The ConnectUS website presents a pretty good detail on the "what next" for Florida High Speed Rail.  There's been some murmuring that while Obama has authorized an allotment of funding for the project, actual construction of the system is not a foregone conclusion given the nation's economic situation.  You can bet that, quite naturally, everyone around Tampa and Orlando parts is eager to make sure that any notion of delaying the project until the war on terror is over, doesn't wind up sticking.  Not after all this.

Fresh HSR map detailing connection between Tampa and Orlando.  View much larger version.

So the move-forward strategy is pretty simple.  Use the money, no doubt in combination with a Florida contribution, to begin and finish construction of the first leg between Tampa and Orlando.  Maybe I'm tying that up a bit too tightly out of enthusiasm.  The ConnectUS folks more reservedly chart to go "as far as $1.25 billion will take us".  In doing so, though, they make a pretty solid political case that more money is coming.  Florida is now sort of the "default" high speed rail state, a position that virtually guarantees regular prep and advancement of HSR unless the Union truly has fiscally collapsed.  Besides, "as much as can be done" is not likely to mean a set of tracks that end abruptly in rural Florida.  If Florida starts work at all, the confidence that Tampa and Orlando will actually be connected when it's done will be very high.

True, budget restraints will be demanding - a nod to conservatives to enjoy some input now - but nobody is saying that high speed rail won't be here in 10 years.  The very birth of the system is intended to help put Florida and America back on track.

Laying Claim to National Birthplace

The title of "national birthplace of high speed rail" is one Florida should strive to keep and shore up.  But doing so puts us in competition with other states that have also been funded and are equally charged to move forward.  Obama's announcement in Tampa and our preliminary detail work based on the previous Constitutionally mandated HSR system which makes Florida's system the most "shovel ready", as you keep hearing, are fragile threads by which to hang the plaque.  Things can lag easily if we get caught up in any controversy or over-restraint. 

ConnectUS supposes that the low-hanging fruit of work such as clearing land and erecting safety barriers can start this year which is great, so long as any of that includes a groundbreaking ceremony, and preferably, it somehow occurs in Tampa.  This way Tampa can be the national HSR birthplace city.  Thanks to Obama's visit and announcement from, I think Tampa would still get the HSR moniker if first topsoil were turned outside city limits - between it and Orlando let's say.  But, it would be a nice feather for the city if there were no room for doubt.  Maybe Orlando wants the city title, or, maybe the entire designation down to any city level is inappropriate for this kind of construction project, so the whole novelty is moot.  But the point is, if it can be pursued and valued, it should be.

Art Museum Another Staple of Tampa Living

Speaking of a developing Tampa, I wanted applaud the grand opening of Tampa's new art museum.  The Tampa Museum of Art opened yesterday (TBO coverage), and, believe it or not, I was there.  Sort of.  I actually logged on to the Hillsborough County webcam and pointed it to the gathering outside.  It was a cool way to feel part of the crowd.

This seems like another great advance for the city as seeks to become more pedestrian and people-level oriented.  Between this and the high speed rail announcement, if there's a place to be today, it's Tampa!