On Monday, Florida pulled within $300 million of reaching the $2.6 billion necessary for a long-proposed bullet train connecting Tampa and Orlando to leave the station -- a figure opponents once successfully used to derail the train as too expensive, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said Monday.
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced that Florida will receive an additional $800 million for the train, which will be added to the $1.25 billion in federal economic stimulus money the state won earlier this year.
Florida was competing with nine other states for the money.
The state had requested $1.12 billion, but Nelson said Monday the state was very grateful to get three-fourths of the total.
This is fantastic news for Florida, Nelson said in a statement. This will ensure the state remains full speed ahead with high-speed rail construction. As Ive said many times, high-speed rail will be a game changer for Floridas economy, along the likes of the Interstate system and Disney.
He added the state could likely get the remaining $300 million for the Tampa-Orlando portion next year.
Separately, Nelson said Florida will also be granted $8 million to plan an eventual extension of the high-speed rail line from Orlando to Miami, which backers envision completing a couple of years after the initial leg opens.
The state Department of Transportation did not immediately comment on the award Monday, but officials said this month they would begin next month advertising the first part of the project, preparing the median of Interstate 4 for trains.
Advertising for other contracts, including rebuilding two I-4 exits that will have to be reconstructed after the median is widened, and moving a part of the highway near Orlando slightly west, will follow in December and January. In June, the department will solicit contracts for building a maintenance facility for the rail.
U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, said the number of contracts for the rail project would pick up steam with the additional federal money. Backers of the high speed rail have argued that every $1 billion spent on infrastructure like rail generates 28,000 jobs.
"We are putting thousands and thousands of Floridians to work on a transportation and jobs initiative that will benefit Florida residents, small-business owners, and aid future economic growth," Castor said Monday. "People are already at work on the Tampa to Orlando segment, and workshops are underway for small-business owners to tap into new business opportunities. Todays major investment means that thousands more Floridians will be put to work."
Castor announced last week an unrelated $1.18 million the city of Tampa won from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development that will be used to build a downtown station for the high-speed rail.
"The new high-speed rail station and related improvements will generate positive economic effects from Downtown, to East Tampa, to Seminole Heights, Ybor, and Tampa Heights," Castor said then.
When the initial federal high-speed rail funding was announced in January, Florida received the second highest overall funding because transportation officials said it was further along in planning than competing states. Only California, which got $2.25 billion for a 220-mph Los Angeles to San Francisco train, topped Florida's initial rail haul for the long-proposed train between Tampa and Orlando.
Heralded now as a possible cornerstone of a nationwide rail network that President Barack Obama envisions being similar to the construction of the interstate highway system in the 1950s, the Florida high-speed rail was once thought sidetracked for good. A high-speed train connecting Central and South Florida was originally placed in the Florida Constitution by voters in 2000, but it was removed by the same electorate in 2004 after a campaign backed by former Gov. Jeb Bush, who argued the state couldn't afford it.
The train is back on track now though, with most of the money coming now from federal coffers. Backers say the trains could begin running in 2015.
