Date:
April 21, 2014
To: Rick Christie, the Editor of the Palm Beach Post
From:
Nathaniel Reed
I must admit that I was flabbergasted that the Post’s
editorial staff would support All Aboard Florida!
Although we have all seen the problems of subsidizing any
business, the everglades sugar ‘industry’ must be at the top of the list, the
thought of subsidizing with ‘our money’ for a high speed connection from West
Palm Beach through 40 plus coastal communities situated near the Florida East
Coast tracks is ‘ludicrous’.
Shame on you!
Captivated by the thought of high speed trains in Japan and France, you
have been taken in by a private group of investors who want major financial
grants from the federal and state governments to run a two car high speed train
to Orlando and back to Miami under the assumption that it will make money.
I do not know of a singular investor or financer who thinks
the proposition makes any financial sense.
The ‘investors’ will be back insisting on an ‘operating subsidy’!
The Post ignored the realistic possibility of a track
change. What is the attraction of the
east coast track system? If the high
speed train is really going to be promoted as a financial success, the interior
route is the obvious least offensive.
The National Environmental Policy Act is supposed to insure
that federal agencies must spell out adverse environmental impacts and layout
clearly among numerous options including costs of a preferred option. The
federal grant by the Federal Railroad Administration makes an Environmental
Assessment, if not a full blown Environmental Impact Statement, essential
The decision by the promoting agency is subject to legal
opposition.
Legal action is obvious to thousands of citizens opposed to
the east coast route.
It must be obvious to the Post’s Editor and Editorial staff
that opposition is growing. Forty plus
east coast communities are gathering their forces who are united in the reality
of a 100 plus mile per hour series: 32 trains a day will devastate the quality
of life that brought so many of us to live quietly by the route of the once
vital Florida East Coast Railroad that opened up south Florida and gave us the
opportunity to travel here from anywhere in the country. We have learned to live with the eight plus
lengthy railroad cars that creep past our communities now. We are all concerned about the length of
trains when the Miami and Ft. Lauderdale super ports are able to accept vast quantities
of huge containers maneuvered through the newly enlarged Panama Canal.
Anyone who has had the misfortune of being stuck at a
crossing in Montana when 250 to 350 train cars carrying coal inches along knows
what the future could hold for the east coast property owners and business if the
east coast route is approved.
Think again. Be
honest. Make a real effort to understand
the ‘outrage’ of our fellow Floridians who live and realize that they will be
significantly adversely impacted by the All Aboard Florida scheme.
If there is to be high speed trains racing from West Palm
Beach to Orlando, then let them go west and scare the cows and buzzards! I cannot imagine the train being able to pick
up speed between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale or Ft. Lauderdale to West Palm Beach
or even West Palm Beach to Stuart. Let’s
not forget Stuart to Ft. Pierce, onward to Vero Beach and right on through
community after community where the noise and associated problems dealing with
this bizarre proposal will impact.
Back to the drawing boards!
Every politician who supports the east coast route is in dire jeopardy
of losing the next election. I know of
no political issue that will unite opposition to a taxpayer supported, private
operation that has so many impacts.
Think again: Obama Administration, your Railroad Commission,
authors of the Impact Statement, Governor, and Members of the east coast
Congress, the Florida Legislature and county and city commissioners. This is a political ‘bombshell’, as it
impacts hundreds of thousands of Floridians who want to live in peace and that
includes unwanted noise that they would be paying for.
Nathaniel Reed
