VERO BEACH — Most of a three-hour Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting Wednesday was devoted to what Chairman Bob Solari called “the best discussion of the Amtrak plan” he has heard in any forum.
Solari issued a white paper recently calling into question the MPO’s support of a plan to bring rail passenger service down the east coast of Florida with a stop in Vero Beach.
He reviewed his main objections to the plan at the meeting – including a lack of definitive figures about the cost of the rail expansion and the possibility of undesirable density in the area of a new station – and then opened the meeting to public comments.
Thirteen members of the public spoke in favor of Indian River County continuing to support rail development, while five spoke in support of Solari’s effort to have the MPO reverse its earlier vote and withdraw support for the plan.
Supporters noted the approximately $300 million cost of bringing passenger service down the coast, instead of having trains travel inland to Orlando on the way from Jacksonville to Miami, would be borne by the state and federal governments and come out funds already appropriated.
“The train is going to come through,” said one speaker. “If we opt out, you can just wave to your tax dollars as they roll through town without stopping.”
Opponents objected to a lack of clear figures about cost and to increased federal spending in a time of high deficits.
MPO members who spoke, including County Commissioners Peter O’Bryan and Joseph Flescher and Sebastian Mayor Richard Gillmor, were united in opposing Solari’s attempt to revisit the issue.
O’Bryan was particularly emphatic in his support of bringing rail service back to Vero Beach, citing the ever-increasing cost of gasoline and the organization’s obligation to look to the future and consider alternative means of transportation besides the “one person, one-car model driven by the federal government’s spending on Interstate highways.”
In the end, Solari was unable to get a motion for reconsideration of the MPO’s earlier support of the rail plan and the resolution remained in force.
