From The Detroit News
The Transportation Department is putting $2.4 billion in returned high-speed rail funds on the fast-track for competitive bids.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today that all states can compete for $2.4 billion in funds returned by Florida to develop high-speed rail corridors across the United States.
They must submit applications by April 4 and funding decisions could be made by May.
“The Obama Administration’s bold high-speed rail plan will create jobs, reinvigorate our manufacturing sector and spur economic development for years to come,” LaHood said. “States across the country have been banging down our door for the opportunity to receive additional high-speed rail dollars and to deliver all of its economic benefits to their citizens.”
Earlier this week, LaHood said “just about every member of Congress” has asked for the $2.4 billion in high speed rail funds. Florida was to use the funds for the proposed Tampa to Orlando line.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder met with LaHood late last month at the National Governors Association winter meetings in Washington, and they discussed high speed rail funds. Snyder has expressed support for high speed rail.
President Obama’s wants to connect 80 percent of Americans to high-speed rail within the next 25 years. The Obama Administration has proposed a six-year, $53 billion plan that would provide rail access to new communities; improve the reliability, speed and frequency of existing lines.
The program has a 100 percent “Buy America” requirement for high-speed rail projects which ensures that U.S. manufacturers and workers will receive the maximum economic benefits from this federal investment.
A merit-driven process will be used to award the newly available high-speed rail dollars to projects that can deliver public and economic benefits quickly. A project’s ability to reduce energy consumption, improve the efficiency of a region’s overall transportation network, and generate sustained economic activity along the corridor are among the selection criteria.
In 2009, the Michigan Department of Transportation won $153.2 million in federal funding to improve a planned high-speed rail corridor between Dearborn and Kalamazoo.
.Michigan also won $40 million in rail stimulus funding to build a new Amtrak station in Dearborn and to renovate stations in Battle Creek and Troy.
Michigan had sought more than $1.7 billion to make high speed rail a reality from Chicago to Detroit — including improvements in Indiana and Illinois — that was not approved in earlier funding rounds.
Source: http://www.detnews.com/article/20110311/METRO/103110444/1409/metro