The Lakeland Civic Center hosted a group of businessmen, community
leaders and visionaries on March 24, 2010, who gathered to discuss the
high-speed rail proposed between Tampa and Orlando. It marked the first
meeting of its kind since President Obama announced that Florida would
receive $1.25 billion toward railway construction.
Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, Lakeland Mayor Gow Fields and Orlando Mayor Buddy
Dyer listened as representatives from the
Tampa Bay
Partnership,
Central Florida
Partnership, Florida Rail Enterprise and other entities
with a stake in the proposed rail system presented their findings and
plans related to the proposed route, which would run from Tampa's
Ybor City
and the
Orlando
International Airport.
"We start today to create a vision, a template for connectivity," says
Ed Turanchik, founder of
ConnectUs, a grassroots
organization.
"High-speed rail builds a bigger community from smaller ones."
Representatives from
Florida Rail
Enterprise presented an overview of
the high-speed rail plan, which provides for stops at
USF Polytechnic in Lakeland and
Kathleen Avenue locations,
Walt Disney Resort and
the
Orange County Convention
Center.
Dyer of Orlando and Ronnie Duncan of the Tampa Bay Area Regional
Transportation Authority
(TBARTA)
spoke about their region's plans for additional rail service to augment
transportation from the high-speed system to key locations throughout
Orlando and the Tampa Bay area.
These reports and others from Orlando's
SunRail and Tampa's transit
system sound promising, says Shelley Lauten, president of myregion.org
and project director of
Connecting
for Global Competitiveness: Tampa Bay Central Florida Super Region.
The Tampa-Orlando rail line is designed to become part of a bigger
network that will link Orlando with Miami. Proponents of the plan say
construction along the Interstate 4 corridor could begin as early as
February or March of 2011, and conclude in 2015.
Writer:
Missy
Kavanaugh
Source: Ed Turanchik, ConnectUs
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.