Cashing in on SunRail boom

With a quick announcement Friday morning, it was official: SunRail is coming to Central Florida. Now local business leaders and politicians are trying to decide what to do when it pulls into the station.

Gov. Rick Scott’s decision came after a six-month freeze on the plan while he and a team of lawyers picked over it looking for holes that could sink it before it began construction.

But his lawyers concluded that if he had attempted to stop the system, the ensuing lawsuit may be un-winnable, prompting an announcement Friday that he would allow the train to move forward.

U.S. Rep. John Mica (R-Winter Park), who had spearheaded the rail plan from Washington, D.C., said that he thought Scott was reluctant to move forward because it wasn’t his own plan, having passed through the hands of former Govs. Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist.

“Most of the terms were negotiated two governors ago,” Mica said. “He would do it differently than they did. He was handed this by two different administrations…and four county governments. But what were his options?”

He had none left, Mica said. And so Transportation Secretary Ananth Prasad stood behind a podium at a press conference on Friday and announced that the last roadblock had fallen. But he had a warning from the governor.

“All stakeholders and partners will be held accountable as the project moves forward,” Prasad said.

If the system failed, he said, the stakeholders would be left holding the bag. Now those same stakeholders are rushing to make sure SunRail succeeds.

Reeling in riders

Before the announcement, many municipalities were already readying to build the 17 stops SunRail is expected to service, but now Central Florida cities are scrambling to become destinations for rail riders, deciding how to position themselves as places to work and play.

Winter Park Chamber of Commerce President Patrick Chapin said he knew SunRail had too strong a case to fail. He’s just hoping the riders show up.

“I thought this is a slam dunk,” he said. “There was just such overwhelming support from the community.”

Now that Scott’s decision is official, Chapin said he’s already working with local businesses to create deals for riders who show their rail tickets at the register. And he’s hoping to make Winter Park an all-day destination for riders from as far as DeLand and Kissimmee.

“People want to come down here, but it can be a drive from Kissimmee and downtown and so forth,” Chapin said. “So we’re going to offer incentives. We’ve done it in the past with bus tour groups. I think we’ll think of some neat incentives to get people down here.

“People can come here, go to lunch, shop, relax in Central Park. SunRail’s going to make it that much easier.”

For the bulk of expected riders — the daily commuters expected to come from DeLand and step off in Central Park — Chapin said the Chamber is already working to add in transportation connections to get riders from the station to their destination.

“People are going to stop there at the station, go to Winter Park Tech, take classes at Full Sail, go to Winter Park Memorial Hospital,” Chapin said. “I know lots of people who live in DeLand and work in Winter Park. They’re going all over the place.”

Playing the numbers game

Just how many riders will step off in Winter Park is anybody’s guess, though estimates have been thrown around. U.S. Rep. John Mica said that he’d seen a few studies and polls showing half or more of workers who live outside Winter Park would use the train to commute. That’d make the system far cheaper and more efficient in the long run compared to new roads, he said.

“On I-4, one lane will carry 2,000 cars per hour at 60 mph,” Mica said. “I take the capacity of this rail line, which already exists, and I can carry 5,000 to 15,000 people on that little narrow existing track.”

Though buses had long been touted as a viable alternative to a rail system, he said they’ll be used to support it, not supplant it. For moving commuters long distances, SunRail will be cheaper in the end, Mica said.

“Nothing I can build can move more people for less money than commuter rail, and this is about half the cost of a bus,” Mica said. “People say just buy more buses. This costs far less than operating a bus.”

But until it’s built, the economic viability of the system remains just a series of estimates. In the meantime, the Chamber is working to get a dedicated funding source after the initial funding agreement for SunRail expires in seven years.

Maitland moves on downtown

Just up the road, Maitland is already moving on plans to build the station, and to create its new downtown around it.

“We’re going to do everything we can to get it up,” Mayor Howard Schieferdecker said. “It’s a big priority for us.”

That priority will rapidly shift toward bringing in developers who could shape the look of the new commercial center of Maitland, he said. Talks with developers are already in the works.

“If I have anything to do with it, we’re going to have some good opportunities coming,” he said. “There’s a lot of developers coming back and showing interest. There’s nothing concrete yet. But you have discussion before we have activity.”

And just like in business, the mantra is location, location, location. Schieferdecker is calling the train stations new epicenters of economic growth.

“That station itself will become a big source of economic development,” Schieferdecker said. “They’re working on a mixed-use development right next to it. All these stations are going to become major economic hubs. It’s not just us. It’s everybody that’s near the station.”

Lessons from Tri-Rail

That’s something that didn’t receive a fair trial in the frequently maligned Tri-Rail system in South Florida, Mica said. The trains, running on the existing rail line, mirrored the path of Interstate 95, which cut down on the trains’ usefulness to commuters, he said.

“When they built Tri-Rail, they said it wasn’t a success,” he said. “But they built the track right along I-95, not where people were going. It didn’t even go to downtown Miami. It still doesn’t.”

Though Mica is working on that plan to extend the Tri-Rail to connect with rail going into downtown Miami, that’s still a year away, he said, and will cost substantially more per mile than the SunRail system.

The Central Florida commuter rail system is so well designed, he said, that parts of the Tri-Rail system may soon attempt to mirror it and improve economic viability.

After years of hearing that SunRail could be the next Tri-Rail, now Mica said it could be the other way around.

“I’d say Central Florida is getting the bargain of bargains,” Mica said. “Now Tri-Rail is considering buying a route like SunRail has.”