More opposition mounting for All Aboard Railroad high-speed rail project Story By Jana Eschbach / CBS 12 NEWS
STUART, Fla. - Drivers brace for the impact as The Florida East Coast Railroad moves ahead with All Aboard Florida's plans for a high-speed rail to connect Orlando and Miami. Residents caught in the middle want it stopped.
In Stuart, the train is part of the traffic pattern.
If you need to go east, you learn to cross the tracks whenever you have the chance, or get stuck in traffic when a train comes. Now the train traffic is planned to go up with All Aboard.
The mighty Florida East Coast Industries' Railroad finds itself up against small grass roots groups trying to stop an already approved project.
"Do you think you guys can stop this?" we asked.
"Absolutely. You can stop anything," said Alex Larson, opposed to the project.
Today, residents from West Palm Beach to Vero Beach came to Indian River State College to give elected officials at the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council an earful.
"Shame on you," blasted one speaker at the podium, to the elected Treasure Coast officials. "You know your towns and counties, they don't want this!"
Residents are fighting is to stop All Aboard Florida from adding 32 high speed 100-mile-per hour plus trains daily, crossing 350 intersections.
The train passes through the entire Treasure Coast and Palm Beaches.
"32 trains a day. 7 days a week," said John Castalucci, a Palm City railway opponent said. "They aren't interested in the public. They are interested in their bottom line, that's it."
The FEC's say its already moving ahead with plans to launch their privately owned, operated and maintained high-speed passenger rail service between Miami and Orlando.
The train that passes through doesn't stop in the Treasure Coast region at all.
Its first stop south of here is in West Palm Beach.
"An investment of $250 million of Florida taxpayers' money to build an elaborate terminal in Orlando, is not private," argued Martin County Commissioner Anne Scott.
"I urge all of us not to accept this as inevitable. Its is not inevitable," Scott said it was a private enterprise, subsidized by public funds, and sounded a lot like the failed investment the State made into Digital Domain in Port St. Lucie.
"A high speed train carrying a few thousand passengers a day will go through the middle of a region where hundreds of thousands of people live and work and depend on vehicles to do so," Scott said.
Today railroad officials told the council the trains will only disrupt traffic for a few minutes at a time. The time of a stoplight. And the FEC says its their investment paid for with private funds. Local leaders said that's not true.
"Yes its very private and we cant disclose our financing. Are you kidding me?" said Alex Larson, who is opposed to the rail project. "That was just revealed today we will be closing down 2 streets in West Palm Beach. Datura and Evernia, and I am like are you kidding me?"
When we asked All Aboard Florida's officials for an interview, their public relations person said they didn't have the time today, and they will be holding workshops with local residents soon to help answers their questions and address concerns.
For detailed information on both sides of the project:
FEC link: www.allaboardflorida.com/fact-sheet
Residents Opposed to Train: www.floridanotallaboard.com