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Atwater Wants Special Session on Rail Projects Senate President Jeff Atwater says he wants a special legislative session in December to address commuter rail projects in Central and South Florida. Florida is applying for 2-and-a-half Billion dollars in federal stimulus money to build high-speed rail corridors between Orlando, Tampa, and Miami. But that funding may hinge on how the state deals with two, smaller, commuter rail projects Atwater, a Republican from Palm Beach, led a bipartisan group of state senators including Democratic Minority Leader Al Lawson of Tallahassee, and Senate Ways and Means Committee Chair J.D. Alexander, a Republican from Winter Haven. The delegation met with Florida's US Senators, Bill Nelson and George LeMieux in Washington Monday to discuss rail projects. Nelson and Lemieux told the Florida senators that the state could miss out on federal stimulus money for high speed rail, if the legislature doesn't act soon on two commuter rail projects: Central Florida's planned SunRail commuter train and funding for South Florida's Tri Rail system. The leading opponent to the SunRail plan, Republican State Senator Paula Dockery of Lakeland, says the federal stimulus money should not be tied to passage of SunRail. Dockery says, instead of building a new commuter line in Central Florida, the state should focus on funding South Florida's Tri-Rail. She says Florida might have to repay more than 250 million dollars in federal aid if the legislature doesn't come up with a new source of funding for that 20-year-old rail line.
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