High speed train from Orlando to Miami on fast track

Florida is moving ahead with its goal of landing federal stimulus money to help build a high speed rail line from Tampa to Orlando and eventually Miami.

The Florida Department of Transportation is working on an application for the cash right now and plans to submit it to the feds this week.

The stimulus package includes an initial $8 billion for

passenger rail in the United States. Florida is considered a leading contender for some of that money because it has already done a lot of work developing such a system.

About 90 miles of right-of-way for the tracks is mostly secured between Tampa and Orlando. Trains would run along the median of Interstate 4.

Slater Bayliss, who helped lead the successful campaign repealing Florida's high speed rail amendment in 2004, says good things come to those who wait.

Bayliss says the state would not have been able to afford the sprawling system proposed five years ago, but the prospects of building a smaller rail line with federal help are much better now.

"Florida is uniquely positioned I think because the state has a billion-five in right-of-way, which is one of the largest costs. They've already done the majority of the engineering studies to make the first Orlando-Tampa leg shovel-ready, which puts us ahead of everyone else in the country," said Bayliss.

The state is seeking about $2.5 billion for the Tampa-to-Orlando leg and has already invested more than $1 billion in securing right-of-way for the line.

Bayliss says if you look around the world at high speed rail lines in Italy, Spain and France, the long-term cost of those systems is much higher than the $8 billion included in the federal stimulus package, but he's seen a commitment among some elected officials in Congress to expand on that investment.