pay for the bulk of SunRail's operations in the first seven years — as it did for Tri-Rail. After that, the local communities will be asked to pony up, and that's where the fun begins.
Squeezed by a bad economy, local officials in Broward and Palm Beach counties are now considering deep cuts to their contributions to Tri-Rail. If Tri-Rail is fortunate, it may muddle along with operating 30 trains during the workweek — and no trains at all on the weekends. If the two counties decide to forego their contributions altogether, Tri-Rail officials say they will be forced to shut down operations completely within two years.
Shutting down Tri-Rail for lack of operating capital is an option Florida cannot afford.
Some short-sighted lawmakers may chalk up the commuter line's misfortunes as a local problem. But Washington will be hard-pressed to provide significant funding for new commuter rail lines to a state that allowed its only existing one, which carried 16,000 passengers a day, to languish and fail because lawmakers in Tallahassee were reluctant to establish a dedicated funding source to pay for the service.
In other areas of the country, a consistent pot of money beyond a state's general revenue fund is a key fixture that pays for the operations of commuter rail lines. Florida needs such a plan, but a rental car surcharge advocated by South Florida officials and Tri-Rail backers has languished for years in Tallahassee.
Even so, Tri-Rail remains a linchpin in Florida's efforts to expand mass transit.
The success of SunRail, and similar ideas on the drawing boards in Tampa and Jacksonville, must have a viable example to follow if state leaders hope to ease the gridlock and traffic congestion that clogs many roads throughout Florida. A properly funded Tri-Rail, through a dedicated funding source, fits that model best.
Tri-Rail officials, again, are pushing for a new tax on car rentals to generate ample operating money for the South Florida commuter line and the mass transit projects across the state.
If state lawmakers really want mass transit to succeed in Florida, they had better move quickly to make sure that the money is in place to ensure that all regional transportation authorities have the funds they need to operate commuter rail lines, be they already in operation or new ones in the making.
Reader comments at: http://www.topix.net/forum/source/south-florida-sun-sentinel/THNFOGEVLKL1R59NV
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/custom/consumer/sfl-flptrirail0318sbmar18,0,3407125.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Palm Beach County, Legislature fight looms over Tri-Rail
By Andy Reid
March 18, 2009
Playing chicken with the Florida Legislature over Tri-Rail, Palm Beach County commissioners plan to withhold millions needed to keep the commuter trains rolling if legislators don't approve a rental car tax to spread the expense.
The County Commission on Tuesday joined supporters in Broward and Miami-Dade counties in calling on the Legislature to approve using a $2 surcharge on car rentals to help pay for Tri-Rail.
In addition, the commission agreed that if the Legislature failed to approve the rental fee, the county would do away with the $3 million it has been paying above state requirements to keep the commuter train line running. That could force the state to pick up the tab or find the money elsewhere.
Palm Beach County's required share of paying for Tri-Rail service is about $4 million per year, but the county has paid $3 million on top of that to help cover Tri-Rail costs.
County Commissioner Burt Aaronson said the goal is to "send the message" to the Legislature to pass the $2 fee proposal, which has been stalled for more than 5 years.
Reader comments at: http://www.topix.net/forum/source/south-florida-sun-sentinel/TBK2C5L51BCIFDNHO
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South Florida Sun-Sentinel
STUDY TO LOOK AT RAISING COST TO RIDE TRI-RAIL
The agency is conducting a one-month study on the train's existing fares, which were last adjusted 14 years ago.
Tri-Rail's board of directors will review the results in March. If they recommend fares go up, a public hearing could be held in April with the hike going into effect on June 1.
Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion, Tri-Rail's board chairman, said he supports a fare increase but only if the entire fare structure, including the cost of transfers to bus systems in the three counties, is considered.
Broward County Transit, Palm Tran and Miami-Dade Transit have all raised fares in the last year.
But board member George Morgan said higher fares may be a tough sell if Tri-Rail can't run its trains on time. "What are we going to do about improving that?" he said.
In the past, Tri-Rail blamed its on-time performance woes on construction or CSX, the freight operator that dispatches all trains on the corridor.
Mechanical breakdowns are the main problem now, Tri-Rail Executive Director Joseph Giulietti said.
Tri-Rail hopes to purchase as many as five new locomotives and 10 additional passenger cars this year with federal economic stimulus money.
In 1995, fares went from a flat fee to a structure that charges riders based on how far they travel.
A monthly adult pass is $80. Among other comparable commuter railroads, the Virginia Railway Express charges $74.30 to $270 for a monthly pass.
San Diego's Coaster charges $144 to $182. Nashville's Music City Star charges $134 to $168.
Dallas' Trinity Railway Express charges $25 to $80 for a monthly pass, but the system also is funded by dedicated sales tax.
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TRI-RAIL RIDERSHIP EXCEEDS 4 MILLION - 2008 IS FIRST TIME COMMUTER RAIL HAS THAT MANY PASSENGERS
The commuter railroad carried more than 4 million passengers in 2008, the first time it surpassed that mark in its 20-year history.
With 4.3 million passengers, Tri-Rail's ridership jumped nearly 23 percent over 2007. As gas prices tumbled below $2 a gallon, the number of weekday riders has dipped slightly but still hovers between 15,000 and 16,000 riders per day.
Ridership has more than doubled since 2005, after Tri-Rail finished building a second track, increased the number of weekday and weekend trains and added rush-hour service every 20 minutes.
"These statistics show that the trend of double-digit growth that we have experienced over the past three years is continuing," said Joseph Giulietti,
But Tri-Rail's future remains in doubt unless it gets legislative approval this spring for local dedicated funding, such as a rental car fee, to cover operating expenses.
