If it was a good deal, and a money maker, private business interests would be looking at this and lining up investors to pursue this rail project. The truth is that all rail in this country has to be subsidized by the TAXPAYER. The high speed rail projects being touted for this country are unworkable, unwanted and unsustainable.

Good Move
 

Why do you have the need to be connected to Orlando from Tampa? It's an easy highway ride. Large populations need mass transit and these two cities don't fit into that group. The Gov made the right move. Riders would have been minimal and we would be stuck with bill.

I agree. The government would provide 2.4B, but the state would have to spend 3B. Scott said the use of the train wouldn't justify the cost. He is a very successful businessman and I'm sure knows what he's talking about. In my opinion for whatever it's worth, is that most people that want it are only fascinated in the concept of having a high speed rail system, and there is not much use for a Tampa to Orlando train. Now a Orlando to New York would be another story.

Following the above paragraph taken from http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/...ubsidies_N.htm is the following:

"The Northeast corridor has the highest passenger volume of any Amtrak route, greatly enhancing efficiency. The corridor's high-speed Acela Express made a profit of about $41 per passenger. The more heavily utilized Northeast Regional lost almost $5 per passenger.

Passenger rail systems throughout the world lose money and require government subsidies to cover operating expenses."

Sometimes information taken out of context does not tell the whole story and these three paragraphs don't as well. Reading the entire article does!

Kids...we can't get anything new until we pay off our old bills.

If only Gracie, if only.

The HS train issue is a real time political football...cut costs
 

but do not cut ANY costs that affect ME, MY STATE, MY SPECIAL INTERESTS, MY SUPPORTERS or MY JOBS...ala Bill Nelson...as well as all the rest.

btk

A little information about public transportation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/nyregion/03mta.html

Maybe the route could include a stop in TV. May be able to make a buck or two with the large population of residents from the NE. Would anyone rather ride the train in comfort rather than drive for two days either way? What would make it nice would be a regular speed auto train. One of the problems with train travel is that the routes do not always get you near to your destination. Try going from Florida to Houston via rail. I believe you need to go all the way to Chicago and then back down.

I would like to see high speed rail from the NY area (New Jersey) to southern Florida. I don't know if a high speed auto-train would work. There are a number of problems with the current auto-train. It only goes to Virginia because it won't make the tunnels in the DC area with the larger car carriers. It operates on old rights of way which are not conducive to high speeds and the rights of way are ( I believe ) owned by CSX. Passenger traffic always has to give way to freight traffic which slows things down. The eastern corridor would be the perfect site for a high speed auto-train with limited stops. I suppose the cars would have to be placed in car carriers that could be simply uncoupled at such stops since on-loading and off-loading would take lots of time. It's something that could be done but with lots of changes to the existing system which means lots of cash. The tremendous distances in this country sounded the death knell to long distance trains with the advent of air travel. But, they certainly do have their place in regional and coastal service. The trouble is we are very far behind in taking rail seriously and now it may be way too expensive to catch up.

Who, whom or what said Orlando-Tampa is the best route
 

for HS rail service?
It would be nice to see options that serve the needs of the people and not the politicians and their special interest supporters.

However, if I were Scott I would say OK, you want the HS rail project....show me the other programs to cut instead where the $3 billion ++ will be offset.

REMEMBER? The man is trying to respond to the fact there is no money for the project!!! What do the rest of you do when you don't have the money/ability to pay?

The federal government has to borrow 40 cents on the dollar to "give" FL $2.5 billion....like the politicians in Washington, way too many people don't care where the money comes from or whether we have it or not.

btk

Ask O'Toole about trans costs
 

More public transportation info:

http://www.bostonherald.com/projects...wages.DESC//4/

Is the high speed rail about jobs for Floridians or even Americans? Where would the trains be built? Do we build them anywhere in the USA? I don't believe we do.
http://thebreakthrough.org/blog/2009..._compete.shtml
I realize there is far more to the train system than the vehicles on the track, but I'm just saying...

TV would be way out of the way in an Orlando Tampa route and I don't think you'll ever see that happen in HS. It would be nice though if Amtrak's bus route from St. Petersburg to Jacksonville that currently passes through Wildwood were developed into a rail route instead. That way you'd have regular rail service between the Tampa area to both Orlando and Jacksonville where transfer can happen to a north/south route. Unfortunately, that's unlikely to happen too because Amtrak has never been adequately funded to develope new routes like that.

As an AutoTrain user I would like to see more of those auto train routes developed. But as I already said, not enough funding for that kind of development. In the future it would at least be nice to see a coast-to-coast run from the central Atlantic coast to the central Pacific coast as well as from LA to Seattle. But even that much is probably wishful dreaming on my part!

As for your comments about getting to Huston... I hear you there. My coast to coast Amtrak travel has been from Albany-Rensselaer NY with one stop in Chicago. Fairly convenient! However, with the elimination of the FL to New Orleans portion of the Sunset Limited, travel from Florida to the west coast would require four days of travel with two layovers... one in Washington DC and the other in Chicago. I'm afraid I'll have to endure that route in the future unless the Sunset Limited is one day restored from Florida all the way through to California.
http://www.smileyshut.com/smileys/ne...-train-205.gif

I think this is the only answer that will work. Have to live within your budget.