He said beginning Florida's high speed rail project in Tampa is a money loser and ignores possible private investment that an Orlando project would draw.

"The route that does make sense right now, and won't be a burden to taxpayers, is from the Orlando airport to the convention center to Disney World," he said.

"The administration's got it backwards. They are making the announcement in the wrong place," he added.

Mica, the ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, told WDBO that he and Congresswoman Corrine Brown would work together to change the rail project to begin in Orlando where SunRail is also being built.

Tampa's regional transportation agency has approved plans to build out a rail and bus system, connecting the seven major counties in Tampa Bay.