The federal government wants people to be able to ride the rails on a high-speed train between Tampa and Orlando and will kick in $15.9 million to Brightline Florida LLC to try to make it happen.
The federal grant, announced Thursday, will pay for half the preliminary engineering costs for the planned 67-mile, Tampa-to-Orlando train route along the Interstate 4 corridor. Brightline, a privately owned passenger service provider, will match the grant award.
“We know that the traffic along I-4 continues to this day and providing other options for travel is going to be so important to the people of Florida,” said Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose. “When it comes to this corridor we know that there’s a ridership level that exists there and a potential ridership level that exists there so that makes this project an exciting one for us.”