Wednesday, February 16, 2011

ChooChoo Dead in Florida, Too

Common sense virus. Catch it!!

Florida Gov. Rick Scott has pulled the plug on the 84-mile Tampa to Orlando high-speed rail project, rejecting $2.4 billion in federal funding for what has been touted as a $2.7 billion project. But according to a Reason Foundation study released in January (on which Scott relied), there was a high risk that the actual cost could have been as much as twice that amount—with the difference having to come from Florida taxpayers. In addition, since the official ridership projections were straight out of fantasyland, there was a high likelihood of the state being stuck providing operating subsidies, as in most of the existing high-speed rail projects overseas.

Imagine that! Unicorns and pixie-dust "projections" and massive State-level burdens.

Where HAVE we heard this before??

HT: Hit and Run

6 comments:

Jeff Miller said...

Scott is the anti-Crist, thankfully. Happy to have a governor who won't hug Obama for sending fed money his way.

But even if for the first time estimates were correct it was still a bad idea. The route and the out of the place stations on both ends meant you would still need a car to get into town and basically you would save time driving directly between the two cities. I've made that trip several times and it is not that long.

Anonymous said...

Florida's GOP criticized Scott on this. Looks like we have another internecine war on our hands!

Mr. Tastic said...

I know quite a few people in the Tampa area and it's clear that NO ONE wanted this train. Further, NO ONE would EVER ride it - there is zero need.

TerryN said...

"But even if for the first time estimates were correct it was still a bad idea. The route and the out of the place stations on both ends meant you would still need a car to get into town and basically you would save time driving directly between the two cities. I've made that trip several times and it is not that long."

Are you talking about Florida or Wisconsin?

Jim said...

That's OK. We'll take the money and the jobs in California.

GOR said...

Yes! Enough of the social engineering from Obama and Co. in Washington. Good for Florida.

So that's three states that have told him to shove it, right? Wisconsin, Ohio and now Florida.