Nelson ‘fighting’ for rail money as NPR, other media misinform on study

The US Report ^ | 16 March 2011 | Kay Day

[Crush]

Gov. Rick Scott turned down $2.4 billion taxpayer (or borrowed from foreign countries) dollars the US Dept. of Transportation offered Florida. The money would’ve helped to create a high speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando. Supporters also want future lines between Orlando and Miami and maybe one day Orlando and Jacksonville.

The Florida Times-Union ran a story on Saturday suggesting US senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) might go after the money despite Scott’s concerns. The header to the story in the print edition was “Nelson fighting to get back rail money.” The header to the online story read “Florida loses high-speed rail money, but Tampa and Orlando might get it back.”

My problem: the newspaper and National Public Radio misinform the readers about a study touted by supporters as proof the rail line would be profitable.

The T-U said Nelson talked to the chief at Transportation and the outcome suggests possibilities for a new transit authority. The authority would have to operate, however, “in conjunction with Amtrak or another established transportation authority.”

Supporters of high speed rail believe it would be a bonus for the Sunshine State. Doubters believe it would end up in an Amtrak dilemma—needing taxpayer money to stay afloat. Supporters claim there’s a great demand for such transportation and they believe the line(s) would be profitable. Doubters have trouble reconciling the word ‘profitable’ with ‘government’ because of history involving institutions like the US Post Office, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and healthcare.

Scott had concerns about putting taxpayers on the hook for another government subsidized entity whose future may be impossible to accurately predict. A study was done—by those the paper described as “independent contractors working for the Florida Department of Transportation.” The newspaper and National Public Radio said study authors concluded...

[scooby321]

Every private train system is subsidized in the United States. I think on 3 high speed trains world wide actually make money.

[BobL]

The national debt is 14 Trillion dollars.

[sheikdetailfeather]

Nelson is such an embarrassment here in Florida.

[RightWingConspirator]

Nelson is toast in 2012, and my wife and I will actively work to elect Nelson’s opponent.

[a02001]

Here is a visual view of what the National Debt looks like
if it were stacked $100 bills. Of course when this diagram was made, it was for 9 trillion not 14 trillion. So you have to increase the visualizations by about 50%.

http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/usdebt.html

Or another way to think about it-
If you stacked 1 Trillion $1 bills, your stack would be
68,000 miles in space. So a stack of $14 Trillion 1$ bills would be a mere 952,000 miles into space. As a reference point the moon is 238,857 miles from the earth.

http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

http://www.letfreedomringusa.com/news/read/383

[DUMBGRUNT]

In view of the recent Japanese train derailments by the tsunami how could they protect travelers?
Florida is flat and a tsunami easily cross the state.

[dennisw]

Bill Nelson is in the running for stupidest US Senator. Some of his contractor contributors must have poked him with a stick...woke him up