Why business supports commuter rail

Tampa Tribune Editorial

Published June 13, 2010

One of the most eloquent backers of Hillsborough County's transit plan is business executive Chuck Sykes, who not long ago was a rail skeptic.

"I'm never going to ride it," he says he told himself. "And I'm thinking, who wants a train in their neighborhood?"

What changed his mind also will change the minds of enough voters to pass a one-cent increase in the county sales tax for transportation in November, but only if people pay attention to the education campaign he is helping lead.

The first thing that should arouse curiosity is why the Tampa Bay Partnership and other traditionally conservative business groups want to raise taxes to improve the bus system and also begin a rail line.

"A lot of smart people were for it," Sykes tells us. "That intrigued me."

After studying the issue and visiting a number of cities with successful rail lines, Sykes, the CEO of Tampa-based Sykes Enterprises, Inc., began to appreciate the many business benefits of transit, especially rail lines, which are not affected by traffic jams.

The development potential, he says, is "almost like creating six miles of beachfront property right in the heart of your community."
Opponents of the Hillsborough plan will, as critics have in other cities, urge residents to vote their narrow self-interest. The assumption is that if you don't own property near the stations and don't plan to ride, there's nothing in it for you. But Sykes is correct that the benefits will extend beyond the riders and stations.

Former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, who successfully pushed for a sales tax increase in his city for rail and buses, explains that a major incentive for him was the need to compete for business with other cities, including Tampa. Companies considering a major investment in a city want to know how the urban area plans to meet its future transportation needs.

He visited Charlotte's rivals and concluded that the ones beating him had built or were building good transit systems.
The conservative Republican saw no free-market solution to his city's growing transportation problem. Engineers told him that the city's major highway corridors were at capacity and could not be expanded to carry more traffic. The Tampa area is in a similar situation.

Unimaginative sprawl has gradually separated more workers from more jobs until the roads are jammed. New toll highways and improvements to I-4 and I-75 provided some relief, but no one can seriously suggest the urban area can afford to keep widening roads, even if that's what taxpayers wanted.

Polls show the public prefers a more balanced transportation system so that driving isn't the only reasonable option. The right mix of buses, trains and roads will improve the city's image, in the eyes of residents and potential investors.

Sykes is right when he says, "We need a psychological boost. We don't want to keep sitting, hunkered down. We've got to start making things happen."

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