An optimistic report that foresees high-speed rail systems driving high-dollar growth and jobs in hub cities nationwide -- including Orlando -- is being assailed by one national critic as "absurd" and skewed.

Wendell Cox, an Illinois-based transportation and urban planning expert who served on the Los Angeles Transportation Commission and national Amtrak reform council, doubts that the proposed high-speed rail systems will benefit such hub cities anything like as much as claimed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.