A group of women who led the campaign to stop a train project in Hillsborough County will meet with Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday to knock the proposed Orlando-Tampa high-speed rail venture.
No Tax for Tracks founders Sharon Calvert and Karen Jaroch oppose the 84-mile project on many of the same grounds they fought the Hillsborough train -- too much money and not enough riders.
"The ridership numbers are always overestimated and the costs are consistently underestimated," Calvert told Sunshine State News.
The Obama administration has pledged $2.4 billion toward the project, but Scott remains skeptical about its financial viability and the state's long-term liability.
On Monday in Eustis, Scott asked a roomful of tea party leaders how many would ride the Orlando-Tampa line. No hand was raised.
"We will remind [the governor] that in 2004, Florida voters overwhelmingly repealed the bullet train," Calvert said.
Calvert says more fiscally responsible alternatives are available.
Luxury buses, she noted, can provide efficient transportation at far lower cost. "A family of four can ride for the price of one bullet train ticket," she said.
More futuristically, Calvert says, "Technology is going toward personal mobility" and "intelligent traffic management."
She also supports wider use of carpool lanes and high-occupany toll (HOT) lanes to better manage highway traffic.
"We want to grow private jobs," Calvert said, echoing Scott's signature theme of "Let's Get to Work."
She believes a better course for the state would be to fight for its fair share of highway trust fund money. Currently, Florida is a "net donor" to the fund, receiving less than it pays in, Calvert says.
On Tuesday, House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., called the Obama administration's plan to quintuple high-speed rail funding to $50 billion akin to "giving Bernie Madoff another chance at handling your investment portfolio."
No Tax for Tracks defeated a sales tax add-on that would have funded a light-rail system in Hillsborough County. Calvert intends to tell Scott that Florida voters are equally skeptical of the high-speed rail venture.
But she acknowledges that the fight against rail is an uphill battle.
Pointing to an interlocking chain of business leadership organizations and "progressive" groups pulling for such projects, Calvert says politicians are under pressure to climb aboard.
In Tampa, she noted that the proposed county train tax was actively supported by the local newspaper, which downplayed criticism of the project while hyping the purported benefits.
In declaring that "the media are in the tank," Calvert will surely find common ground with the governor on that point, as well.
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Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
