Two years ago the voters of Florida approved a constitutional amendment that requires a high-speed rail network to be built throughout the state. Like the various previous unsuccessful attempts to build high-speed rail in Florida, a prerequisite to this one seems certain to be a substantial infusion of taxpayer funding. Earlier this year, The James Madison Institute published Local System, Statewide Obligation, which suggested that the eventual network could cost as much as $40 billion, a cost so onerous that only the core of the system would be built, perhaps Miami to Orlando and Tampa-St. Petersburg, or even simply Orlando to Tampa-St. Petersburg. The result would be a severely truncated system, serving only the state’s largest urban areas, which would, however, be paid by taxpayers from Key West to Pensacola.
