It looks like Tea Party governors are beginning to have regrets about turning down billions in federal funds for high-speed rail. Either that or they have a renegade in their midst.

Barack Obama has made high-speed rail one of the projects of his presidency. On Monday the federal government doled out another $2bn in funds. Nothing surprising there. What was surprising however, was that Michigan's governor, Rick Snyder, and a Tea Party leader of impeccably conservative credentials, was awarded nearly $200m – and that he was glad to take it.

The decision makes Snyder an oddity. From New Jersey to Florida, his class of newly elected Republican governors have made a grand display of rejecting federal funds for upgrading America's rail system.

Snyder has been as true to the Tea Party ideology as any of those rail refuseniks. After taking office this year, he set out to cut $45bn from the state budget by firing employees, cutting education spending, and refusing to pave roads in rural areas. Snyder said road crews should use gravel instead as it is cheaper.

But on the issue of trains, he seems to be travelling on the same track as Obama. The funds award on Monday are meant for a line between Chicago and Detroit that will allow passenger trains to travel at speeds of 79mph, and eventually more than 110mph. Not exactly high-speed rail by global standards, but faster than many American trains. The project is scheduled for completion in 2014. In a statement, Snyder said:

Investment of this magnitude can spur economic development in our communities with rail stations, and provide access to a 21st century rail system that will help Michigan citizens compete in a global economy. Reliable, fast train service is attractive to businesses that want to locate or expand near it. This investment in our rail system is critical to Michigan's recovery.

Now compare that with Wisconsin's Scott Walker, who ran for governor last year on a promise to send back $810m in federal funds for high-speed rail. He said the money would be better spent on building roads or paying off the federal deficit.

Or Ohio's governor, John Kasich, who sought to keep the $400m his state was awarded – so long as he did not have to spend it on trains. The federal government eventually took the money back.

New Jersey's governor, Chris Christie, meanwhile turned down $3bn from the federal government to build a rail tunnel under the Hudson River to New York City.

The rationale in all cases was government spending; high-speed rail projects are especially irksome to Republicans because they are funded out of the 2009 economic recovery plan which, in Tea party Eyes anyway, is the ultimate symbol of government waste. Obama set aside $8bn in federal funds for rail projects in the recovery plan.

The funds turned down by Ohio and Wisconsin were eventually rolled into a $2.4bn package that was supposed to build a high-speed line between Tampa and Orlando – until Florida's newly elected governor cancelled the project.

On Monday, the federal government re-purposed those funds yet again, channelling most of them to improving rail service between Washington and New York City.

Snyder set aside Tea Party pride and put in Michigan's bid, winning $196m in funding. Despite all of last year's theatrics about wasteful rail spending, Wisconsin's Walker applied for federal funds too, though on a fairly modest scale. He asked for $150m, not for high-speed rail, but for new locomotives.

In the end, however, Wisconsin got nothing on Monday – which makes his rejection of that $810m look like a pretty bad idea.