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Will idea of new jobs win backers for commuter and high-speed rail?
Forget about getting people out of their cars and onto mass transit. Here's the latest fuel driving both the commuter and high-speed trains proposed for Central Florida: jobs, jobs, jobs.
"It's a game changer," said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who supports both ventures but is especially vested in SunRail, the commuter train.
Sean Snaith, a University of Central Florida economist, said any investments during an employment-shedding recession would be welcome, especially ones in the billions of dollars.
"The economy is in a deep hole, and we need to start creating jobs and creating jobs now," he said.
SunRail would stop at 17 stations while linking DeLand in Volusia County with downtown Orlando and Poinciana in Osceola County, while high-speed rail would connect Orlando with Lakeland and Tampa. The price tag for SunRail is $1.2 billion; for high speed, it's $2.5 billion.
Both trains come with the promise of thousands of jobs, in the long and short term. They range from engineers to carpenters to concrete mixers.
The work would come at a critical time, Snaith said, because Metro Orlando is struggling with an unemployment rate that has hit 11.5 percent. Statewide, the rate is 11 percent.
Yet, rail opponents question whether the job projections are reliable and argue that annual operating losses of the trains would have a greater negative impact than any employment gains.
"Does that offset the exorbitant costs that the cities and counties would pay?" asked Winter Park Commissioner Beth Dillaha.
SunRail would run through downtown Winter Park and that city, like other local governments, has pledged to help pay for its operation.
Dillaha dismisses the job argument as a "different rationale for a bad project."
"We could be shovel-ready in 60 days," Dyer said.
High-speed rail, meanwhile, envisions about 23,000 construction-related jobs, starting in 2011 and ending in 2014.
High-speed enthusiast Ed Turanchik maintains the spinoff jobs of the trains are just as vital to the economy as those involved with laying track and building depots. He's referring to potential development around the stations that could include restaurants, offices and apartments.
The state's high-speed-rail application to the federal government, which seeks $2.5 billion to buy and build the system, pegs jobs related to the project at 25,000.
"That's massively important," said Turanchik, a former Hillsborough County commissioner who directs ConnectUs, a pro-high-speed-rail group based in Tampa.
SunRail also projects jobs out for 30 years. Its final tally: 261,420 jobs, worth about $8.8 billion. High speed only looks at the actual construction years.
Snaith said looking three decades into the future is difficult. But, he said, there is little doubt the trains would create thousands of jobs.
But the union also worked to defeat SunRail twice in the Legislature because it maintains the train managers might hire unqualified, nonunion workers.
AFL-CIO spokesman Rich Templin said his group is not sure what stand it will take on SunRail this time.
"We just want to understand the truth of all of this," Templin said. "It has gotten much more complicated."
Dyer, a Democrat who has worked with the unions for years, argues the AFL-CIO should look at the overall job picture, not just at those employed by the train.
Templin said he understands that argument, and "we are looking at all of this."
Job projections:
(2011-15)
Direct: 23,000
Indirect: 25,800
SunRail
(2010-40)
Direct: 113,065
Indirect: 261,420
Direct refers to jobs directly related to rail construction, such as concrete mixers, carpenters, laborers.
Indirect refers to jobs created as a result of the trains, such as construction work for development around new stations.
SOURCE: City of Orlando, Florida Department of Transportation
