Glimmer of hope

From today's NYT:

Representative John Mica of Florida, the senior Republican in line to take the reins of the House Transportation Committee in January, is unhappy with the way the Obama administration awarded $10 billion in federal stimulus funds for high-speed rail projects.
“I am a strong advocate of high-speed rail, but it has to be where it makes sense,” Mr. Mica told The Associated Press in a post-election interview. “The administration squandered the money, giving it to dozens and dozens of projects that were marginal at best to spend on slow-speed trains to nowhere.”
Mr. Mica said he would like to redirect the rail money to the Northeast corridor, which he described as possibly the only place in the country with enough population density to financially support high-speed train service. 

High-speed rail makes a ton of sense in the Northeast, to hook up Boston, Philly, New York, and DC.  It doesn't make sense pretty much anywhere else, except maybe California.  So this is very good news if it can actually be acted on.