Florida leaders lobby for rail funding

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said this morning he expects the Obama Administration to approve Florida's request for high speed rail stimulus funds to create a Tampa-to-Orlando route by 2014 that could create thousands of jobs.

"I think the decision has already been made," Nelson told a group of more than 50 business and elected officials gathered at Union Station, where rail advocates made an 11th-hour plea to lobby the White House for Florida's $2.3 billion bid. "I think it will be favorable for us for a number of reasons."

Nelson said top Washington officials with whom he has spoken will not reveal the funding decision before the White House makes its announcement sometime this winter - perhaps within a matter of weeks.

But he said Florida will prevail, based on talks with Administration officials in addition to rationale in Florida's favor including the state's "ready to go" project has a right of way, environmental permits and job creation plans in line with stimulus goals.

Nelson said as many as 23,000 jobs, including 600 permanent ones, could be created. The state has estimated 15,000 jobs could be created for construction alone of the Tampa-to-Orlando route.

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, concurred, saying Obama's high speed rail plan nationwide is akin to the Eisenhower Administration's Interstate highway concept that began in the 1950s.

Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio made a pitch for both federal high speed rail funding and Hillsborough County voter approval in November of a 1-cent sales tax surcharge to support light rail and other transit and highway improvements.

Milton Figueroa, a 20-year-old Florida Army National Guardsman who was traveling from Riverview to Hartford, Conn., by Amtrak on Tuesday, gave the rail pitch a thumbs up.

"I think some good could come of this," Figueroa said. "You need a car when you live in Florida and it was not like that when I lived in New Jersey. And the new jobs would be great."