The Tampa to Orlando High-Speed Rail Line: Protecting Taxpayers

Wendell Cox / February 22, 2011

Last week, Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) rejected $2.4 billion in federal funding for a proposed high-speed rail line from Tampa to Orlando. The governor’s decision was based upon the likelihood of an up to $3 billion cost overrun, the likelihood of operating subsidies, and the requirement that the federal grant would have to be repaid if trains were not operating frequently enough, even if they were nearly empty.

Governor Scott joins other governors in this trend: Governor Chris Christie (R), who canceled a new Hudson River tunnel that was already in the process of escalating the liability of New Jersey taxpayers, and Governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin (R) and John Kasich of Ohio (R), who canceled so-called high-speed rail projects in their own states that would travel little faster than the fastest trains of the 1930s. (more…)