High-speed rail advocates celebrated the Jan. 28 award of grants from the $8-billion pot that is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, but officials must now figure out how to leverage the seed money into successful long-term programs. California and Florida, the anticipated big winners at $2.25 billion and $1.25 billion, respectively, will now ponder design-build and public-private partnerships along with other sources of funding.
The U.S. Dept. of Transportation was flooded with applications, receiving $57 billion in proposals. That includes $50 billion in rail-corridor proposals submitted by 24 states and $7 billion from 34 states for specific projects.