Will legal caveat defeat SunRail?
(The following story by Jim Saunders appeared in the Tallahassee Journal on December 6, 2009.) TALLAHASSEE — Florida lawmakers dug into a 49-page bill Friday that conjures a future of passenger trains zipping through the state. But for the proposed SunRail commuter-rail system in Central Florida, the bill comes down to this: Will lawmakers go along with a legal agreement that is critical to the project? The agreement would help shield railroad company CSX Transportation from financial liability if one of its freight trains collides with a SunRail commuter train. Without the agreement, CSX won’t sell 61 miles of tracks to the state. And without the state owning the tracks, SunRail won’t happen. “This is the big deal,” said House sponsor Gary Aubuchon, R-Cape Coral, when asked about the liability issue by another lawmaker Friday. Bills that called for similar legal protections died in the Senate in 2008 and spring 2009, jeopardizing the SunRail project that would ultimately stretch from
