As Republican governors take over several key states in the country, several high speed rail projects are on the brink of being canceled.

With the exception of California, major high speed rail initiatives in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Florida are up in limbo right now.

As we mentioned yesterday, Republican Governor-elect Scott Walker from Wisconsin, the poster child of the anti-high speed rail movement, said that under his administration Wisconsin’s high-speed rail project will be stopped and highway construction projects will move forward. Similarly in Ohio, John Kasich will almost certainly end the construction of the train line connecting Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland, and is likely to return the $400 million in federal funds back to the government. Republican Rick Scott in Florida isn’t entirely opposed to rail, but will only move forward with it if his state doesn’t have to pay anything towards it.

To make matters worse, long-standing Congressman and Transportation Committee chair Jim Oberstar of Minnesota’s likely replacement Republican John Mica has clearly said that he would reconsider the $10 billion federal grants being given out to high-speed train service. Unlike, the rest in his party, Mica said he may still consider high speed rail, but focus the initiatives on the North East where populations are more dense.

This puts even voter approved bullet trains in California at a potential standstill, as the project is relying on at least $15 billion more from Washington to move ahead. California has already been awarded more than $3 billion in federal aid for HSR, and state voters approved more than $9 billion in bonds.

“It’s going to continue to be a challenge for us to get federal funding until we get that ongoing federal commitment,” rail authority spokeswoman Rachel Wall told San Jose Mercury News.

Obama’s transportation bill — which sought $50 billion in high-speed rail funding also seems unlikely, given that the GOP made its way back into power by pushing for small government and fiscal responsibility. A drop in public expenditures on infrastructure, then just seems likely.

All this, ironically, comes at the same time as the American Public Transportation Association survey that said that 62 percent of Americans would definitely use high speed rail if it were an option.

Only 11 percent said they “probably or definitely” would not.

The survey, taken among 24,711 adults, also said that the majority of people (91 percent) would approve of HSR if it cut down travel time compared to driving to their destinations.

Another 91 percent said the rail service should be less expensive than flying; 89 percent said it should be less expensive than driving; and 85 percent said the rail service should integrate with local public transit so they could avoid using rental cars and cabs, and paying parking fees.

In fact, 75 percent said environmental concerns drove their decisions.

Though this is unlikely to happen now, APTA wants Congress to invest $50 billion in HSR over the next six years, and the association claims that along with $123 billion in public transportation investment from the federal transportation bill now under consideration in Congress, that would support and create 6.2 million jobs.

“In most political circles, garnering nearly two-thirds support for a forward-thinking vision like high-speed rail would be considered a landslide,” said APTA President William Millar in a statement.

Unfortunately, in our current political situation, we’re not sure who is listening.