SB 916 Florida Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Indemnification of Commuter Rail Transportation Providers

Summary

Indemnification of Commuter Rail Transportation Providers; Creating the "Coastal Link Commuter Rail Service Act"; authorizing an agency to assume the obligation to protect, defend, indemnify, and hold harmless certain entities from and against certain liabilities, costs, and expenses in certain circumstances; providing that an employee of an operator is not a coastal link corridor invitee of such operator in certain circumstances; specifying the circumstances under which certain passengers are coastal link corridor invitees of certain operators; requiring that the allocation of liability between certain agencies be allocated as agreed and limited by certain provisions, etc.

Issues: ✓ Transportation

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Mar 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Mar 4, 2025 Last action Apr 24, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

S 916 Filed → S 916 c1 · 6 edits

MODERATE

The bill was reformatted from a filed version to a committee substitute version, adding new definitions for key terms like 'Coastal link corridor limited covered accident' and 'proportionate share', clarifying liability allocation rules for different incident types, and specifying insurance and self-insurance retention requirements. These changes provide clearer guidance on how liability is distributed among agencies, Brightline, and FECR in various accident scenarios.

Scope change

The bill's scope remains focused on indemnification for commuter rail transportation providers on the coastal link corridor, but the definitions and liability allocation rules have been expanded and clarified to cover more specific scenarios.

DEFINITION

Added new definitions for 'Coastal link corridor limited covered accident', 'proportionate share', 'self-insurance retention amount', and 'joint infrastructure' to clarify liability allocation rules.

Added definition for 'Commuter rail service' to distinguish it from Brightline's intercity passenger rail service.

REQUIREMENT

Modified liability allocation rules to specify how responsibility is divided when incidents involve different operators (agency, Brightline, FECR) and when multiple operators are involved.

Added requirement that employees of one operator are not considered invitees of another operator when transferring between services.

Added provision requiring agencies to establish a self-insurance retention fund with a $5 million limit for covering deductibles.

Modified insurance requirements to allow agencies to purchase liability insurance up to $323 million per occurrence, adjusted based on federal allowable awards for rail passenger claims.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Apr 17, 2025

Upper · Passed

Favorable by- Fiscal Policy; YEAS 17 NAYS 0

upper

Apr 14, 2025

Upper · Passed

On Committee agenda-- Fiscal Policy, 04/17/25, 9:00 am, 412 Knott Building

upper

Apr 1, 2025

Upper · Passed

Favorable by Judiciary; YEAS 11 NAYS 0

upper

Mar 27, 2025

Upper · Passed

On Committee agenda-- Judiciary, 04/01/25, 4:00 pm, 110 Senate Building

upper

Mar 20, 2025

Upper · Passed

Pending reference review under Rule 4.7(2) - (Committee Substitute)

upper

Mar 14, 2025

Upper · Passed

On Committee agenda-- Transportation, 03/19/25, 9:00 am, 37 Senate Building

upper

Mar 4, 2025

Introduced

upper

Feb 28, 2025

Committee

Referred to Transportation; Judiciary; Fiscal Policy

upper

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors