Look what popped back into the news again: high-speed rail. And just when we had become emotionally resigned to the railroading reality orchestrated by Gov. Rick Scott.
We now know that late last year the state Department of Transportation sent a report to the Federal Railroad Administration with revealing projections on Tampa-to-Orlando ridership and operational costs. The numbers, which were based on findings of two consulting firms hired by the very state that Scott is governor of, project an annual ridership of 5 million and a surplus of $30 million to 45 million within a decade of start-up. The DOT also estimated 3 million passengers and a $4.3 million surplus in that initial (2016) year.
We know, of course, that Tea Partiers and the Reason Institute had ultimate input into the ideologically-skewed decision to turn down the $2.4 billion from the “socialist” Administration of Barack Obama. But what we are reminded of, again, is that the bidding consortiums–all the major global players–were never even given the opportunity to present their building bids. Instead, the mantra of “on the hook” taxpayers and a specious comparison with California trumped everything, including input from those who would actually build the line along the shovel-ready corridor connecting the budding Tampa-Orlando megalopolis.
Here’s more relevant context. The bid winner would have realized a major marketing coup: It would be heralded as the one that built America’s first dedicated high-speed rail line. Any chance that winner would have agreed to make up ostensible deficits and overruns to get the contract? You think? And perhaps, just perhaps, the winner might have had an inkling of the sort of numbers the Florida DOT has now proffered?
Some things you don’t forget.
Scott will be gone after 2014. But the incalculable damage done–from short-term jobs to the long-term development and redevelopment of the Tampa-Orlando axis of synergy–will linger on.