so toward the rail line, said Nazih Haddad, who oversees rail for the state Department of Transportation, which will select the winning team by the end of 2011.

"We're looking for first the best deal and clearly to put people in Florida to work," Haddad said. "We want to make sure we have folks from the state, from the local corridor."

Here are some companies to watch:

Bombardier Inc. Based in Montreal, Canada, this company is no stranger to Florida. Its trains are best known here as the monorail system at Walt Disney World. And it was twice given the nod as the preferred contractor during the state's false starts on a high-speed system in 1996 and 2003. Back then Bombardier paired with Texas-based construction company Fluor, Virgin Trains and Orlando-basedMears Transportation. "We hope that we have an advantage" because of the company's three manufacturing plants in the U.S., said spokeswoman Maryanne Roberts.

Hyundai Rotem. This Korean company was part of the team of contractors known as Global Rail Consortium that came in second place during the state's earlier attempts at rail. It appears to be interested in Florida once again — a representative from the company spoke and hosted an exhibit at an Orlando conference of the U.S. High Speed Rail Association in March.

U.S.- Japan High-Speed Rail. This company is based in Washington, D.C., and is a partner of Central Japan Railways, which boasts the busiest high-speed system in the world with 149 million passengers a year between Tokyo and Osaka. Executive Director Ian Rainey said it's been