St. Lucie County’s local governments paid nearly $1.5 million to Florida East Coast Railway and affiliates in the past five years to lease and maintain 24 railroad crossings.
Those costs could double if Virgin Trains USA realizes its vision of establishing express train service between West Palm Beach and Orlando, a county consultant estimated. And the local governments could be on the hook for escalating railroad crossing costs for decades if the express train proves to be profitable.
That’s partly because longstanding agreements between Florida East Coast Railway and local governments from Miami to Jacksonville require those governments to reimburse FECR for the costs of constructing and maintaining railroad crossings and safety equipment.
Another reason is FECR’s 159 railroad crossings between West Palm Beach and Cocoa must be upgraded to sealed corridor standards for the higher-speed passenger trains, under Federal Railroad Administration regulations.
Virgin Trains plans to traverse St. Lucie County at speeds of up to 110 mph, compared to the train’s top speed of 79 mph between West Palm Beach and Miami.
Sealed corridor treatments block all lanes of travel leading to a railroad crossing to prevent high-speed trains from colliding with vehicles and pedestrians.
One way to seal a crossing is to install quad gates – two gates on each side of the tracks that block all lanes of traffic. Another is to keep the standard arrangement with one gate on each side and construct raised traffic medians on each side of the tracks to prevent vehicles from driving around lowered gates.
The crossings will also need to be widened to cover the second track to be constructed in the FECR right-of-way to handle the addition of 32 passenger trains per day. FECR already operates more than 12 freight trains per day.
So the local governments could ultimately face rising costs to maintain more advanced safety equipment and wider railroad crossings that will be subject to additional wear and tear from 32 passenger trains traveling more than twice as fast as the freight train traffic.
St. Lucie County officials have been negotiating with FECR and Virgin Trains about paying for safety improvements at the county’s railroad crossings, said County Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky.
“It’s unfortunately a necessary evil since they own the tracks,” Dzadovsky said.
The county’s railroad consultant estimated the safety improvements will likely more than double the annual maintenance costs, said Public Works Director Don West. But the estimates are preliminary. “Because safety for the public has been a paramount concern in the county’s negotiation, some increase in cost is to be expected and warranted,” West said in an email response to questions.
The safety improvements the county has requested include:
nVehicle presence detection and remote safety equipment monitoring at all crossings.
nQuad gates at nine major crossings.
nA center median divider with three gates at Chamberlain Boulevard.
nLong Arm gates at three unimproved roadway crossings.
nTraffic signals at the crossings in St. Lucie Village to prevent traffic from backing up onto Old Dixie Highway.
nRelocate triple-tracking away from St. Lucie Village.
nSidewalks and pedestrian gates at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Chamberlain Boulevard and Fisherman’s Wharf.
nTen-foot wide multi-use paths with pedestrian gates at Midway and Walton roads.
The county is requesting maintenance fees do not increase for seven years for railroad crossings with newly constructed safety improvements to accommodate the passenger trains, West said.
The St. Lucie County government paid FECR and affiliates nearly $924,465 in the past five years to lease and maintain railroad crossing, some in partnership with St. Lucie Village, county records show. That averages out to about $185,000 per year.
Fort Pierce paid FECR and affiliates $482,1447 from 2014 through 2018 to lease and maintain five railroad crossings, or an average of about $97,000 per year, city records show. St. Lucie Village paid FECR $88,609 in 2014 for the renovation of the Torpey Road railroad crossing, town records show. St. Lucie Village’s $800,000 budget includes $60,000 for a railroad crossing reserve. The village has six public and one private crossing.
St. Lucie Village, whose 600 residents live between U.S. 1 and the Indian River Lagoon, seems more in tune with Indian River County when it comes to opposing the Virgin Trains passenger rail project.
“I believe that asking taxpayers to bear the financial burden of a for-profit business is ludicrous,” said St. Lucie Village Alderwoman Ingrid Van Hekken. “It is a sweet deal for them and a hardship for taxpayers.”
Indian River County filed a complaint in state circuit court in January asking a judge to rule FECR and Virgin Trains have no right to reimbursement from the county for the construction and maintenance costs related to the proposed passenger rail service.
FECR and Virgin Trains – which was previously known as Brightline and before that All Aboard Florida – asked the judge to dismiss the suit or transfer it to one of the counties where the companies are based. FECR is based in Jacksonville and Virgin Trains is based in Miami.
Virgin Trains has stated it will pay for the railroad crossing improvements needed for passenger service, FECR and Virgin Trains legal team said in a court filing.
Indian River County Attorney Dylan Reingold said it appears FECR and Virgin Trains/Brightline expect the county to pay steadily increasing railroad crossing maintenance costs forever.
“We are absolutely opposed to Brightline seeking to pay the cost of its maintenance bills from the pockets or our constituents,” Reingold said in an interview March 21.
Indian River County’s local governments paid $2.8 million to FECR and affiliates in the past five years to lease and maintain 29 railroad crossings, county records show.
While Indian River County officials continue to resist the passenger train project, officials in nearby counties have made peace with Virgin Trains and FECR.
Martin County, which had partnered with Indian River County in legal fights against the passenger rail project, settled with Virgin Trains in November and agreed not to oppose any aspect of the project.
The deal caps Martin County’s costs for railroad crossing maintenance at $251,000 per year for 14 years. But the county still must pay FECR an annual licensing fee for the 14 years and all the costs after that.
Virgin Trains also agreed to pay to install and maintain fencing along the sections of track deemed hazardous, among other concessions to Marin County. Virgin Trains was known as All Aboard Florida in 2014 when it struck a deal with Brevard County to pay to upgrade 38 railroad crossings and maintain the crossings for eight years.
Fort Pierce is in negotiations with Virgin Trains for the development of a train station in the city’s downtown. Virgin Trains is also among three finalists chosen to submit detailed plans to redevelop the 7-acre site of the former H.D. King Plant in downtown Fort Pierce.
Mayor Linda Hudson said she is concerned the city’s railroad crossing costs will increase if the Virgin Trains passenger service extends through Fort Pierce to Orlando, but can’t do anything about it. “For over a century, these costs have been a fact of life,” Hudson said. “Railroad crossing maintenance is a fact of life that probably won’t change.”