TAMPA, Fla. — For decades, Florida has gone back and forth on high-speed rail, but supporters say the goal is the same, to get cars off congested I-4. So what is the future of the Brightline expansion from Orlando to Tampa, and who would pay for it?
When Gov. Ron DeSantis was in Polk County last week to sign a bill to expand I-4, he sounded like so many of his predecessors when talking trains.
“I mean, we are not going to be on the hook as the state with taxpayers for doing trains,” DeSantis said.
In 2004, former governor Jeb Bush notably forced a second vote to repeal a voter-approved amendment to create a passenger rail network. That was the last serious attempt to increase passenger service beyond the east coast of the state.
10 Tampa Bay spoke to lawmakers who want the state to help bring more passenger trains to Tampa. Hillsborough state Representative Karen Gonzalez Pittman is helping lead the newest effort to bring more trains to Tampa.
“But I do see in the future rail service from Orlando to Tampa,” she said. “We need it.”
Pittman filed an appropriation request for $50 million for the state to build new rail along I-4, setting up the privately owned Brightline to expand service from Orlando to Tampa.
“If you're familiar with the process, not everything goes in the first year,” she said. “Up in Tallahassee, it's about relationships and timing and ideas.”
The request was turned down, but Pittman says she's going to try again.
“I-4 is a parking lot,” she said. “We have a thousand people moving into the area daily. We can't keep expanding roads.”
Florida Coalition of Rail Passengers President Jim Tilley says even though the governor may sound like he's against trains, his Department of Transportation has been very helpful in getting grant money for rail projects.
“Yeah, it'll be bumpy, but I think we're going to get there,” he said. “And quite frankly, he's been perhaps muted, but through FDOT, they've been very supportive of Brightline.”