State groups support high-speed train from Orlando to Miami, Tampa
ConnectUs, Inc.has sent letters of support and endorsement to U.S. Transportation Secretary LaHood in support of Florida’s application seeking $30 million for the Preliminary Engineering and NEPA Environmental studies for the Orlando-Miami corridor. ConnectUs is a coalition of business, labor and environmental groups from across the state.
“This is the first demonstration of the advantages of working together,” said ConnectUS President Ed Turanchik. “We have organizations from around the state supporting the Florida Department of Transportation’s Orlando-Miami application. We all get the big picture and will continue to work together to see it happen.”
The Florida Department of Transportation decided last week to split the Tampa-Orlando-Miami project into two separate applications in order to comply with federal funding criteria. Today’s application is under Track 1B and is limited to initial engineering and environmental studies for the Orlando-Miami corridor. The Florida Department of Transportation will submit a Track 2 application on October 2, 2009 for $2.5 billion for the Orlando-Tampa corridor.
The Orlando-Miami study will look at two specific corridors. The first would run from Orlando International Airport along the Beach Line to I-95 and would provide service to Cocoa Beach and Melbourne plus south Florida. The second alignment would run from Orlando International Airport along the Florida Turnpike to Ft. Pierce and then to South Florida. Both alignment options would serve West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and end in Miami at the Miami Intermodal Center.
The ConnectUs coalition members supporting the application include Broward Workshop, Florida Building Trades Council, AFL-CIO, Florida Audubon, Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, Central Florida Partnership, Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, South Florida Business Alliance, Tampa Bay Partnership and Tampa Downtown Partnership,
ConnectUs is a Florida not-for-profit corporation organized for the purpose of supporting Florida’s application for high-speed-rail funds from the federal government. The organization was launched on August 18, 2009 and in less than five days has more than 1,000 individual members. Floridians can join ConnectUs for free at www.FastRailConnectUs.com.
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Posted by Andrea Freygang on Aug 26 2009. Filed under Transportation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
