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Rail News: High-Speed Rail
2/17/2011
Rail News: High-Speed Rail
California, Washington, Illinois show interest in Florida's HSR funds
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Now that Florida Gov. Rick Scott has answered the question of whether he’ll accept federal funds for the Tampa-Orlando high-speed rail project (he won’t), the next logical question is: Where will the money go?
Just as when governors in Wisconsin and Ohio refused federal high-speed dollars late last year, other states are already vying for Florida’s $2.4 billion; the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has indicated it will redirect the funds to other states.
“I join with our two Senators and the California delegation in urging the president to redirect these funds to California,” said California Gov. Jerry Brown in a prepared statement.
The California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA), which received more than $600 million in redirected high-speed funds in December, is “well poised to use that funding if it becomes available or redistributed,” says authority spokesperson Rachel Wall.
“We’re working with the Federal Railroad Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation to make it clear we could use that money to extend our initial construction,” she says. “We’ve certainly established that we know how to spend money reallocated from other states.”
When the USDOT told CHSRA it would receive additional funds through the Wisconsin and Ohio reallocations, project engineers immediately began to determine how the money could be used. The authority decided to allocate the funds to extend construction on the line’s initial segment in the Central Valley.
But CHSRA has yet to determine how funds would be redistributed this time around.
“We’ve asked for more funding than we’ve received, so it could be redistributed based on unfulfilled requests,” says Wall.
Other states are expressing an interest in Florida’s rejected dollars, as well. Yesterday, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) issued a press release saying that the state is ready to put Florida’s funds to work. Washington previously received $590 million in high-speed funds through the recovery act, as well as $161.5 million that was redirected from Wisconsin and Ohio.
WSDOT could use additional funds to complete projects listed in its original recovery act funding application that would add round trips between Portland and Seattle, improve reliability and reduce travel times, DOT officials said.
Count Illinois among the interested states, as well. Yesterday, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn reaffirmed his commitment to high-speed rail in his budget address and said that the state would continue to seek high-speed rail funding, according to a statement issued by the Midwest High Speed Rail Association.
Association officials questioned the timing of Scott’s decision, saying it’s possible he rejected the dollars in an attempt to influence the federal transportation funding debate.
“The governors of Wisconsin and Ohio also recently declined a total of $1.2 billion in federal funding for new passenger-rail lines. They both criticized those projects as wasteful government spending but then, in the same breath, asked to direct those funds to highway projects,” said association Executive Director Rick Harnish. “There is an organized attack against trains in the U.S. These officials are killing rail projects to score easy political points, sacrificing tens of thousands of jobs and the long-term benefits rail provides.”
— Angela Cotey
Just as when governors in Wisconsin and Ohio refused federal high-speed dollars late last year, other states are already vying for Florida’s $2.4 billion; the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has indicated it will redirect the funds to other states.
“I join with our two Senators and the California delegation in urging the president to redirect these funds to California,” said California Gov. Jerry Brown in a prepared statement.
The California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA), which received more than $600 million in redirected high-speed funds in December, is “well poised to use that funding if it becomes available or redistributed,” says authority spokesperson Rachel Wall.
“We’re working with the Federal Railroad Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation to make it clear we could use that money to extend our initial construction,” she says. “We’ve certainly established that we know how to spend money reallocated from other states.”
When the USDOT told CHSRA it would receive additional funds through the Wisconsin and Ohio reallocations, project engineers immediately began to determine how the money could be used. The authority decided to allocate the funds to extend construction on the line’s initial segment in the Central Valley.
But CHSRA has yet to determine how funds would be redistributed this time around.
“We’ve asked for more funding than we’ve received, so it could be redistributed based on unfulfilled requests,” says Wall.
Other states are expressing an interest in Florida’s rejected dollars, as well. Yesterday, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) issued a press release saying that the state is ready to put Florida’s funds to work. Washington previously received $590 million in high-speed funds through the recovery act, as well as $161.5 million that was redirected from Wisconsin and Ohio.
WSDOT could use additional funds to complete projects listed in its original recovery act funding application that would add round trips between Portland and Seattle, improve reliability and reduce travel times, DOT officials said.
Count Illinois among the interested states, as well. Yesterday, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn reaffirmed his commitment to high-speed rail in his budget address and said that the state would continue to seek high-speed rail funding, according to a statement issued by the Midwest High Speed Rail Association.
Association officials questioned the timing of Scott’s decision, saying it’s possible he rejected the dollars in an attempt to influence the federal transportation funding debate.
“The governors of Wisconsin and Ohio also recently declined a total of $1.2 billion in federal funding for new passenger-rail lines. They both criticized those projects as wasteful government spending but then, in the same breath, asked to direct those funds to highway projects,” said association Executive Director Rick Harnish. “There is an organized attack against trains in the U.S. These officials are killing rail projects to score easy political points, sacrificing tens of thousands of jobs and the long-term benefits rail provides.”
— Angela Cotey
