Company involved in the Holocaust may advise building of new high-speed rail

As Florida lays the groundwork for a $2.5 billion high-speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando, workers are getting some help from a company with a questionable past.

The high-speed rail will be the nation's very first bullet train, so planners are getting some advice from the SNCF company, which has been in existence for six decades.

The company has revolutionized high-speed technology, but critics say it remains stuck in the past.

During the Holocaust, 3,000 of the company's cattle wagons were used to transport Jewish people to Nazi death camps.

Now, the railway company is a top contender for the contract to build Florida's high-speed line and many are calling for it to be disqualified because of its history.

The decision will ultimately be up to Kevin Thibault, who works for the Florida Department of Transportation.

"It's only going to be those that we consider qualified," he said. "Qualifications are going to range from their bonding financial capabilities, to their technical capabilities, to their ability even to work in the state."

The controversy is shedding new light on how the state government handles billions of dollars worth of contracts.

Publicly, FDOT officials say they'll award the rail contract based on a long list of criteria, including company ethics.

However, Democratic representative Alan Williams has his doubts.

The legislature has already passed a law to ban state business with companies linked to terror groups and Williams says more action may be needed.

"In order to do business in this marketplace, they have to be good corporate citizens, whether it's being the sponsor of a little league baseball team of it's having sound business practices and not having ties to terrorist organizations or having checkered pasts," he said.

But some say having a checkered past shouldn't necessarily make a company unfit for business that's happening now.

In an attempt to move beyond the past, the SNCF is giving Thibault and his team full access to its Holocaust era records.

"What we're looking for is to see what that information is and then evaluate what they've got from that," he said.

And while that evaluation has yet to leave the station , the opposition if picking up speed.

State transportation officials say that they're focused on securing full funding for the project from Washington.

They don't expect the high-speed rail project to be open for bids from companies, including the SNCF, until some time next year.