High-speed rail struggles to build steam
In early March, Florida Gov. Rick Scott issued a final rejection of federal funds for his state's proposed high-speed rail line from Tampa to Orlando, calling the project a potential “spending boondoggle.” In returning the funds, he joined other newly elected Republican governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin and John Kasich of Ohio. While they are expressing concerns about the viability of particular high-speed rail projects, others are forging ahead with plans to build a national rail network.
As part of its plan for a national high-speed rail network, the Obama administration is funding shorter, lower-speed, regional lines, in addition to longer-distance, high-speed projects connecting major cities. The administration included $8 billion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for grants to states to help implement that plan, and it has proposed a $53 billion six-year plan to fund rail projects.
California already has received $3.1 billion in federal funds, including $2.25 billion from the state's original ARRA grants and approximately half of the $1.2 billion reallocated from Wisconsin and Ohio. The state also is applying for some of Florida's funds, but even now, with the current federal grants and matching state funds, it has $5.5 billion to create a 520-mile line from San Francisco to Los Angeles, with trains that would travel at up to 220 miles per hour.
Reliable federal funding is needed to maintain a viable plan for national high-speed rail, says Jeffrey Barker, deputy executive director for communications, policy and public outreach for the California High-Speed Rail Authority. “High-speed rail isn't something that can be built from year to year,” Barker says. “We can't keep hoping to get funding every year. We need a long-term plan.” He says that guaranteed federal funding would help attract private investors.
“The good thing is that there is demand out there for Florida's money,” says John Robert Smith, president and CEO of Washington-based Reconnecting America. Smith says that at least 10 other states have applied for the money. “It will certainly be oversubscribed,” he says.
In returning his state's funds, Scott expressed concern that taxpayers would have to pay operating costs not covered by ridership fees. Smith says that many rail lines likely will require additional investment from the federal and state government, and the private sector. “[However,] no transportation system pays for itself out of the fare box,” Smith says. “So, to expect high-speed rail to do that is not fair.”
Jennifer Grzeskowiak is a Laguna Beach, Calif.-based freelance writer.
He wants to go slow
In December, before his inauguration, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker asked Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood if the state could divert $810 million in federal money that was meant to fund a high-speed rail line from Madison to Milwaukee to other projects. LaHood said no and sent the money to other states instead. However, in March, Walker submitted a new application seeking part of the $2.4 billion Florida returned for its high-speed rail line to improve an existing commuter line from Milwaukee to Chicago.