High-speed rail projects to be given to more willing U.S. states

High-speed rail projects to be given to more willing U.S. states

High-speed rail projects which were allocated with a $1.2 billion fund by the federal government will be given to states who are more willing and ready to undertake such an infrastructure plan. States like Ohio and Wisconsin, which elected Republican governors who opposed the projects, were originally among the states who stood to benefit from the high-speed rail projects but will instead be left out. The U.S. Department of Transportation said in a statement today that Florida and California will be the states to receive the bulk of the funding. Florida will get $342.3 million and California will have $624 million.

"High-speed rail will modernize America's valuable transportation network, while invigorating the manufacturing sector and putting people back to work in good-paying  jobs," Transportation Department Secretary Ray LaHood  said. "I am pleased that so many other states are enthusiastic about the additional support."

Wisconsin was alloted $810 million for its high-speed rail project, but incoming governor Scott Walker said he was not in favor of connecting Milwaukee and Madison by high-speed trains. The proposed Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati connection  is said to be too costly to operate for the state of Ohio. The additional federal funding will be included in the $3.2 billion San Francisco-San Diego rail network. Foreign companies like Siemens, Alstom, China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corp, and East Japan Railway are among those hoping to land the said projects. The Obama administration had envisioned a modern train network interconnecting  key cities of the U.S. Midwest. But the coming into power of the Republicans have derailed the grand plan to build a high-speed rail network comparable to other countries like Japan, France and China.

Posted by Sophia Andrews on Friday December 10 2010, 2:04 AM EST. Ref: Bloomberg. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Travel. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0