Orange County agrees to work with Maitland on SunRail costs

Orange County commissioners agreed Tuesday to continue working with Maitland over how much the city will pay in coming years for operation and maintenance of the downtown SunRail station.

Maitland council members unanimously agreed last month to opt out of a contract with the county after learning it would have to chip in up to $281,400 in January — followed by 3% increases annually. That’s when the Florida Department of Transportation turns over operations and maintenance of the commuter train to the seven local governments along its 61-mile route.

City leaders made the decision at their June 24 meeting after county officials said Maitland’s bill could soar to $675,000 annually under an updated agreement. That’s because costs to operate and maintain the station have risen since the current agreement was approved in 2011.

City and county officials — who last met in early June to discuss SunRail —  now have until year-end to approve a new contract.

Orange County Administrator Byron Brooks told commissioners he’s heard from residents concerned about the future of the Maitland station.

“This is simply allowing a little more time for the city of Maitland and Orange County officials to have discussions about their funding commitment toward the Central Florida commuter rail,” Brooks said.

Even so, it’s unclear what happens to the station off U.S. Highway 17-92 if an agreement isn’t reached.

The county could pick up the cost to keep the station open or the Central Florida Commuter Rail Commission — an advisory board with representatives from each local government along the rail route — could shut it down. The commission takes over operations and maintenance from the state at year-end.

A Maitland spokesman did not return a request for comment on the county’s decision at the meeting.

When SunRail began running in May 2014, it was agreed the state would pay the bills to operate and maintain the rail system along the 16-stop route for the first several years. But local governments — Osceola, Orange, Seminole, Volusia, Orlando, Winter Park and Maitland — would pick up the tab starting in January 2025.

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Using a formula based on ridership and length of track in each jurisdiction, the estimated costs for each government next year are $5.4 million for Volusia, $12.1 million for Seminole, $12.2 million for Osceola, $15.3 million for Orange and $20.2 million for the city of Orlando.

Winter Park and Maitland joined interlocal agreements in 2011 with Orange to help the county with its share of the bill. Maitland lobbied in 2007 for a station to draw visitors to a burgeoning downtown district during SunRail’s planning stages.

According to the agreement, the city would pay 70% of the cost of operating the station and the county the remainder. County and city officials assumed at the time a funding source for SunRail — such as a transportation tax — would be in place by the time the state switched costs to local governments.

Those hopes were derailed in April when Orange commissioners abandoned a plan to ask voters in November to approve a penny sales tax that could raise up to $759 million annually for transportation projects. Those revenues would have almost entirely paid the SunRail bills for Maitland and Winter Park.

Maitland now faces a budget crunch as the only Central Florida government forecast to see a drop — by as much as 3% — in total taxable value of properties this year compared to 2023, according to the Orange County Property Appraiser’s Office.

The financial load of the train station would be too much, city leaders said last month. They pointed out that the station — which saw just 30,000 riders in the past year — ranks as the second-lowest of all SunRail stops in passenger counts.

“This is just a little too hard of a dollar amount to ask our citizens for,” Maitland council member Vance Guthrie said at the June 24 meeting about SunRail costs. “Maybe someone comes up with another great idea with how to fund this. A lot can be done [by the end of the year].”