An effort by state Sen. Debbie Mayfield to force tougher rail safety standards may be gaining steam – at least with the majority of Brevard County Commissioners.
Commissioner John Tobia, of Grant-Valkaria, on April 9 won a 4-1 vote on his resolution backing Mayfield (R-Melbourne). She wants newly appointed state Transportation Secretary Kevin Thibault to improve track safety before Miami-based Virgin Trains USA by 2022 sends 32 trains a day through Brevard County at up to 110 mph.
But the commission’s newest member, Vice Chair Bryan Lober, of Rockledge, wasn’t on board. “I have no problem encouraging the best operating practices, but this (proposed resolution) goes way beyond that,” Lober told Tobia.
Lober objected to Tobia specifically connecting Virgin Trains and All Aboard Florida Inc., which was also called Brightline before it was rebranded Virgin Trains, to 17 deaths on its South Florida rails in the 20 months it has run trains between Miami and West Palm Beach.
Lober said Tobia wasn’t allowing for any benefit of the doubt that possibly the circumstances in the deaths were beyond All Aboard Florida’s control. On an early version of the resolution, Tobia detailed the deaths of two victims. He suggested striking them. “Would that be OK?” Tobia asked Lober. “I should’ve listed them all.”
After its current Phase 1 operation in South Florida, Virgin Trains USA’s $3.1 billion project calls for sending 16 passenger trains a day on round trips between Miami and the Orlando International Airport.
They would have stops along the way in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, but shoot straight up the coast to Cocoa, then turn west to Orlando. The company has insisted a one-way trip would be less than 3 hours.
To that end, the project calls for adding a second track for its higher-speed passenger trains along the existing Florida East Coast freight track to Cocoa, then adding all-new passenger tracks for 40 miles along State Road 528 to Orlando.
While the trains would be limited to 79 mph in South Florida, they would go up to 110 mph for the rest of the route. In Brevard County, the trains would go through 20 crossings in Melbourne, 13 in the unincorporated county, five in Grant-Valkaria, four in Cocoa, three in Palm Bay, two in Rockledge and a single crossing in Malabar.
Tobias early proposal pointed to taxpayers funding the safety improvements at Brevard’s crossings. That prompted Rusty Robert’s, the company’s vice president of governmental affairs, to cry foul.
“We’ve said countless times we won’t be billing anyone for the work,” Roberts said.
In fact, he said, All Aboard Florida has granted a waiver of maintenance charges to the county for eight years. After that, the company would charge the county for annual maintenance of crossings as it normally does
Roberts echoed prior statements by All Aboard Florida executives that safety is their top priority. Company officials have promised to install additional gates across crossings and fences along the track.
Tobia agreed to cut certain paragraphs that Roberts and Lober challenged, but he kept those that echoed Mayfield’s outrage that the Florida Department of Transportation doesn’t regulate trains travelling between 80 mph and 126 mph.
Only those slower than 80 mph and faster than 126 mph are regulated by the state.
“We’re still working with the FDO to address those gaps,” Mayfield aide Adrienne Cronebaugh told commissioners as she thanked them for their support, on behalf of the senator, who was in Tallahassee as part of the legislative session.
