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When we complained about Frontier Airlines LAX-SFo flights going away, our helpful commenters had a short discussion on high-speed railways and what a great thing they'd be. How timely, then, that the CoCo times is reporting the latest on that possibility.
And, darn it, it ain't promising.
The article reports that in his 2007 budget, Guv. Schwarzenegger has proposed reduced funding for the California High-Speed Rail Authority, as well indefinite postponement of a nearly $10 billion rail bond issue that we'd have voted on in 2008. However, Schwarzenegger's camp says the governor wants to make sure enough private financing for a high-speed rail is in place before asking the taxpayers to contribute. Which seems to make some sense -- it's still fishy that the Governator is being so quiet about it, though.
The attempt to stifle the high-speed rail faces some opposition from our Assemblywoman, Fiona Ma, and her informal "high-speed rail caucus."
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Hey, where did you get this picture of Thomas? My younger son loves him.
Hey, Cindy --
Our attorneys have advised me to keep silent on that one.
(But an search engine's 'image' function is a great place to start)
Well, it never ceases to amaze me how the governor is all over the map on high speed rail. Check out this little tidbit from today in a letter the governor wrote to the Fresno Bee on May 4th.
www dot scrippsnews dot com/node/22421
One of his quotes: "The promise of high-speed rail is incredible. Looking forward to the kind of California we want to build 20 and 30 years from now, a network of ultra-fast rail lines whisking people from one end of the state to the other is a viable and important transportation alternative and would be a great benefit to us all."
From reading the rest of the letter, it seems his main problem is that the authority has not identified the funding for the entire $40 billion system. I suppose the governor has a point, but if the first leg from LA to SF will run $10 billion, and the bond is for $10 billion, and the first leg won't be done for something like 10 years, you would think that there would be plenty of time to start lining up the financing for the rest of the system.
It seems to me like the governor is stalling more than anything else. He is amazingly on the money with most of his programs that support a better environment, but his opposition, or maybe less than full support of, the high speed rail option seems strange. Given the environmmental benefits of rail versus plane travel, I would have thought he would be 100% behind it.
Eliminating or reducing the 1/4 of all flights that originate and end where the high speed rail system serves both cities will obviate the need to expand airports any time soon. The savings from that alone will pay for at least half of the first $10 billion dollars.
And this isn't even considering the fact that as we delay the start of construction, the costs are going up over time. If we had started this back in 2004 when it was first supposed to be on the ballot, we would be laying tracks by now, instead of watching the price of steel go through the roof as it is all getting shipped to China so they can build their high speed rail system. Jeez.
Come on Arnold, this is your opportunity to take the bull by the horns and *really* change the future of the state. Power all those trains with wind energy from Tehachapi and the Altamont pass and you will have a pollution free, CO2 free alternative to flying, without any rising cost associated with the price of oil. When motorists are looking at $5 per gallon gas or jet fuel in a couple years or sooner, a 200mph train ride is going to start looking pretty sweet.
Robert