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What High Speed Rail could look like in Burbank | Image by CHSR
Despite saying he wouldn't until the budget was passed, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a few bills yesterday that he liked. One of those was AB3034, which replaced Proposition 1 with Proposition 1a on the ballot. Both deal with making a High Speed Rail route between LA and SF with an estimated travel time of 2 hours, 40 or so minutes. The San Francisco Chronicle breaks down what the "a" does in "one." The first one has large effects on the LA side of things:
- Keep the San Francisco-to-Los Angeles segment as the first priority for bond revenue but add Anaheim to that segment. It would also allow money to be spent on other segments as long as that did not delay construction of the main line.
- Prohibit construction of a station between Gilroy and Merced, a point of concern among environmentalists.
- Place limits on spending, including the amount spent on studies and plans, administration and purchase of right of way.
- Require a detailed funding plan for any segment before funds can be requested.
- Require the High Speed Rail Authority to complete an updated business plan by Oct. 1.
- Create a committee of experts to review planning, engineering, financing and other plans prepared by the authority.
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This is awesome and exciting! I hope this passes. Please vote for this California!
Given the current budget crisis, and perhaps the assumption that it ends soon, what is the likelihood of this project actually receiving the funding it needs? I see requirements for detailed plans and such, but sometimes bills get passed and then put on an infinite hold because the money for it was used elsewhere.
Not that I mean to be a killjoy, of course...
> Place limits on spending, including the amount spent on studies and plans, administration and purchase of right of way.
This bothers me. This stipulation alone could kill the project or make it an environmental nightmare.
The problem is that it works the other way as well. Studies in particular could be outsourced. In responsible hands this would result in a timely, comprehensive report. Sometimes the money just goes to an unending money pit of studies stretched over a length of time.
I'm not sure why there are limits on purchasing right of ways (assuming the people approached for purchasing can say "no"), but I wouldn't be surprised if there was some kind of precedent of wasteful spending. Public high-speed transportation has been something of an ongoing struggle for LA.
For a detailed, devastating debunking of this incredible HSR boondoggle -- a.k.a. Prop 1A -- go to the 196 page study of this issue just released in September, 2008 by the Reason Foundation:
www.reason.org/ps370/
Fortunately at this same web page you'll find a readable summation of the study.
If that's not enough, go to
www.ti.org/antiplanner/?p=515
which summarizes the reasons why high speed rail makes no sense. There are many related articles on this website.
There are so many, MANY reasons to vote down this insane measure. The fact that California is flat broke from current profligate spending and borrowing is only the latest additional reason to vote down Prop 1A.