|
Videos
April 6, 2011 By News Staff
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Wednesday, April 6, that more than 90 applications from 24 states, Washington, D.C., and Amtrak are pursuing $2.4 billion in available funding from the department’s High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail (HSIPR) program. The application requests totaled just under $10 billion.
The $2.4 billion was made available after Fla. Gov. Rick Scott rejected the funding for a proposed high-speed rail line between Tampa, Fla., and Orlando, Fla., that was included in President Obama’s budget. Scott turned down the funding, believing that the project could have as much as $3 billion in cost overruns, ridership and revenue estimates were optimistic.
The submissions will be evaluated by the Federal Railroad Administration. Winners will be selected using a merit-driven process to award the funds to high-speed rail projects that can quickly deliver public and economic benefits.
Applications will be judged on the project’s ability to reduce energy consumption, improve efficiency of a region’s transportation network and a number of other criteria. No date was given for a decision on project selection.
“We are extremely pleased to see the bipartisan enthusiasm behind all of the requests to get into the high-speed rail business,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
California is one of the states pursuing the money. The state’s rail authority applied for the entire $2.4 billion. State officials said the extra money would allow the state’s planned rail line to extend into downtown Merced and downtown Bakersfield.
You may use or reference this story with attribution and a link to
http://www.govtech.com/transportation/Amtrak-24-States-Florida-High-Speed-Rail.html
Collaborative Justice: Transforming Criminal Justice Services Through Unified Collaboration
Cloud-Based Services Accelerate Public Sector Adoption of Video Collaboration
Gd for FLA. Just another boondoggle we can't afford. Trains make sense in the densely populated Boston-Washington-Richmond-Norfolk corridor, but not in other, less populated, more car-dependent areas. Maybe, in those latter parts of the nation, a federal subsidy of lower gas prices for some areas of the country and some lower-income drivers would be a better expenditure of federal funds. In many places, you are what you drive!
"Another boondoggle we can't afford" is also what people said about buying Alaska from Russia after the Civil War (imagine what the Cold War would have been like if Alaska had been a Russian military bastion!), the building of the transcontinental railroad, the military's first purchase of airplanes in the early 20th century, and the GI Bill.
Makes sense for connections with cities, but Tampa and Orlando are just big suburbs. The European style (older) American cities like NYC, DC, etc. make sense, as the attractions are mostly downtown, where transportation is available and economical. Further, why don't these rail systems connect efficiently (no, hour long bus rides don't count) with airports? What's really need is a transportation department to design an intelligent system for the USA and then implement it, instead of these one-off hodge podge politically driven fiascoes. Wait, don't we have one of those transportation departments?
I hope the Pacific Northwest gets some of these funds. As a geographically challenged region, our highways are clogged and our bridges expensive and limiting. I live in an eastern suburb of Seattle. Light rail long in planning is coming, against the wishes of some local business people. I can hardly wait.