Other Infrastructures: Shuffling High-Speed Rail $$

The Obama administration hoped to commit $53 billion toward developing a high-speed rail network (a mere down payment on the $600 the U.S. High Speed Rail Association says are necessary to complete such a network).

The Washington Post reports today that some of those dollars are being reshuffled:

The Obama administration on Monday announced the reallocation of $2 billion in its signature transportation program to create a national high-speed rail network, including $795 million for upgrades that would permit speeds of 160 mph in parts of the Northeast Corridor.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood made the money available to other states this year when Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) opted not to accept funds that had been allocated to build high-speed rail between Tampa and Orlando.

Glad to hear that Florida's elected leaders maintain their ideological commitment to burning fossil fuels despite their particular vulnerability to rising seas....

Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House transportation committee, has been outspoken in his opposition to the administration’s plan to spend $50 billion more for high-speed rail over the next five years.

Mica, who favors a privately funded rail system, was critical Monday of funding for several projects that would benefit Amtrak’s operations in the Northeast Corridor.

“We need a comprehensive, responsible plan for the Northeast Corridor,” he said in a statement, “and Amtrak — our nation’s Soviet-style passenger rail service — is incapable of carrying out a project of this scope and significance.”

Soviet-style. Nice rhetorical flourish. But since the private sector abandoned rail service decades ago, where's the investment going to come from? See any would-be railroad tycoons on the horizon (since they did such a smashing job the first time around!)? No. Okay. So if it's going to happen, it won't start through private investment any time soon.

As an aside: since I worry about the century-old span across the Susquehanna every time I cross it going to and coming from Philly, I'm glad to hear that the reshuffling tosses a dime or two toward replacing it.