Obama's High-Speed-Rail Projects in California and Florida

[ClarkUSA]

Republicans are as determined to stop the greening of America now as they were under Jimmy Carter. God forbid Big Oil loses market share, right?
However, it's good to see that the Obama administration is pushing ahead despite GOP obstructionism.

The plodding Ohio line is already dead, thanks to Republican Governor-elect John Kasich; so is an $810 million Milwaukee-Madison train, killed by Wisconsin GOP Governor-elect Scott Walker. Now the Obama Administration has shifted most of the Ohio and Wisconsin money to California and Florida, doubling down on its biggest investments, hoping to build short-term momentum toward its long-term vision of a new way to move around the country.

Those four states help illustrate its Moses strategy, its high-stakes game of high-speed chicken. It's an awkward approach in an era of intense partisanship and brutal budget crises, and it's off to a rough start. But that doesn't mean it's doomed to failure... Big Government is always a convenient political opponent, especially when times are tough and families are cutting back... Still, it's one thing to complain about federal spending and quite another thing to divert it elsewhere. Shortly after Wisconsin's money was redistributed, the Spanish firm Talgo announced plans to shut down its U.S. train-manufacturing operations in Milwaukee and relocate the jobs to a state that continues to pursue high-speed rail. "I can't wait to see the ads in Wisconsin in 2014," an Obama aide says. "You'll have some guy working on the train in Florida: 'Thanks for my job, Governor Walker!' "

Read more: http://tinyurl.com/2ap9djy

[dragonlady]

1. "Scott Walker, Thanks for the money & jobs! Love, Illinois.”

That's the billboard the Wisconsin Democratic Party put up on a busy freeway in Milwaukee in November. We're stuck with the idiot and his Republican majority legislature for at least two years. Talgo is apparently moving to Illinois.

[jwirr]

2. You cannot expect those dear repugs to support greening! Then

they would have to admit that the ideas of oil depletion and global warming may actually be correct.:sarcasm:

[daa]

3. Of course Georgia won't build roads let alone high speed rail

but I would ride to Charlotte from Atlanta several times a year. Too far to drive often and screw TSA, no airports for me.

[flpoljunkie]

4. Gov.-elect Rick Scott holds off on questions over high-speed rail project

Gov-elect Rick Scott ended his five-day jobs tour but won't say whether he's ready to support a $2.4 billion high-speed rail project to connect Tampa and Orlando.
BY BILL VARIAN AND MICHAEL C. BENDER

HERALD/TIMES TALLAHASSEE BUREAU

TAMPA - Governor-elect Rick Scott has repeatedly said he wants to see a feasibility study for a planned high-speed rail line across Central Florida before the project moves forward. But he refused to answer the billion-dollar question while touring employment centers along the Interstate 4 corridor Friday.

That is, will he turn down roughly $2.4 billion the federal government has pledged to the project if he's not happy with the results of that study?

"That's hypothetical,'' Scott said, declining to answer the question while visiting the University of South Florida Research Park on Friday morning to tout his job-creating aspirations.

The question was lobbed repeatedly Friday as Scott traveled from Tampa to Orlando, where he capped off his five-day, 10-city tour of some of the state's top job producers. It so happens that leaders of both cities are eagerly awaiting word on whether plans to link them by high-speed rail are still on track.

"Do we want infrastructure? You better believe it,'' Scott told a group of business leaders at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute.

"From my standpoint, I better know what it costs. I'm responsible to the taxpayers of this state.''

Scott reiterated previous statements about the project, saying he wants to make sure that a high-speed rail line is a good deal for Florida. Asked about what might constitute a good deal, Scott told reporters in Tampa he wasn't prepared to answer what he again dismissed as a hypothetical line of inquiry.

Speaking to business leaders, elected officials, students and faculty at USF, Scott expressed concern that the price tag will exceed current estimates, leaving Florida to cover the balance.

He said he also wants to know what the operating costs are likely to be compared to the money expected to be generated by fares, and whether a private company would be willing to run the trains.
And he said he's surprised that information isn't already available.

"You wouldn't go build a building unless you knew what the costs were,'' he said.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Thursday that Florida is in line to receive another $342 million on top of the $2.05 billion the federal government has already pledged for the Tampa-Orlando rail connection. The additional money was made possible because newly-elected Republican governors in Ohio and Wisconsin turned down stimulus money for high-speed rail.

[martymar64]

5. I bet he'll take the money just so he can skim his share right off the top.

[Number23]

6. Rec'd!