March 25, 2010--Understimulated

Now, let's return our attention to jobs, jobs, jobs.

From this South Florida vantage point, I have been keeping an eye on one large scale, highly publicized jobs-creating stimulus project--the construction of an 84-mile long high speed rail project that, if it ever happens, will connect Tampa with Orlando.

Sort of connect.

I say "sort of" because the train will connect to Orlando's airport but not Tampa's. This means that travelers will need a bus or car to get to the Tampa airport and/or to get to downtown Orlando. Disneyland, of course, will have its own dedicated stop. As will four other locations. This means that the train's 168 MPH capacity will for the most part be wasted since every time it builds up to full speed it will have to start slowing down to get ready to stop.

Currently, it takes just 90 minutes to drive between pretty much any place in or around Tampa to most locations in the Orlando area. So we are not talking about any significant time savings once the tracks are laid and the trains themselves arrive from China, or Canada, or Europe, where sadly they are likely to be manufactured.

For anyone not using the train to travel the 19 miles directly from the Orlando airport to the gates of Disneyland it will be necessary to catch a bus or rent a car. I suspect, that for this reason almost no one will use the train and everyone will do what they have always done--drive.

There is evidence for this. Dade County (and the U.S. government) spent more than a billion dollars back in the 1980s to build an elevated commuter train in the Miami area, and from day one empty Metrorail trains sped alongside car-clogged Route 1 where commuters crept at 5 miles per hour. People here love their cars.

Additionally short-sighted, the current powers that be turned down a request to fund an additional high-speed route--from Orlando to Miami. That might have begun to make some sense.

Making even more sense, according to a Florida Republican congressman, John Mica, no friend of the stimulus program, would have been to fund the construction of a European-style high speed rail line in the already busy Boston-New York-Washington corridor. To quote him, "That would have the most dramatic impact, as ar as a positive result for the country." (Full article linked below.)

And the Tampa-Orlando line will cost U.S. and Florida taxpayers nearly $4.0 billion. If it is brought in on budget. And we know how likely that is.

Meanwhile, in economically depressed Spain, the latest link in their national high speed rail system opened last year and connects Barcelona with Madrid. It stretches 325 miles, trains race along at 186 MPH, and it takes two hours and 38 minutes to travel between both city centers. People are so in love with this new service--it includes amenities similar to what one used to find on airlines before they stopped serving peanuts--that increasingly they have stopped making the six-hour drive or taking Iberia Airlines.

Until recently, up to 90 percent of Madrid-Barcelona travelers went by air; but now more than half use the train and their number is increasing.

As Barack Obama said on Tuesday, when signing the health care bill, this demonstrates that America is able to take on large, complicated issues. On the other hand, a measly 84-mile-long train line that no one will use hardly qualifies.

I'm with Congressman Mica.