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| United States Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Florida Secretary of Transportation Ananth Prasad at the Ceremonial SunRail signing. |
At the future site of Florida Hospital's newly announced statewide corporate headquarters--a future SunRail station--United States Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Florida Secretary of Transportation Ananth Prasad signed a contract committing an additional infusion of $77 million of Federal funds for construction of the commuter rail line.
"Coming from the road transportation side," Secretary Prasad said, "I know we can't build our way out of congestion. We need transportation alternatives." The Secretary's comments reflected a point I made to him with a graph only weeks ago during his whirlwind tour of SunRail's local government partners.
Congressman Mica emphasized the bipartisan nature of the SunRail effort. He praised Secretary LaHood for resolving issues with Amtrak over liability. He said the question is "no longer whether it will be built" but "who gets the next leg." He showed a graph of more than $6 billion in transit oriented development around the $1.4 billion light rail system in Houston.
Secretary LaHood summed up the Central Florida SunRail effort: "You got your act together."
