Obama Criticizes Rick Scott For Rejecting High-Speed Rail Funds

President Barack Obama says Florida Gov. Rick Scott was wrong to reject $2.4 billion in federal money to build a high-speed rail line from Orlando to Tampa.

During an interview Friday with WSVN in Miami, Obama signaled his belief that progress is necessary in the Sunshine State.

"Frankly, I think the governor was wrong on this," he said. "And that's not just my opinion. That's the opinion of folks in Tampa and Orlando, including a lot of Republicans up there."

Scott has said he didn't want to obligate the state to pay for potentially expensive operating costs.

A Florida Department of Transportation study shows the line could have had an operating surplus in 2015, its first year of operation. The Miami Herald reported on the findings earlier this month:

The study showed the line would have had a $28.6 million surplus in its 10th year.

The numbers are more optimistic than a 2009 study, which concluded the line would have not seen an operating surplus until 2021.

The $1.3 million study, conducted by the forecasting firms Wilbur Smith Associates and Steer Davies Gleave, shows the line would have had 3.3 million riders in its first year. The previous analysis predicted the line would have had 2.4 million riders in 2015.

Other states, like New York and California, have already expressed interest in taking the money for their own high-speed rail projects.

Comments

[CarlIII]

10:39 AM on 03/29/2011

This is pure politics folks. Scott is cementing his popularity with the tea baggers. He turned down the money to make Obama look bad.

[ArbitorA]

12:24 PM on 03/26/2011

Is Rick Scott Lord Voldermort?

[Jeff Parfitt]

08:37 PM on 03/24/2011

What does the Right have against mass transit? Whatever happened to supporting our infrastructure and reducing the costs for the average American to travel? It's a high speed train, not a bridge to nowhere or a rocket ship to Mars. This railway actually has a destination people might want to go to. Seems pretty simple to me.

[Iam WormFood]

11:56 AM on 03/23/2011

What is it with the right and the left? Each day they argue till turning blue in the face. Each day nothing gets done, just arguing.

[dshack]

07:28 PM on 03/22/2011

you guys are missing the point.. The right only wants to keep us reliant on oil.. if we are taking trains everywhere but the store and the club then they lose out on the billions

[shop tom]

11:36 AM on 03/23/2011

Bullstuff. The right want to make the US less dependent on foreign sources of energy. That common sense is lost on Obama, who wants to bankrupt the US energy industry and consumer in the mistake belief fossil fuels are the enemy.

[LawrenceRoth]

03:07 PM on 03/22/2011

High-speed rail replaces short-haul air travel, replaces car travel, saves energy and protects the environmen­t, is safe and reliable, boosts the economy, creates long term jobs, and is often economical­ly self sufficient­.

Yet Republicans are opposed! Isn't this their dream chance to prove Americans wrong about them being the Party of No?

[MrCbass]

05:49 PM on 03/22/2011

Last time I checked there are no short-haul flights from Orlando to Tampa.

[LawrenceRoth]

06:44 PM on 03/22/2011

What about Jacksonville? I guess you assessed the other advantages as being accurate--replaces car travel, saves energy and protects the environmen­­t, is safe and reliable, boosts the economy, creates long term jobs, and is often economical­­ly self sufficient­­?

[tuliehowller]

11:07 PM on 03/22/2011

You are wrong, check out Expedia

http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll?qscr=fexp&flag=q&city1=MCO&citd1=TPA&time1=720&time2=720&cAdu=1&cSen=0&cChi=0&cInf=&infs=2&date1=04/05&date2=04/12&&rdct=1

[LawrenceRoth]

01:29 PM on 03/22/2011

Wouldn't building a rail system require new jobs? Aren't jobs what Republicans promised?

[RDWidner]

01:40 PM on 03/22/2011

We are not for the government spending billions for a rail system that noboby needs or wants.

[LawrenceRoth]

02:07 PM on 03/22/2011

If nobody needs or wants the rail system then why is it being proposed that a rail system be built?

[tuliehowller]

11:09 PM on 03/22/2011

I want it....so speak for yourself.

[shop tom]

11:40 AM on 03/23/2011

Like the "shovel ready" jobs Obama now admits didn't exist? The only thing Obama has delivered on job-wise is an extraordinary amount of BS that needs shoveling.

[LawrenceRoth]

06:41 PM on 03/23/2011

Fox News causes cancer.

[troyrobertdavid]

12:28 PM on 03/22/2011

Don’t be too hard on Rick Scott; he’s just towing the Republican line of slowly taking everything from the lower and middle classes to give to the rich. This rail line would give everyone the chance to cheaply and efficiently get to work and we can’t have that.

[Lemmy]

12:52 PM on 03/22/2011

Some facts about the project that Gov Scott pointed out last month:

First – capital cost overruns from the project could put Florida taxpayers on the hook for an additional $3 billion.

•Second – ridership and revenue projection­s are historical­ly overly-opt­imistic and would likely result in ongoing subsidies that state taxpayers would have to incur. (from $300 million – $575 million over 10 years) – Note: The state subsidizes Tri-Rail $34.6 million a year while passenger revenues covers only $10.4 million of the $64 million annual operating budget.

•Finally – if the project becomes too costly for taxpayers and is shut down, the state would have to return the $2.4 billion in federal funds to D.C.”

It's a short term boondogle designed to help get Obama reelected in 2012.

[shop tom]

11:41 AM on 03/23/2011

Learn to spell.

"TOEING"

[JillBond]

10:24 AM on 03/22/2011

Rick Scott commits fraud and is fined $1.7 BILLION and yet HE gets to decide what's best for Florida?

[RDWidner]

10:28 AM on 03/22/2011

The people of Florida elected him governor. You will just have to get over it.

[billbb]

12:35 PM on 03/22/2011

We will, at the end of his first and only term.

[Lemmy]

12:53 PM on 03/22/2011

You lost!

[ShinjiIkari]

09:45 AM on 03/22/2011

For all the talk about high-speed rail in Florida, it's been a debate here about theory. Why hasn't this thread examined Britain, where conversion to high-speed rail is a reality and can certainly point out the good news and the bad news of such a conversion? Forget about ideology; science is based on reality.

[jerzeyjim2]

06:37 AM on 03/22/2011

Tricky Ricky Scott, the hospital czar who presided over the Medicare fraud at Columbia HCA, rejected the money to make Obama look bad. The people of Florida have NO mass transit to get to work in this era of skyrocketing gas prices. The high speed rail from Tampa to Orlando and Orlando to Miami would be a start to the solution of getting middle class workers to work without going broke paying for gasoline. Furthermore, the rail corridors would open up those corridors for people to go get jobs. This is another example of Tricky Ricky Scott, and the Repugs, stomping on the middle class IS SCOTT GOING TO REDUCE THE GAS TAX so that the middle class worker won't go broke driving their cars to work ? What Scott did was a Job Killer.

[R Car]

12:27 AM on 03/22/2011

The GOP vision continues: Keep convincing poor and middleclass Americans that poor and middleclass Americans are the problem.

[UpNorthGuyWI]

01:27 AM on 03/22/2011

Curious. What does that have to do with a billion dollar boondoggle?

[absolument]

02:37 AM on 03/22/2011

Nothing, we're not talking about the fraud Rick Scott committed when he was CEO of Columbia / HCA which forced the company to pay $1.7 BILLION in fines.

[LeBelAge]

06:09 AM on 03/22/2011

What billion dollar boondoggle? The Federal Government was paying for high speed rail, the private sector in Florida was making up the difference and the rail was protected to make a profit.

[R Car]

12:18 AM on 03/22/2011

http://www.jiesworld.com/international_corporations_in_china.htm

[Charles Bryan]

11:12 PM on 03/21/2011

Why not. We are a very rich country. We can afford it. If long term cost increases, we can create another hidden tax.