STUDY: By 2026, Florida High-Speed Rail Would Have Brought In Annual Surplus of $31 Million

[xchrom]

http://wepartypatriots.com/wp/2012/02/08/fl-hsr-would-have-brought-31-million-annual-surplus/

The analysis is in: the Tampa-to-Orlando high-speed rail (HSR) project that was shot down by Florida Governor Rick Scott would have been profitable for the state.

The analysis, conducted by the Florida Department of Transportation and sent to the Federal Railroad Administration this past November, found that losing the $2 billion the U.S. government was offering “Pink Slip Rick” will cost the state for decades to come:

The heart of the report is an analysis by two consulting firms of projected ridership, costs and the resulting surplus – or loss. If the project to link Tampa and Orlando would have gone forward, the research would have been used in determining an investment grade for bond sales.

According to data from both consulting firms hired by the state, the project, which would have given Florida the nation’s first high-speed rail line, would have been a fiscally sound decision.

The firm of Steer, Davis, Gleave projected Tampa-Orlando ridership of 2.5 million and a $9.1 million deficit in 2016, the first year of operation. By 2026, though, the high-speed rail would be carrying nearly 5 million passengers a year and generate an annual surplus of $31.1 million, according to the firm.

[liberal N proud]

1. But how much would it have cost the oil companies?

That is why the republican governors killed all the high speed rail projects that were planned around the country. Not because of what it would have saved the states or the riders but what it would have cost the oil companies.

GREED feeds on us all.

[Firebrand Gary]

2. K&R

[Loge23]

3. An absolutely awful move by an absolutely awful governor.

Florida, as everybody knows, is acessible only by two major north-south arteries: I-95 on the East Coast, and I-75 on the West.
There's only so much expansion possible for these roadways, let alone the often horrendous conditions that the roads already experience.
East-West passage across the state is limited to I-10 in the far North, I-4 mid-state, and the I-75 tail from Naples to Miami.
High-Speed rail could have provided a tremendous incentive for growth and commerce - it's really a head-scratcher that a republican governor would so not support it. Clearly, special interests had Scott in their pocket - and add in Scott's disdain for anything Democratic.
He virtually destroyed his own political ambitions with this move, which is the silver lining of this awful decision.