CHRIS CHRISTIE, New Jersey's new-ish Republican governor, drew national attention last month for cancelling the partially federally funded ARC (Access to the Region's Core) tunnel project. The tunnel, which would have run under the Hudson river to Manhattan, would have eased train congestion in the current, century-old Hudson rail tunnel. Now the Garden State will lose the billions of dollars in federal money that were committed to the project; they'll be reallocated elsewhere.

But Mr Christie isn't the only GOP chief executive cancelling federally funded high-speed rail projects. Last month, the New York Times' Michael Cooper pointed out that a number of Republican gubernatorial candidates were running against high-speed rail projects. Most of those candidates won. Scott Walker, the new governor in Wisconsin, John Kasich, the new governor in Ohio, and Rick Scott, the new governor in Florida, all criticised federally funded rail projects in their states. "Passenger rail is not in Ohio's future," Mr Kasich told reporters shortly after winning Tuesday's election. "That train is dead." Mr Walker has also promised to fulfil his campaign pledge to kill the proposed rail project in his state.

What is bad news for train supporters in Wisconsin, Ohio and New Jersey could be good news for commuters in California and the North-east. The $810m from Wisconsin, $400m from Ohio, and $3 billion from New Jersey will come back to Washington and be awarded to other states instead. California was one state where the anti-train candidate, Republican Meg Whitman, didn't win. Some of the money could end up there, to help launch the Golden State's Los Angeles-to-San Francisco high-speed rail dream.

John Mica, a Republican from Florida who will run the House transportation committee starting in January, thinks that the North-east corridor is the best target for high-speed rail money. Newly elected (or re-elected) Democratic governors in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Maryland would presumably be happy to take the money. It will be interesting to see whether the Obama administration can convince the lame-duck Democratic Congress to reassign the money—or whether the GOP-run House will try to cancel the spending entirely next year.