During the election he indicated he may be about to pour cold water on the $2.6 billion high-speed rail line from Tampa to Orlando as he was critical of the project during the campaign and said he'd only support it if the federal government paid the entire cost. As it is, Washington is bankrolling a cool $2.1 billion.

Consortia forming

Virgin Group, who know a thing or two about high speed train operations in a political environment has joined an all-European consortium that plan to bid for the high-speed rail line. The U.K. group, led by Richard Branson, has signed up as the train operator alongside Alstom and Vinci from France and Spain's Obrascon Huarte Lain.

Virgin, which operates a rail franchise in the U.K., sees the market as a natural extension of its existing U.S. transport activities, which include Virgin Atlantic Airways – a big player in the Orlando airline market – and Virgin America.

A Virgin spokesman confirmed it had joined the consortium, with an official announcement expected any day now.

Virgin's group would be among eight potential bidders for the main portion of the 84-mile-long project that is expected to go out for bid early next year, with completion tentatively set for 2015.

Another British transport group National Express just announced that they are in talks to operate the high speed rail line in Florida.

"We have been on discussions with various potential consortia over the past couple of months and we are interested in being involved as the operator," Andrew Chivers the Group's Rail Division Managing Director said.

Chivers said that little if any equity investment in the route would be required because Florida has secured $2bn of the $2.5bn budget from President Obama’s stimulus fund. The rest would be largely debt funded, resembling a public private partnership. “It is a traditional PPP scheme. One of the decisions is likely to be what equity involvement we want, if any,” Chivers said.

SNCF contrition

In an unprecedented move, another hopeful operator SNCF has for the first time publicly expressed regret for its role in transporting Jews to Nazi death camps in World War II. Until now, SNCF has said its workers were forced to assist in deportations by the occupying German army. The change of language is clearly linked to their interest in high-speed rail contracts in the US. The company has been criticised in the US for failing to apologise for its involvement.

On a trip to the United States, the rail company's chief executive Guillaume Pepy has issued a statement. He said that SNCF expressed its "profound sorrow and regret" for the consequences of its actions. In Florida (and California) there have been efforts by some lawmakers and Jewish groups to bar from the bidding any concern that does not come clean about its wartime role in the deportations.

P.P.P. = go, go, go?

With global expertise encircling, a huge federal grant and private investment through a PPP model we wonder if Governor Scott will not pull the plug on this high profile project after all.

High Speed Rail Teams (country of origin)

Related Articles:

• Will Republican victory in the midterms derail Florida High Speed project?

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