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 Why
High Speed Rail in Florida?
Florida is the fourth largest populated state in the nation
with 17.8 million residents and growing daily. More importantly, it is the largest state in the union
in terms of tourist and visitor population with 71 million visiting each year. Both
resident and visitor populations are expected to grow significantly over the next
20 years. With this growth, travel around the state will become more difficult.
City-to-city travel is on the rise. Extensive transportation
market and ridership research in the Miami-Orlando-Tampa corridor predicts 100
million intercity trips per year by 2010, or approximately 274,000 trips per day.
Studies have shown that if a high speed rail system were built, at least 10% of the
city-to-city travelers within the corridor would choose to ride it. This would
result in a reduction of intercity automobile travel and would help lessen
congestion on the state's highways, strengthen urban centers along the route and
provide additional jobs.
A look into the future anticipates additional increases. During
the period from 1990 to 2010, it is expected that:
• Resident population will increase by 38%
• Tourist population
will increase by 82%
• Vehicles on Florida
highways will increase by 70%
• Highway capacity will
increase by only 18%
 (due
to cost, funding and environmental concerns)
Source of statistics: An
Analysis of the Impacts of Florida High Speed Rail
by Center for Urban Transportation Research at the
University of South Florida and the Center for Economic
Forecasting and Analysis at Florida State University.
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The 2020 Florida Transportation plan stated that by 2020,
Florida will add about 5 million new residents and that
the number of tourists is expected to reach nearly 85 million.
Based on these significant figures, and the current congestion
throughout the state, the Florida Legislature enacted Sections
339.61-64 of the Florida Statutes that created the Florida
Strategic Intermodal System (SIS). The SIS was developed
in an effort to accomplish a plan that included the following
goals:
- A system that is made up of statewide
and regionally significant facilities and services. (Strategic)
- A system that contains all forms of transportation
for moving both people and goods, including linkages
that provide for smooth and efficient transfers between
modes and major facilities. (Intermodal)
- Integrates individual facilities, services, forms
of transportation and linkages into a single, integrated
transportation network. (System)
The SIS designates hubs, corridors,
and Intermodal centers that would aide the State in accomplishing
these goals as part of an overall system. The facilities
are grouped into two types, SIS and Emerging SIS. The initial
phases of the planned high speed rail system, including
eight stations, are included in the plan as SIS facilities. |
