ORLANDO, Fla. — One of the counties that is a member of the commission overseeing commuter railroad SunRail is asking out of the commission, and would surrender plans for a station in return.Volusia County made this offer Thursday at a meeting of the Central Florida Commuter Rail Commission, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports. Volusia County Chair Ed Kelly said the county would surrender its seat on the board and abandon plans for a station in DeLand, Fla., while agreeing to continuing to maintain the one SunRail station in the county, at DeBary.
The county made the offer to escape its share of SunRail’s annual operating costs, as well as its $19.3 million share of costs to build the DeLand station. Current plans would extend the SunRail route north by 12 miles to DeLand from DeBary, the current northern terminus.
Volusia County made the offer at a time when the commission has said some $34 million in federal funding is available for the proposed extension. “Volusia County is not as wealthy as the other counties,” Kelley told the commission, and has other, more pressing transportation needs.
The Florida Department of Transportation and other counties who make up the commission will now study the request.
I rode SunRail a couple of times while visiting Florida, before the southern extension was opened. I’m all for adding options to driving solo and reducing road congestion. Still, I couldn’t tell how much the route helps with local commute patterns.
I read the newspaper article and my guess is they chocked on the part where Volusia County would be committed to pay millions of dollars per year in subsidies. I bet they no longer believe the original govt/consultant projections of ridership and revenue, and now realize they would be subsidizing way fewer riders with way more money. Just my guess ….
one reason I’m moving from Volusia County-there is NO true leadership. They’ve sold out the infrastructure improvements for expansion-placing the cost on the tax payers- especially the one’s whom already live here-so their developer friends can pocket money from their sales.
You can buy all sorts of stuff for Volusia County, but if they can’t cover the monthly bill, then they shouldn’t do it in the first place.
The annual tab to make it all work was just too much for their economics.