There has been a great deal of heat and very little light in the discussions of high-speed rail in Florida. Governor Scott's decision to kill the project was sound for two reasons: (1) Using the DOT figures, the line will run at a loss of over $10 million per year even assuming it comes in on time and on budget; (based on the history of such projects) the Boston 'Big Dig' was estimated to cost $2.8 billion when it was started - the final number came in excess of $22 billion. The city of Boston and the State of Massachusetts will be responsible for a significant portion of that overrun. While this is a gigantic example, I cannot find a single project where DOT came in ahead of schedule and under budget; (2) the DOT projects over two million riders per year on this train.

After living over thirty years in Central Florida, I can find no credible reason to ride this train other than curiosity. The train's stop's include the Orlando Airport, the Orlando Convention Center, Disney, Lakeland and downtown Tampa. Existing bus transportation provided by Disney will get tourists to the Magic Kingdom faster and less expensively that this train. The Convention center travelers will similarly find the train offers no advantage. Citizens of Orlando will find it much easier to drive to either Disney or the Convention center than going to the Airport and paying to park their cars and schlep their baggage. I know of no one who wants to go to Lakeland.

The only reason for taking the train to Tampa would be to have a group that then can take a bus to a destination such as Raymond James Stadium (the Tampa Bay Bucs) and return home with a chance to sober up on the return.

I can think of no reason to take a train from downtown Tampa to the Orlando airport.

The reaction from the DOT to sensible decisions such as the one to kill FL high-speed rail, Ohio high speed rail and New Jersey's decision to kill a new rail project to NYC has been so say, if you do not want the money we will 'give' it to someone else. The thought of not spending it and reducing the deficit seems foreign to them.

Senator Nelson is infuriated by Governor Scott's decision. After all, didn't he do his job as a Senator and 'bring home the bacon'? Yes he did, but today we need representatives who realize that bacon is pork. Rather than supporting congressmen and senators who get pet projects for us, we need to condemn them for not looking to the country's future.