JAN 27

Last year, the government promised $10.5 billion in funds for high-speed rail development and the first state to receive some of that money is Florida.  Tomorrow, President Obama will be awarding $2.5 billion to the state to jump-start the first phase of their train system that will run from Orlando to Tampa.

Phase 1 will run along the heavily traveled  I-4 corridor and take passengers to Orlando Airport, Orlando, Disney, Lakeland and Tampa at speeds above 120 mph - not a bullet train, but still faster than a car.   Phase 2 will connect Orlando to Miami by two different routes (I-95 and the Turnpike).  The system will eventually connect all the major cities in the state and points in between.

The first phase will cost $3.5 billion, so after the government funds the state will still have to raise $1 billion from private investors to complete the project.  The state expects the first trains to be running by 2014.

Ideally, Florida's train system is just the beginning of a much larger train network linking the whole East Coast and the nation.  With $8 billion left to be doled out, I'm excited to see which area is the next recipient.

via Inhabitat

Comments (9)

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Great news for the future.
written by VeruTEK Green Technologies, January 27, 2010

This is wonderful news for Flordia, and even greater news for what is in store for the future. I am certainly looking forward to seeing what progress is made with this.

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Blog
written by Marie T, January 28, 2010

This has great potential. I hope this extends west as well linking the US as a whole through greater train systems.

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Why only 120 mph?
written by Rex Greenslade, January 28, 2010

I'm a great believer in high-speed trains. As anyone who's traveled on one in Japan and Europe will know, they're miraculously smooth, quiet and fast, partly because you go from city center to city center. By why is the US planning for only 120 mph? That's not competitive by world standards and represents 1950s technical competence. Yet again, we're kidding ourselves by saying that we're going to be world competitive when we're only comparing ourselves to what we had before, not what else is available in the world. We should be shooting for 200+ mph, like the Germans, French and, yes, the Chinese.

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@Rex
written by Morgan, January 29, 2010

The USA's rail infrastructure is pretty much 3rd world standard. Sure, it might have been impressive in the heyday of the 20th Century but time marches on and waits for no man or country.

Today, the USA is too poor to rebuild a new rail system from scratch, so it must adapt to the existing infrastructure. Tilt train technology is particularly good for this as it allows higher speeds on existing rails.

Germany, France, Japan, China and others are more technologically advanced than the US, and they foresaw the need for new infrastructure a long time ago. Meanwhile the US was too busy waging wars in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Be happy with your upgraded railway it is better than nothing.

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written by Chelsea, January 29, 2010

I live in Tampa and was so excited when I first heard about this, but then I was told that it wouldn't be completed until around 2016. I'm getting the hell out of this state as soon as I graduate college, long before the trains are built. I'll find someplace that already has much better public transportation that Florida will ever have. A train to Orlando won't fix the fact that I still need a car to go anywhere in my city because of the ridiculous amount of sprawl.

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Cost
written by Foraker, February 02, 2010

True high speed rail (200mph+) costs about ten times more than the "improved" rail being talked about right now. So that $3.5 billion for just the first leg of Florida's system -- make that $35 billion for 220 mph service on that same leg. We just don't have the money. And 110mph service is still a big improvement over the current passenger rail system which is limited to 79mph service, if any exists at all.

By the way, most of Europe relies on rail that runs at about 110mph, there are only a few high speed rail lines, and even those are not necessarily running at 220mph or more along the entire route. Also, Europe started with lower speed rail and upgraded their lines over time. I would think that that is the long term plan for the US as well. The interstate highway system wasn't completed overnight either.

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written by jm, February 03, 2010

All your numbers are wrong, most importantly the amount FL received ($1.25 B). This has happened in a variety of your other articles. You flunk accuracy repeatedly Mr. Ecogeek.

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written by Treje, February 05, 2010

Why is the Northeast being left out of the first round of funds? We actually use train service, so improving the northeastern corridor would really help, since people ride it a lot. I'm glad they're finally funding rail, but wish we would have gotten better speeds here.

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Transport
written by Car Transport, February 07, 2010

I think it is great that Florida is getting a high speed rail and it is my hope that they are able to connect it down to Miami. Being in auto shipping on of the main problems we run into is traffic on the freeways. It is our hope that this program does something to help reduce this along with the pollution put out by our state.

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