Florida's Rail Money Is Headed North to Illinois

Remember that federal money that was supposed to help build the first leg of Florida’s High Speed Rail? Well, some of it is on its way to Illinois.

The Chicago-St. Louis high-speed rail project is getting $186 million of the $2 billion in Department of Transportation funding rejected by Florida Gov. Rick Scott. The newly elected Republican governor worried that state taxpayers would have to cover for cost overruns and operating expenses.

Yet, it came as a joint announcement by Illinois’ U.S. Sens. Richard Durbin, a Democrat, and Mark Kirk, a Republican, that Florida’s reallocated money will be used to upgrade Illinois’ train track. And Illinois is hoping to get even more from Florida’s rejected funding through a multi-state request that’s in the works according to a release from Florida U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson’s office.

Illinois also benefited from the $42.3 million in high-speed rail funds rejected last December by new governors in Wisconsin and Ohio.

All that funding is in addition to the $1.4 billion in federal transportation money Illinois received to streamline freight rail near Chicago and speed up passenger trains.