When Gov. Rick Scott foolishly rejected the $2.4 billion grant from the federal government to build the first leg of high speed rail between Orlando and Tampa, he falsely told Floridians that he had helped the feds balance the national budget by rejecting the money.
But today, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced where the more than $2 billion money, rejected by Scott would go. The funds are to be parceled out to Amtrak and 15 states for 22 high-speed intercity passenger rail projects.
The largest amount, close to $800 million will go to significantly increase speeds on rail lines already running in the northeast and add seats to accommodate more riders.
More than $400 million will go to expand high speed rail in the Midwest, including including new segments of track between Detroit and Chicago that is expected to allow higher speeds that will cut the trip time by 30 minutes. Upgrades to the Chicago-St. Louis corridor will speed up that trip as well. Another $300 million will expand California’s existing north-south train line.
LaHood said the construction on rail and new locomotives and rail cars that are part of the project would generate “tens of thousands” of jobs.
The Tampa to Orlando high speed rail was estimated to create initially, 35,000 jobs. Also, an updated ridership study showed that the rail line would have had a $10.2 million operating surplus in the first year of operation in 2015 and a $28.6 million surplus in its 10th year, although Scott said he rejected the federal grant because the rail would pose a risk to Florida taxpayers, owing to insufficient ridership.
Sen. Thad Altman, R-Melbourne, who unsuccessfully sued Scott over his rejection of the rail money, criticized him again on Monday, for his claiming credit for helping the feds balance the budget.
“This action proves again the governor mislead the people of Florida by claiming the $2.4 billion he turned back to the federal government helped reduce the federal budget,” Altman said in a statement. “This series of events proves the governor is either intentionally deceiving the people of Florida or has been malfeasant in his duty to faithfully implement the law.”
