Haines City officials push for SunRail station. Will other government bodies follow suit?

To Haines City Commissioner Roy Tyler, building new roads and adding extra lanes isn't enough to bring long-term traffic relief to U.S. 27.

"My grandpa used to call it putting perfume on a pig," he said in a phone call.

For a bumper-to-bumper stretch of Northeast Polk County where more than 10,000 new homes are planned, Tyler is pushing another option to take cars off I-4 and U.S 27 — one that moves residents on a track.

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He wants to see SunRail, a publicly-funded commuter train that runs 61 miles between DeBary in Volusia County to Poinciana in Osceola County, extended into Haines City and then ultimately into Auburndale and Lakeland.

The Haines City Commission, at its Jan. 20 meeting, approved a resolution in support of a piece of that extension.

Tyler would like to see a similar nod of support from other local government bodies, including Polk County, which has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into five road projects aimed at relieving U.S. 27 and recently touted support for the extension of a different train network.

"We can’t keep saying 'let's build another road,'' Tyler said. "Traffic is like water, it will find the path of least resistance. We are just moving the flood somewhere else. You can't just pave your way out of this problem."

Tyler, as current chairman of the Polk Transportation Planning Organization, hopes to get all of the cities and the county to commit to funding some of the not-yet-determined cost to make it happen.

'A once in a lifetime opportunity'

Funded by taxpayers, SunRail runs to three stations in Osceola County, eight in Orange County, four in Seminole County, and one in Volusia County, with a second Volusia County station now being developed in DeLand.

Except for special nighttime service during home Orlando Magic games, SunRail service is limited to commuter hours on weekdays. Since the train began rolling in 2014, officials have expressed hope that weekend and fuller evening service would become possible, but it hasn’t yet.

U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, D-Kissimmee, stands ready to help secure federal funding for an extension into Polk County.

The timing couldn't be better to make that ask, he said.

President Joe Biden in November signed into law a $1.1 trillion infrastructure bill that promises to put $66 billion into freight and passenger rail projects over the next five years.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity," Soto said. "We want to expand SunRail. This is a part of a strategy to address traffic problems and improve quality of life for all Floridians."

Soto is also endorsing federal funding to extend Brightline through Polk County and into Tampa. The high-speed passenger train currently connects Miami to Orlando.

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The Polk County Commission in November sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in support of $31 million in federal funding for the Brightline extension. The commission, as a collective body, hasn't discussed SunRail since the federal infrastructure bill was adopted.

The potential SunRail extension was discussed, however, at the Feb. 10 meeting of the Transportation Planning Organization (TPO), which Tyler chairs.

Studying a SunRail extension

It's not yet known what a possible expansion into Polk County would cost.

The last time FDOT conducted a feasibility study looking into that extension was back in 2015. At the Feb. 10 TPO meeting, board members requested that another study be conducted with updated cost projections.

FDOT District secretary L.K. Nandam said that that study alone could cost $1 million, but expressed confidence in the state's ability to find that money.

"We want to get this feasibility study going," he said. "If this feasibility study shows some merit, which we all know should based on the travel patterns that we see, we can go after (funding) opportunities from the federal infrastructure package."

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Nandam told city and county leaders on the TPO board that the federal government would only fund a portion of the expansion cost and that local governments would have to carry 25% of the burden.

He added that Polk would then have to be committed in the long-term to fund maintenance and operations for years to come once a SunRail stop arrives in the county.

"All of these things have to come into the picture," he said. "But the first step is the feasibility study. We've got to start this process."

There's a sense of urgency to start the study now. The federal infrastructure money is only available for the next five years.

Nandam said he'd give the TPO board some rough cost projections at an upcoming meeting.

Is the county interested?

While Polk County has pushed for the Brightline extension, they have not taken similar action on SunRail. They are different animals — while Brightline is a business funded largely by private investors, SunRail's operation relies heavily on tax dollars.

FDOT currently funds maintenance, operations and upgrades to the SunRail system. But in 2024, those costs will be handed to the five local government partners: Volusia, Seminole, Orange, Osceola Counties and the city of Orlando.

If Polk County gets into the SunRail game, they'll have to join in on the funding.

"Brightline and SunRail are two very different business models," County Manager Bill Beasley told The Ledger. "Any future county commitment or investment in such an endeavor would likely be contingent upon many factors, of which this Board has had no formal discussions."

Chairwoman Martha Santiago said she'd be interested in learning more.

"I definitely want to look at how the state and federal government can help us out with that," she told The Ledger. "I asked (FDOT) to bring us up to date with the rail and what the possibilities are for that. I think there’s a big interest in it."

Whether the county agrees to pay into SunRail depends on the price tag, said County Commissioner George Lindsey.

"We’d have to see what the ask is,” he said.

A South Carolina native, Dustin covers Polk County government and county-wide issues. He can be reached at dwyatt@gannett.com or on Twitter @LLDustin_Wyatt.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Could SunRail station move into Polk County? Haines City makes a push.