Action
Notice of intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
Summary
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA); the Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority (locally known as LYNX); METROPLAN ORLANDO, the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the Orlando and Kissimmee, Florida urbanized areas; the Volusia County Metropolitan Planning Organization (Volusia County MPO); and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) intend to conduct scoping meetings and prepare an Alternatives Analysis leading to an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to evaluate commuter transportation improvements in the CSX Transportation (CSXT) freight rail corridor between the cities of Deland and Kissimmee, Florida in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), as amended. This Notice of Intent is being published at this time to notify interested parties and to invite participation in the study. The study area will generally follow the existing CSXT Corridor from Deland, Florida to Kissimmee, Florida through the City of Orlando. The corridor analysis is necessary to explore alternative modes of north-south travel to Interstate 4 (I-4), currently under reconstruction and limited by capacity constraints. The following alternatives will be evaluated in the study: (1) A baseline alternative based on existing LYNX operations, the most recent LYNX Transportation Development Plan for the corridor including but not limited to transit preferential treatments and/or Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and other relevant studies. (2) Commuter Rail with Light Rail Transit (LRT), and without LRT, consistent with the METROPLAN ORLANDO 2020 Cost Feasible Long Range Plan associated bus feeder and public transit circulator service and the joint operations of CSXT. [Note: The alternative without LRT is to provide information to local decision makers as a part of the Long Range Plan update process and is not intended to be an alternative for consideration unless local decision makers modify the 2020 Cost Feasible Plan.] (3) A No Action Alternative with LRT.