Everyone's pretty excited about that Tampa Tribune story yesterday.  High Speed rail in Florida is considered a top project in the running for President Obama's stimulus funding plan.  If you're interested in Obama's position on high speed rail in general, click here.  While HSR is a great idea and was once declared so by the majority of Floridians, the point in this revival is jobs.  And Tampa sure as hell needs'em.

Working for Tampa to Bring Work to Tampa, Obama's High Speed Rail Stimulus Component

By the time you read this the application will have apparently been made (the story says they were to be made Friday - yesterday).  In December, Tampa will know if, incredibly, the once stalled prospects of a high speed rail project, will snap into overdrive.  A-mazing.  At times like this rail politics are as exciting for me as a football game might be to most other folks.  The doldrums of controversy, the bureaucracy of passing community investment bills, the ever present "might nots".  These always make for a long roadshow in which to champion the next great success which by and large I assume are few and far between.

But then, sometimes there's a play like this.  Where you wake up one morning and someone's running the field for a dozen yards after a surprise intercept.  News on the prospects for real rail in Tampa in December.  Get outta here!  But it's true.

As a result of this development I visited the Florida High Speed Authority's website.  Anticipating the renewed work and the new funding opportunity, it's changed from its perhaps somewhat distracting Flash opening and concentration on prospects grounded in a Florida State Constitutional Amendment, to one that is flatter and more to the point in regards to the stimulus opportunity.  The High Speed Rail Authority is a great example of why you don't stop working for your purpose just because some high-flying opportunity to see it funded gets nixed.  Things change all the time and you keep doing what you're doing to be in the game when things - even if miraculously it may seem - go your way. 

You can read the full application the authority presumably submitted Friday right here.

Oh, and if you're curious about where the high speed rail terminal will be in Tampa, apparently it will be the old Morgan Street Hillsborough County jail site.  Last August the Trib also shed light on this question in High-Speed Rail Plan Bypasses Tampa Union Station (not to dismiss the topic of said article -which is a compelling casualty of this progress.  I think we'd all like to see Union Station be revitalized somehow by this advance).