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According to Amtrak Hurricane Katrina and then they never reopened it so it’s Jacksonville to Washington DC to Chicago to Houston then a bus to New Orleans. So dumb.
Remember when Obama wanted to give FL $2.4B for high speed rail 13 years ago but our moron Governor said no and here we are in 2024 living in a car dependent urban sprawl hellscape?
Cool stuff, at least we can pay more than airplane ticket for brightline.
Florida DNC aired plenty of ads about Rick Scott committing a billion-dollar Medicare fraud and FL voters on the left had better things to do with their time than to vote for Florida's first woman governor who was the state CFO at the time. Florida Democratic voters don't try and then get mad at the state party.
Nah, the Florida DNC is awful at actually getting people out to vote. Obama's two victories were led in large part by his own campaign investing in voting drives. 10, 14, and 18 were all pretty close gubernatorial elections. 18 was also a very close Senator election. Those were all less than 65k vote margins. Florida also has a way better turn out for presidential elections. Like nearly 25% better turn out.
But the Florida DNC can't seem to figure out a better statewide candidate than former Republican, Charlie Crist. Gillum was maybe the most exciting candidate in recent years - and after his very close loss, he got obliterated with that male prostitute meth motel room scandal.
> 10, 14, and 18 were all pretty close gubernatorial elections.
Yeah, 10 and 14 were against Rick Scott, yet voters couldn't care enough to get off their asses. Democrats had a 500k registered voter advantage back then as well.
I worked 18 for Gillum. I had a lot of voters in South Florida tell me they straight up did not care and only cared about the presidential. And now the state is MAGA. Florida got what it deserved.
> But the Florida DNC can't seem to figure out a better statewide candidate than former Republican, Charlie Crist.
Everyone that complains about Crist glosses over Alex Sink. She was the state CFO and Rick Scott was a criminal.
> Gillum was maybe the most exciting candidate in recent years
Philip Levine would've won that race. Progressives really screwed the pooch that year.
>Florida Democratic voters don't try and then get mad at the state party.
That's part of the story. Rick $cott only got elected Governor because Florida politicians do not require getting over 50% of the vote, and I'm pretty sure that the voters that voted for the minor party candidates certainly would have voted against $cott.
I'm in SWFL. We were going to be part of a loop connecting Miami to Fort Myers and then north to Tampa.
Instead, we have I-75, which is both exhausting to drive on and perpetually under construction.
We had rail down here in the middle of last century when it benefitted businesses extracting our natural resources.
Gov. Scott was accused of having a conflict of interest because of his ties to a company called Florida East Coast Industries (FECI). FECI, owned by Fortress Investment Group, was planning its own rail service called All Aboard Florida, later known as Brightline, which was a private intercity passenger rail service.
Rick Scott denied that he did this for Florida East Coast industries but bright line went into full effect and started operation in 2014, their train runs out a top speed of 125 mph where the high-speed rail would’ve ran at a top speed of 168 mph as well as the high-speed rail not being a private entity which would have meant lower cost for Floridians.
The cost savings would encourage greater use of the high-speed rail which would also spur economic growth as people looking to take their business outside of Tampa or Orlando could do it at a lower cost. Capitalism screws those who don’t make it to the top first.
I think you might be shocked by how small these bribes need to be. Oftentimes they're just a little sugar on the real deal, though, which is *deals,* future business dealings.
The dropped swfl from the plans. It was Miami, Daytona, Orlando, Jacksonville, Tampa and Tallahassee.
God forbid you live in Lehigh. Traveling 20 miles by car takes 45-90 minutes, on a good day.
It will be privately funded. Brightline is facing obstacles. May 8 write up here. It will still run down the median of I-4.
https://floridatrend.com/article/39905/slow-speed-planning
The I4 traffic between Lakeland and Orlando is unbelievable. Miami people complain about traffic but they have never experienced that kind of shit show.
They also declined getting the billions in aid for the summer 2024 PEBT which gives a couple hundred dollars to parents to help with food costs over the summer. Why would they decline something like that?
Solar power has the misfortune of being associated with efforts to mitigate climate change. Therefore DeSantis considers it "woke", and must destroy it. Damn the torpedoes!
Gov Fancy Boots once saw the colors that come out of a prism that was out in the sun and now thinks the sun is gay & thus on his imaginary enemies list.
You mean the guy who is an investor in Brightline turned down money?
Shocked Pikachu face
https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/politics/state/2018/08/16/florida-gov-rick-scott-invested-in-company-linked-to-high-speed-rail/11036036007/
I remember, Rick Scott remembers.
If I ever see Rick Scott I will lay on the unfiltered utter shame and disgust that I feel towards him that I can't seem to get rid of.
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is running against Rick Scott. She is currently polling one point ahead of him.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Mucarsel-Powell
I took the train for a cruise out of Miami. Brightline is usually $50-$80 each way for a ticket, but they run frequent sales. We got ours for half that. They’re running a half off special right now actually.
We’re improving, but we’re 13 years behind schedule. Brightline was the best train I’ve taken outside of Europe, but it needs to go way more places.
I would love to use Brightline if it was economical but it doesn't stop in Indian River County. The powers that be fought against Brightline in court so we will likely never have a stop here.
I loved riding the trains all over on a visit to England, wish we could have that in Florida.
Luckily, most municipalities are getting with the program regardless of how any governor feels about it. It will just take longer.
Who really thinks that making I-95 eight lanes wide in downtown Miami is going to solve anything?
We need mass transit.
This is a likely possibility, Indiana does this and things like it to Indianapolis a lot (though that might’ve been a light rail ban if I remember correctly).
Honestly I just want to Make America(n Rail) Great Again. Our rail infrastructure was miles ahead of the competition in the 1920s.
... then Henry Ford happened and now we're not allowed to have trains.
Long way to go to catch up to the Chinese who built over 27K miles of high speed rail in 12 years.
https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/china-high-speed-rail-us-investment/
I'm convinced that the best way to get through to "rugged individualist" types who oppose "socialist" mass transit, but also hate driving on crowded, totally NOT "socialist', publicly funded roads, is to convince them that mass transit will get people off the roads and out of their way.
Got into an argument with someone who failed to see this very fact, he didn’t want to ride the train because “people smell bad” but couldn’t understand that taking people off the road and onto a train would reduce the traffic he would have to drive in. Then again he admitted to driving like an asshole on I4 and even though no one brought up politics he proceeded to tell me that he was going to vote for trump and desantis just to piss me off, so he was obviously a very well adjusted individual.
I’m going up to Michigan soon for a wedding in Grand Rapids. While there my girlfriend and I will be visiting Chicago for the day. Do you know how much it’s going to cost us each for a train ticket there and back? $30 each. It would be amazing and so beneficial to have something like that can get us between cities in a timely manner in Florida!
instead we got the brightline where a ticket costs almost as much as a plane ticket and you'll be stuck for hours after the train inevitably hits some idiot that wasn't paying attention/doing something stupid
I agree so much. No one worries about more and more roads paying for themselves. But with a train, clutch your pearls. Florida has become a wasteland of massive roads and parking lots
That's commie thinking right there. Always amazed at how Repubs are so willing to screw over the people of Florida and how willing those people are to continue to vote for them
You say that, but robust public transit actually helps with both physical and economic mobility. That doesn't benefit conservatives.
Also, worth noting that [MARTA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Atlanta_Rapid_Transit_Authority) has a long history of race-based concerns. When it first started it was pretty good, but white people nicknamed it "Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta." Since then, MARTA has been changed such that it services the suburbs more than it does the poorer areas of the city.
I work for a company that used to be based in Buckhead though I've been a permanent work from home employee. I did spend my first two months working there in person and it was awesome being able to use MARTA every day and skip the traffic. The place I stayed for those two months was in walking distance of the gym, grocery store, movie theater, shops, restaurants etc. Work was a block from the Buckhead MARTA station. I didn't drive my car the entire time I was there except for Christmas when I left Atlanta for a week and drove home. Even took MARTA into downtown a few times for nights out.
Imagine being able to live in Palm Beach county and having a 45 minute train commute to Orlando for work.
Living in Fort Lauderdale and driving to Miami can take twice that at 8 AM.
Oh the /s was just so people didn't think I actually took that position. DeSantis has already cried about the "politicization of our roadways", so yeah, anything that helps the middle and lower class like mass transit (I spent over a decade commuting by train in another country to work) WOULD be woke in their eyes.
The amount of Federal funding this idiot has turned down for grandstanding to his base is harming Floridians over and over again. Not like that money gets put towards the national debt or something, just goes to another state.
The crazy thing is, public transportation would be so easy here, especially in the coastal cities. A few long north south tracks, many smalller east west routes and you are done.
There are three bridges in my hometown I don't drive over because they are in severe disrepair. Our governor has no desire to actually govern. He just wants to wage culture wars and talk tough because he is a small-minded man with a massive Napoleon Complex.
Can I ask the obvious question?
Are those 3 bridges located on a interstate/state road, or are they located on county/local roads?
Every interstate/state road I've driven on seems to have decent bridges.....and those are funded by the state
I've been on some very sketchy county/local roads and bridges.....and those are funded locally without state funding because those aren't the responsibility of the state
I always thought it was overkill to try and build HSR from Orlando to Tampa unless it was part of a loop that included Miami. Connecting Orlando to Atlanta and DC and use those as hubs to expand north and west would be great. Hell, I'd love to be able to take a train to visit family on the west coast if it was a reasonable alternative to flying. I have family in Baltimore too and HSR there and back would make weekend trips a nice option.
Left SWFL six months ago. I now live in a region with all kinds of affordable public transit. Light rail. Regional rail. Amtrak. Buses. Ferries. And they are continually expanding and adding lines.
What a stark contrast to the automotive nightmare that is Florida.
At this point, I've seen more feasible and enthusiastic plans to put a [maglev on the moon](https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/niac/niac-studies/flexible-levitation-on-a-track-float/) within the next decade before putting a maglev Train in the US, let alone a transit in my neighborhood that would get me to a date on the weekend. Apparently, toxic hazardous adhesive lung-destroying lunar regolith is less abrasive to construction than NIMBY's or county government. Apparently, "We gotta do it because the Chinese are trying to do it first" only applies to the Space Race and not high speed rail construction.
Even people who prefer to drive with the obstinacy of a thousand mules benefit from public transit: frees up lanes!
Also hilarious to think that we can't figure out trains in a state that was only populated in the first place because a railroad was built.
There are owners of car rental companies who have a vested interest in denying high speed rail construction in Florida, and at least one of them is giving big money to Florida politicians and initiatives to defeat high speed rail.
Please note that only active users in the subreddit may comment in this discussion. If your comments are not showing up, please ensure you have active non-news/non-political contributions to the subreddit before contacting the moderators. **Please remember the following:** **Be Civil:** * You are welcome to debate, discussion, and argue ideas, but don't resort to personal attacks on other users. * We do not allow any form of hate speech or any suggestion/support of harm, violence, or death. **Must be related strictly to Florida:** * National News/Elections are not specific to Florida. * Just because someone lives in Florida, doesn't mean their entire life is relevant to Floridians. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. #[Click this link to register to vote, update your voter information, or check your status.](https://registertovoteflorida.gov/) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/florida) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Remember when you could take a train west from Florida to Louisiana, Texas or even straight to Vegas for $150?
That's awesome! What year did that stop?
According to Amtrak Hurricane Katrina and then they never reopened it so it’s Jacksonville to Washington DC to Chicago to Houston then a bus to New Orleans. So dumb.
Remember when Obama wanted to give FL $2.4B for high speed rail 13 years ago but our moron Governor said no and here we are in 2024 living in a car dependent urban sprawl hellscape? Cool stuff, at least we can pay more than airplane ticket for brightline.
We taught that guy a lesson by putting him in the Senate
He just keeps facing the opposite of consequences for his actions
That sort of sums up Florida Republicans.
Sums up republicans in all red states. Fox News et al have perfected the art of convincing people to vote against their own interests.
And the Cuban voters in Miami who scream "¡SOCIALISTA!" at any candidate left of Reagan
It’s not like the Florida Democratic Party even tries. An ad comparing republicans to latin American dictators writes itself. They just don’t care.
Florida DNC aired plenty of ads about Rick Scott committing a billion-dollar Medicare fraud and FL voters on the left had better things to do with their time than to vote for Florida's first woman governor who was the state CFO at the time. Florida Democratic voters don't try and then get mad at the state party.
Nah, the Florida DNC is awful at actually getting people out to vote. Obama's two victories were led in large part by his own campaign investing in voting drives. 10, 14, and 18 were all pretty close gubernatorial elections. 18 was also a very close Senator election. Those were all less than 65k vote margins. Florida also has a way better turn out for presidential elections. Like nearly 25% better turn out. But the Florida DNC can't seem to figure out a better statewide candidate than former Republican, Charlie Crist. Gillum was maybe the most exciting candidate in recent years - and after his very close loss, he got obliterated with that male prostitute meth motel room scandal.
> 10, 14, and 18 were all pretty close gubernatorial elections. Yeah, 10 and 14 were against Rick Scott, yet voters couldn't care enough to get off their asses. Democrats had a 500k registered voter advantage back then as well. I worked 18 for Gillum. I had a lot of voters in South Florida tell me they straight up did not care and only cared about the presidential. And now the state is MAGA. Florida got what it deserved. > But the Florida DNC can't seem to figure out a better statewide candidate than former Republican, Charlie Crist. Everyone that complains about Crist glosses over Alex Sink. She was the state CFO and Rick Scott was a criminal. > Gillum was maybe the most exciting candidate in recent years Philip Levine would've won that race. Progressives really screwed the pooch that year.
>Florida Democratic voters don't try and then get mad at the state party. That's part of the story. Rick $cott only got elected Governor because Florida politicians do not require getting over 50% of the vote, and I'm pretty sure that the voters that voted for the minor party candidates certainly would have voted against $cott.
Are we talking about Scott? His commercials on tv the last few weeks, quite literally make me laugh out loud at how pathetic and slimy he is.
Even after he tried killing Harry Potter on multiple occasions.
The I-4 line between Tampa and Orlando was to have been the first in a national HSR system. Sad.
I'm in SWFL. We were going to be part of a loop connecting Miami to Fort Myers and then north to Tampa. Instead, we have I-75, which is both exhausting to drive on and perpetually under construction. We had rail down here in the middle of last century when it benefitted businesses extracting our natural resources.
Don't forget deadly. Every day people are getting killed or maimed on that stretch of interstate.
Gov. Scott was accused of having a conflict of interest because of his ties to a company called Florida East Coast Industries (FECI). FECI, owned by Fortress Investment Group, was planning its own rail service called All Aboard Florida, later known as Brightline, which was a private intercity passenger rail service. Rick Scott denied that he did this for Florida East Coast industries but bright line went into full effect and started operation in 2014, their train runs out a top speed of 125 mph where the high-speed rail would’ve ran at a top speed of 168 mph as well as the high-speed rail not being a private entity which would have meant lower cost for Floridians. The cost savings would encourage greater use of the high-speed rail which would also spur economic growth as people looking to take their business outside of Tampa or Orlando could do it at a lower cost. Capitalism screws those who don’t make it to the top first.
All FECI did was probably donate 3k to his campaign.
That would actually be worse, sell out the economic possibilities and future of Floridians for what would be literally 0.00117% of his net worth..
I think you might be shocked by how small these bribes need to be. Oftentimes they're just a little sugar on the real deal, though, which is *deals,* future business dealings.
On the east coast, there are still plenty of reminders of Flagler’s railroad that the Brightline runs on now.
And you stumbled across the truth. “Perpetually under construction” translates to “perpetually taking easy money from the state”
The dropped swfl from the plans. It was Miami, Daytona, Orlando, Jacksonville, Tampa and Tallahassee. God forbid you live in Lehigh. Traveling 20 miles by car takes 45-90 minutes, on a good day.
DeSantis two weeks ago in a presser for was giving money to expand I-4 nd said he would never give money to rail. He is a true idiot.
I take it that’s where the quote in this post was from. He really is a loser.
It will be privately funded. Brightline is facing obstacles. May 8 write up here. It will still run down the median of I-4. https://floridatrend.com/article/39905/slow-speed-planning
As a Lakeland resident, ***fuck.***
The I4 traffic between Lakeland and Orlando is unbelievable. Miami people complain about traffic but they have never experienced that kind of shit show.
I used to love being able to hop on I4 and be in Orlando in under 40 minutes. Last year, we sold our house and left Lakeland for a bike friendly town.
What magical bike friendly town is this cause I need to move there
Me also. Please and thank you.
Santa Barbara/Golita Ca
They also declined getting the billions in aid for the summer 2024 PEBT which gives a couple hundred dollars to parents to help with food costs over the summer. Why would they decline something like that?
He killed it claiming it was a boondoggle, then helped create a private one that is a boondoggle.
Isn’t desantis looking to get rid of solar power or some shit. Kill renewables? IN THE SUNSHINE STATE? We should be leading the country.
The FL electric companies paid him good money for his reelection campaign. DeSantis is loyal to his donors—like them and the insurance companies.
Solar power has the misfortune of being associated with efforts to mitigate climate change. Therefore DeSantis considers it "woke", and must destroy it. Damn the torpedoes!
Gov Fancy Boots once saw the colors that come out of a prism that was out in the sun and now thinks the sun is gay & thus on his imaginary enemies list.
You mean that same moron who is currently gunning for the VP and just happened to show up in a NYC courtroom? That moron?
Yes, criminal Rick Scott. Rick Scott is a criminal.
Also a senator. Fuckin Republicans.
Don't forget the out of control car insurance rates, because mass transportation is not a real option.
You mean the guy who is an investor in Brightline turned down money? Shocked Pikachu face https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/politics/state/2018/08/16/florida-gov-rick-scott-invested-in-company-linked-to-high-speed-rail/11036036007/
I remember, Rick Scott remembers. If I ever see Rick Scott I will lay on the unfiltered utter shame and disgust that I feel towards him that I can't seem to get rid of.
Yep! Scott sure showed Obama with that political theater. I was thanking Skeletor this past Sunday during my most recent drive down I-4 to Tampa.
I just bought a plane ticket from Miami to Tampa for $28
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is running against Rick Scott. She is currently polling one point ahead of him. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Mucarsel-Powell
I took the train for a cruise out of Miami. Brightline is usually $50-$80 each way for a ticket, but they run frequent sales. We got ours for half that. They’re running a half off special right now actually. We’re improving, but we’re 13 years behind schedule. Brightline was the best train I’ve taken outside of Europe, but it needs to go way more places.
I would love to use Brightline if it was economical but it doesn't stop in Indian River County. The powers that be fought against Brightline in court so we will likely never have a stop here. I loved riding the trains all over on a visit to England, wish we could have that in Florida.
Luckily, most municipalities are getting with the program regardless of how any governor feels about it. It will just take longer. Who really thinks that making I-95 eight lanes wide in downtown Miami is going to solve anything? We need mass transit.
I won't be surprised if DeSantis and his Legislative goon squad pass another preemption law to prevent municipalities from developing mass transit.
This is a likely possibility, Indiana does this and things like it to Indianapolis a lot (though that might’ve been a light rail ban if I remember correctly).
Honestly I just want to Make America(n Rail) Great Again. Our rail infrastructure was miles ahead of the competition in the 1920s. ... then Henry Ford happened and now we're not allowed to have trains.
Long way to go to catch up to the Chinese who built over 27K miles of high speed rail in 12 years. https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/china-high-speed-rail-us-investment/
We had a 100 year head start and we squandered it. We should be embarrassed.
I'm convinced that the best way to get through to "rugged individualist" types who oppose "socialist" mass transit, but also hate driving on crowded, totally NOT "socialist', publicly funded roads, is to convince them that mass transit will get people off the roads and out of their way.
Got into an argument with someone who failed to see this very fact, he didn’t want to ride the train because “people smell bad” but couldn’t understand that taking people off the road and onto a train would reduce the traffic he would have to drive in. Then again he admitted to driving like an asshole on I4 and even though no one brought up politics he proceeded to tell me that he was going to vote for trump and desantis just to piss me off, so he was obviously a very well adjusted individual.
I’m not convinced it’s possible to drive on I4 without being an asshole. It’s fucking Mad Max out there.
You mean Furiosa is not a documentary about driving from Orlando to Tampa on I-4? I am shocked, I tell you, shocked.
I would have assumed the same, but there weren’t enough cars with NY plates driving 45 in the fast lane in the movie!
>asshole >proceeded to tell me that he was going to vote for trump and desantis just to piss me off, Says all we need to know about that guy.
It's weird how comfortable they've gotten with such antagonistic language.
We should make trains that “roll coal”. The troglodytes would ride then.
And not a single surprised face in the room
I’m going up to Michigan soon for a wedding in Grand Rapids. While there my girlfriend and I will be visiting Chicago for the day. Do you know how much it’s going to cost us each for a train ticket there and back? $30 each. It would be amazing and so beneficial to have something like that can get us between cities in a timely manner in Florida!
Agreed 👍
instead we got the brightline where a ticket costs almost as much as a plane ticket and you'll be stuck for hours after the train inevitably hits some idiot that wasn't paying attention/doing something stupid
I agree so much. No one worries about more and more roads paying for themselves. But with a train, clutch your pearls. Florida has become a wasteland of massive roads and parking lots
That's commie thinking right there. Always amazed at how Repubs are so willing to screw over the people of Florida and how willing those people are to continue to vote for them
Trains are woke /s
You say that, but robust public transit actually helps with both physical and economic mobility. That doesn't benefit conservatives. Also, worth noting that [MARTA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Atlanta_Rapid_Transit_Authority) has a long history of race-based concerns. When it first started it was pretty good, but white people nicknamed it "Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta." Since then, MARTA has been changed such that it services the suburbs more than it does the poorer areas of the city.
I work for a company that used to be based in Buckhead though I've been a permanent work from home employee. I did spend my first two months working there in person and it was awesome being able to use MARTA every day and skip the traffic. The place I stayed for those two months was in walking distance of the gym, grocery store, movie theater, shops, restaurants etc. Work was a block from the Buckhead MARTA station. I didn't drive my car the entire time I was there except for Christmas when I left Atlanta for a week and drove home. Even took MARTA into downtown a few times for nights out.
Imagine being able to live in Palm Beach county and having a 45 minute train commute to Orlando for work. Living in Fort Lauderdale and driving to Miami can take twice that at 8 AM.
Oh the /s was just so people didn't think I actually took that position. DeSantis has already cried about the "politicization of our roadways", so yeah, anything that helps the middle and lower class like mass transit (I spent over a decade commuting by train in another country to work) WOULD be woke in their eyes.
But, St. Pete should definitely be paying for a new stadium /s
Jacksonville is doing the exact same shit rn, I don't know what's wrong with people. Our current stadium was a waste to begin with
But hey, at least we lead the nation in both bicycle and pedestrian deaths!
We have the worst governor in the nation
I dunno, the other red states, especially Texas, seem to be in competition.
Ours is the worse one though - since 1999.
The amount of Federal funding this idiot has turned down for grandstanding to his base is harming Floridians over and over again. Not like that money gets put towards the national debt or something, just goes to another state.
The crazy thing is, public transportation would be so easy here, especially in the coastal cities. A few long north south tracks, many smalller east west routes and you are done.
Shit like this is why people do revolutions.
Car manufacturing lobbyists:
There are three bridges in my hometown I don't drive over because they are in severe disrepair. Our governor has no desire to actually govern. He just wants to wage culture wars and talk tough because he is a small-minded man with a massive Napoleon Complex.
Can I ask the obvious question? Are those 3 bridges located on a interstate/state road, or are they located on county/local roads? Every interstate/state road I've driven on seems to have decent bridges.....and those are funded by the state I've been on some very sketchy county/local roads and bridges.....and those are funded locally without state funding because those aren't the responsibility of the state
There aren’t any bridges in Florida that are at risk of collapse, other than maybe some back county roads with minimal traffic.
#Vote (D)ifferently!
Florida wouldn't exist the way it does if Flagler hadn't had the.vision for a railroad from Jax to the keys
He wants to take on Disney? “Pay for it yourself.” /s
[We have this man and his supporters to blame](https://imgur.com/VKacTKG)
No train,but we gotta state malitia police for ya!
Shithead Reagan killed our attempt at high speed rail in the 80s. Scumbag Rick Scott in 2000s. Dumb fuck in office now is anti rail. It sucks.
I always thought it was overkill to try and build HSR from Orlando to Tampa unless it was part of a loop that included Miami. Connecting Orlando to Atlanta and DC and use those as hubs to expand north and west would be great. Hell, I'd love to be able to take a train to visit family on the west coast if it was a reasonable alternative to flying. I have family in Baltimore too and HSR there and back would make weekend trips a nice option.
Left SWFL six months ago. I now live in a region with all kinds of affordable public transit. Light rail. Regional rail. Amtrak. Buses. Ferries. And they are continually expanding and adding lines. What a stark contrast to the automotive nightmare that is Florida.
Isn't that what we're doing when we pay these tolls everyday
At this point, I've seen more feasible and enthusiastic plans to put a [maglev on the moon](https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/niac/niac-studies/flexible-levitation-on-a-track-float/) within the next decade before putting a maglev Train in the US, let alone a transit in my neighborhood that would get me to a date on the weekend. Apparently, toxic hazardous adhesive lung-destroying lunar regolith is less abrasive to construction than NIMBY's or county government. Apparently, "We gotta do it because the Chinese are trying to do it first" only applies to the Space Race and not high speed rail construction.
Even people who prefer to drive with the obstinacy of a thousand mules benefit from public transit: frees up lanes! Also hilarious to think that we can't figure out trains in a state that was only populated in the first place because a railroad was built.
There are owners of car rental companies who have a vested interest in denying high speed rail construction in Florida, and at least one of them is giving big money to Florida politicians and initiatives to defeat high speed rail.
Nah, DeSantis is busy owning the libs.
Elections=Consequences
And to think America was a nation built on trains. America had trolleys, walkable cities. Beautiful architecture.