Florida will receive an additional $800 million to build a high-speed rail line to link Orlando to Tampa, Sen. Bill Nelson’s office announced on Monday.
The extra money will be given in addition to the $1.25 billion Florida received from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, otherwise known as the stimulus bill.
In a press release, Nelson said the railway could be as big of a boost to Florida’s economy as Disney was.
Ruth Steiner, a UF assistance professor of urban and regional planning, said plans for the railway have been in the works since the 1990s, but former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush put the plan on hold.
The announcement came a week and a day before the midterm elections.
Michael Martinez, chairman of the department of political science, said that while Nelson, a Democrat, isn’t up for election, sometimes Congress makes major announcements before elections in order to have an impact on voters.
“It’s probably not entirely coincidental,” he said.
Ryan Garcia, second vice chairman of the UF College Republicans, said he thinks that this announcement is meant to gain more Democratic votes.
“Without a doubt,” he said.
Kristin Klein, president of College Democrats, said that the announcement is probably separate from the election; if anything, it will show that Democrats support creating jobs, which she said this railway would do.
Garcia said the College Republicans are officially against any additional government spending, especially anything that has to do with the stimulus bill.
He said the government shouldn’t interfere with state issues.
“It would be a nice convenience for people, but the government needs to learn its place,” he said.
But Klein said that government was created to serve the public, and the railway will do so because it is a high-tech way to be environmentally friendly and will create jobs.
“These are the kind of economic projects that we should be investing in,” she said.
Steiner, a member of the UF Transportation Research Center, said she thinks the plan to build the track is a great idea but will only work if the local transportation systems are up to par.
For the railway to be most effective, she said, travelers have to be able to get to and from the railroad station easily and quickly. If they can’t, travelers might get frustrated and just won’t use the railway.
“Transit in Florida isn’t as good as similarly sized areas in the country,” she said. “There are very many bus routes that only come once an hour.”
She said one possibility is linking up the new railway with SunRail, a commuter railway in Orlando.
The U.S. Department of Transportation also told Nelson that it intends to give Florida an additional $8 million to build a high-speed railroad between Orlando and South Florida.
