LaHood to GOP governors: Build high-speed trains or give money back

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has a message for Republican governors who campaigned against the president's high-speed-rail program: Build the trains or give back the money.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Tuesday rejected a request from Gov.-elect John Kasich in Ohio to use the $400 million in federal funds pledged to that state's train project on other projects like road construction or freight lines.

"I would like high-speed rail to be part of Ohio's future," LaHood wrote. But if the state won't go forward, it's necessary "to wind down Ohio's involvement in the project so that we do not waste taxpayers' money," he said.

A day earlier LaHood sent the same message to Wisconsin officials about the $810 million in rail money pledged to that state. Wisconsin Gov.-elect Scott Walker, a Republican, campaigned against the Madison-to-Milwaukee line, including creating a website opposed to the project.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which allocated an initial $8 billion for a high-speed- rail program, doesn't allow the money to be spend for other purposes, said Ross Capon, executive director of the National Association of Railroad Passengers.

The Republican governor-elects have criticized the high-speed-rail program as unaffordable in tough economic times. Both states would have to invest considerable dollars in the projects in addition to federal aid. Walker on Tuesday urged the federal government to give up on high-speed rail and instead use the money to repair roads and bridges he said were "literally crumbling."

Kasich has said that the top speed of 79 miles per hour on the proposed Ohio project is too slow and he has questioned whether enough people will ride it. About 6 million people live along the Cleveland to Cincinnati corridor, making it one of the most heavily populated corridors without rail service in the Midwest — but a well-used interstate, I-71, lies along the same route.

The administration contends the projects will generate jobs and provide needed alternatives to congested highways and airports. Thirty foreign rail manufacturers have committed to locate operations in the United States "so that we can restart idled manufacturing plants in Ohio and other states," LaHood wrote Kasich.