High-speed rail gets $8B boost

TAMPA, Fla. — A day after delivering his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama traveled to Florida to announce the investment of $8 billion in high-speed rail projects in 13 major corridors, which he said would provide a down payment for the most significant advance in transportation since the interstate highway system was built more than a half-century ago.

On Friday, the president plans to head to Baltimore where, aides said, he will urge small businesses to increase their hiring with tax credits for new employees.

"The worst of the storm has passed, but I think all of you understand, the devastation remains," Obama told an audience at the University of Tampa. "One in 10 Americans still can't find work. That's why creating jobs has to be our No. 1 priority in 2010."

As the White House dispatched Cabinet secretaries and top administration officials across the country to amplify the president's economic message, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Tampa to embrace a tangible program: a high-speed rail line that could create 23,000 jobs over four years.

Utah and other members of the Western High Speed Rail Alliance were left off Obama's funding list, but the Utah Department of Transportation isn't too concerned. The map Obama used to show where high-speed rail would run included a dotted line across Salt Lake City, signifying Washington is aware of efforts to bring high-speed rail out West.

In the fall, UTA started paying $5,000 a month to be part of the alliance, which includes the transit agencies in Las Vegas, Reno, Phoenix and Denver. The Western High Speed Rail Alliance wasn't originally on the president's national high-speed rail map.

Since joining, UTA's position has not changed.

"Our goal at this point is to make sure we're part of the discussion," UTA spokesman Gerry Carpenter said. "We believe, being the crossroads of the West, it's very important to include the Intermountain states in the discussion of making a nationwide rail network. We want a seat at the table."

Most of the money Obama is proposing will go toward improving existing rail service. More than a billion dollars, for instance, will go to speed train travel between Chicago and St. Louis to up to 110 miles per hour — faster than it is now, but a far cry from the kind of bullet trains that zip along at speeds of more than 150 mph in Japan and Europe. Two of the largest shares of money are being distributed for investments in bullet-train projects.

The administration said that a $2.25 billion award would help California make a small down payment on its ambitious $45 billion plan to build trains that can go 220 mph. The stimulus money will go to buy right-of-way, build track, and do engineering and environmental work.

Some $1.25 billion will go to build 84 miles of track from Tampa to Orlando, which would allow trains to travel at up to 168 mph, the first leg of a corridor that is eventually expected to go to Miami. If the state and federal financing hold, the first phase of the railway is scheduled to be completed by 2015.

Contributing: Laura Hancock