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On Fri, 11 Mar 2011 16:06:35 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 11 Mar 2011 12:38:57 -0800, wrote:

On Fri, 11 Mar 2011 15:17:24 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 11 Mar 2011 10:52:36 -0800, wrote:

On Fri, 11 Mar 2011 13:44:10 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 11 Mar 2011 12:17:00 -0500, Harryk
wrote:

I hate to say it because I do love the state, but
Florida seems to elect one idiot after another for governor.

"Three weeks after Gov. Rick Scott put the brakes on high-speed rail,
the Florida Department of Transportation on Wednesday released a study
showing the line connecting Tampa to Orlando would have had a $10.2
million operating surplus in 2015, its first year of operation.

The study showed the line would have had a $28.6 million surplus in its
10th year."

I'd guess Governor Scott nixed the project because he couldn't figure
out a way to personally benefit from it.

That was based on the wild assertion that 3 million people would ride
on it. That is what the Acela gets, with 50 times the number of people
within 50 miles of the stations.

Don't know much about the project, but it seems like a bad time to cut
jobs.

There are other places you can employ people, doing something that is
not creating a black hole that swallows up money forever.

I wrote this before but if Tampa and Orlando really just want a
commuter rail line to take the load off of I-4 (where most of these
riders will really come from), tell us that is what you want and let
it stand on it's own merits. Then you don't need to build the other 50
miles out across cow country where I-4 is not that busy.
They still have not told us who really needs to get between downtown
Tampa and the Orlando airport. (where this would run)

In good economic times, I would agree that projects should "stand on
their own" financially and without gov't backing. But these are not
good times, and it seems to me that most anything that creates or
preserves jobs right now is better than continued unemployment and all
the attendant consequences.

If we are going to create jobs, why not create them here? Rail like
this will be using chinese rails and European trains. All that will
actually be done here is the digging.

There are a lot better ways to spend a couple billion dollars. Why not
spend that money fixing the roads we have? Alabama just gave some
family a million dollars because a chunk of loose pavement came up and
killed a woman. We have bridges all over the country ready to fall
down. These are things that will pay us back immediately.

Maybe there are, but I don't see your governor proposing any. Of
course, this would require fed help, which you're against. FYI, lots
of stim jobs are ongoing.