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WASHINGTON — States can compete for $2.4 billion in high-speed rail money that Florida Gov. Rick Scott rejected last month, the Obama administration said Friday.

States have until April 4 to submit their applications.

“States across the country have been banging down our door for the opportunity to
receive additional high-speed rail dollars,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement Friday evening.

The Transportation Department said funds will be distributed to energy-efficient and job-creating projects that will considerably improve traveling options.

States along the Washington-to-Boston Northeast Corridor have aggressively lobbied for the Florida funds since Scott rejected them, saying the planned Tampa-to-Orlando rail leg wouldn’t draw enough riders and could end up forcing Florida to pay billions in cost overruns.

Delaware Sens. Tom Carper and Chris Coons, New Jersey Sens. Frank R. Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, and Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, all Democrats, met with LaHood at Lautenberg’s office on Wednesday to urge him to redirect the Florida funds to the Northeast Corridor.

Northeastern Democrats and a bipartisan group of 38 House members wrote to LaHood recently, urging the same thing.

Some or all of that money could still end up going to Florida.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said in a statement that LaHood told him Friday that a
Florida transit group — not connected with the state government — is eligible to compete for the funds.

The Florida Department of Transportation on Wednesday released a study showing that a line connecting Tampa to Orlando would have had an operating surplus in 2015, its first year of operation.

It’s still possible for Florida supporters of the project to reapply for the funds
without state help if

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/SJsw0jVnJps/White-House-States-can-vie-rail-money-Fla-rejected-