A Senate committee Tuesday revised a proposal that could help extend a private passenger-rail system from Orlando to Tampa.
A bill (SB 1226) initially would have led to the Florida Department of Transportation setting aside a 44-foot-wide rail corridor in the Interstate 4 right-of-way “to extend to Tampa the existing passenger rail service currently terminating in Orlando.”
But Senate Transportation Chairman Nick DiCeglie, R-Indian Rocks Beach, made a change that removed that proposed directive to the transportation department.
Under the change, the Florida Rail Enterprise would be required to include among its duties the preservation of “future rail corridors and rights-of-way in coordination with the department’s planning of the state highway system.”
DiCeglie said concerns had been raised that putting in law a requirement about the I-4 right-of-way would “tie the hands” of the department. “
They didn’t want to be essentially mandated,” DiCeglie said after the committee meeting.
“They’ve got processes in places which clearly I’m comfortable with. They’re always aware of the potential, in this case, of the rail going from Orlando to Tampa.”
Also, the Senate and House have moved forward with budget proposals (SB 2500 and HB 5001) that don’t include lawmakers’ requests to provide $50 million for rail improvements in the Interstate 4 corridor.