It's that there are too many projects going on, not that there aren't enough. Okay, I already mentioned All Aboard Florida. AAF is a private initiative owned by the Florida East Coast Railroad - the company Henry Flagler's built up and ran a railroad all the way to Key West. AAF is spending $2.5 billion on their project. It will have a huge station with tracks ten stories above ground in Miami. The Miami station will also be a mall and they plan on developing sky scrapers for business and also residence adjoining the station. The station will be above the Miami Metromover and Miami Metrorail tracks. The AAF tracks will be elevated for the downtown Miami area and then will run on ground level for the rest of the distance to Orlando International Airport, stopping only at Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach (my home). In West Palm Beach, they are planning to build a station with office towers and condos connecting to the station. In Orlando, the airport is resurrecting their old plan for a multi-modal train station that was once planned for the Florida High Speed Rail project (that Gov. Scott) killed by returning $3.5 billion back to the Federal government. The OIA multimodal station will now be built as once planned, except it will now service AAF instead of FHSR - and may serve additional systems, if those systems come through. Additionally, OIA is paying to expand the airport automated people mover system to the multimodal station and they are also financing the construction of a new parking garage at the multimodal station. In South Florida, AAF will let the local commuter train here (Tri-Rail) use its tracks and allow it to build and operate stations throughout the area. AAF will renovate, install safety systems, and double track the old Flagler tracks from Miami to Cocoa Beach. From Cocoa Beach, new tracks will be built along the Bee Line Expressway to OIA. AAF already signed a 100 year lease on land owned by the Expressway Authority to build the tracks. AAF will use diesel fueled trains. They say the trip from OIA to Miami will take three hours.
Then, there's SunRail. SunRail is being built with government money and will be owned and operated by the state, like Tri-Rail is for us in South Florida. Construction is well under way. The project is costing billions of dollars in tax money. It will run on brand new tracks. The trains are diesel and will run entirely on ground level. That means that at every city block, there will be a gate crossing - no bridges at all. The system won't go to the resort area, or the airport. People from Central Florida aren't complaining because finally they're getting something. They may expand it to the airport and link up with the intermodal station, but there's no funds left to do that. Personally, I don't like SunRail. For the billions going into it, they should have planned it better. I don't like ll those gate crossings... People are going to die. I don't like the fact that they've chosen to run on diesel, when the rest of the world is using electric.
Then, there's American Maglev Technologies, a company based out of Atlanta that's been around for a while. They have a promising new technology - slow automated maglev monorail people movers. Their system is elevated, automated, floats on magnetic repulsion, and runs no faster than 49 MPH. The company has a small test track running in GA, but they've abandoned every project they've been commissioned for. In other words, all attempted systems they have been contracted for in the past did not work correctly and the company just packed its bags each time and left town, dodging responsibility. To be fair, their GA test track works great and is the latest project built. They claim that they learned from those project failures and improved the design. Any way, AMT wants to build a system in Orlando that would connect OIA, the Orange County Convention Center, the Florida Mall, UCF's west campus, and end at the WDW property line. They already got approval from the Central Florida Metropolitan Planning Agency. Additionally, they already have a financial partner that has pledged to cover construction financing. I don't know if they have secured the right of way yet.
Now, do you understand what I meant? There's so many projects going on by different groups with different technologies. And nothing is being coordinated with one another. That's why you need a single agency in charge of one huge ambitious project. That agency could work with private companies like AAF and AMT in order to create a cohesive system that goes everywhere important and has a foundation in logic.
