Been a while, but...

...it's eight months till the vote on California's high speed rail bond. The CHSRA seems to have a number of entities upset with them right now, including San Diego, because they have the line from LA-San Diego in the second phase of the plan, the Central Valley, because of the choice of the Pacheco routing, and Northern California environmental and transportation groups, again because of the Pacheco choice.

I fall into the latter group. I can see how they can afford to trade-off us against the entities lobbying for Pacheco, but the rage they've inspired in the Central Valley folks is bad. The San Diego problem is totally different, as there has to be some phasing of the project. They can also point to the confusion in Southern California over the two or three independent Maglev proposals. Thank god we don't have to deal with those snake oil salesmen up here.

The Valley is key to the project. High speed rail is EXACTLY what the Valley needs to connect it to the rest of the state. Too bad the CHSRA has made enemies of them.

Tired

So the San Francisco Bay Area's Metropolitian Planning Agency, the Metropolitian Transportation Commission, weighed in today on how high speed rail should get from the Central Valley to the Bay Area. Their decision was to choose both choices.....

Punt!

....more later

The Terminator?

As we slip in to Summer in California, it seems that the future of high speed rail rests with the Terminator. From the meager amount proposed in Governor Schwarzenegger's budget to the $40-50 proposed by the California Assembly and Senate, the final budget for high speed rail will rest with the Governor. Will he agree with the legislators or will he kill the project?

Support has been building around the state, yet the Governor still holds firm with nothing more than lip service. He claims to support the project, but doesn't want the state to step forward until the private sector comes forth with billions. The way the California budget process works, the legislature works up a budget after reviewing the Governor's budget. They have added in about half the original budget requested by the high speed rail authority. This is enough to keep the project on track for the Fall 2008 bond vote. BUT the Governor has a line-item veto in California. That means, once presented with the budget, he gets a thumbs up/donw on everything.

Will Governor play the Terminator once again?

Train could be rolling in to the station

Folks-

Start thinking about how you can make sure that this year's state budget ensures that the high speed rail project keeps moving forward. I'd like to see the train finally make it into the station someday.

Someone else is working on this

Check out:



...for a nice discussion of the project.

If not High Speed Rail, then what?

Our governor doesn't want to fund high speed rail. What magic transportation does he see us using in 2025?

If we go on as we are, the airports will get bigger and more crowded. The roads will be widened, and more crowded. More of the same, just worse. Bigger airports aren't better- ask someone who has seen the growth of Oakland or Burbank over the past 20 years. Wider highways mean the landscaping gives way to soundwalls and more lanes. If that's the future that we see for our state, it's sad.

We have the chance NOW to do something. Move into line, although behind, Vietnam, Morocco and Turkey, and get to building a transportation system for the modern world. Clean and green....

Bad German Links

Folks-

Sorry. Gotta fix the links to all the German rail photos.

UPDATE- Got them fixed

-yHSRH