LaHood: 'Line outside my door' for Florida high-speed rail money

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said he plans to reallocate the $2.4 billion in high-speed rail money that was rejected by Florida's governor. 

Just this week, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said he still had a "sliver of hope" Florida would receive the money it was awarded for a bullet train connecting Tampa and Orlando — funding that Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) turned down. 

But speaking Thursday to the Senate Appropriations Committee's Transportation and Housing and Urban Development subcommittee, LaHood said point blank that the money will be used somewhere else.  

"There is a line outside of my door of governors, senators and congressmen," he said. "There is no shortage of interest in the $2.4 billion we're going to reallocate from Florida." 

Nelson and other rail backers in Florida had hoped a ridership study released by Florida transportation officials showing the train would have had a $10 million surplus in its first year of operation might change Scott's mind. 

But at a press conference Wednesday at the Florida capitol in Tallahassee, Scott said he was still "comfortable" with his decision to reject the rail money. 

"I had been briefed on their ridership study, and I looked at other ridership studies, and I'm still very comfortable with the decision I made that I don't want the taxpayers of the state on the hook for the cost overruns of building it, the operating costs or giving the money back if it's shut down," Scott said. 

Despite Scott's resistance, LaHood told lawmakers the Department of Transportation is "just getting started on high-speed rail." 

"We've had very few people turn that money down," he said.