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Will the Northeast's high-speed rail dreams kill Metrolink in Southern California?
A Metrolink train
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Will the Northeast's high-speed rail dreams kill Metrolink in Southern California?
Will the Northeast's high-speed rail dreams kill Metrolink in Southern California?
A proposal to put a high-speed rail project from Washington to Boston out to bid could affect rail commuters in Southern California.
Republican Congressman John Mica of Florida wants high-speed rail between Washington and Boston. The head of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee says the best way to get it is to auction off the northeast corridor right-of-way. But Democrats say that’ll put Amtrak out of business.
And Norwalk Congresswoman Grace Napolitano says in California, it’ll hurt more than just Amtrak. "Metrolink," she says, "which is a commuter rail agency of Southern California, is operated by Amtrak. The only way Amtrak would be able to continue operating in California is if the state itself incurred the enormous cost of operation, of its equipment, of its maintenance, the station services, support services and as we well know, California along with many other states is in the doldrums. Their budgets are going bankrupt."
Chairman Mica’s support for high-speed rail in the northeast doesn’t extend to California’s proposed north-south line. He says states were right to return federal money for high-speed rail projects that weren’t speedy or likely to attract passengers.
"I’m not even happy with the one project that remains that has the possibility of high-speed rail, and that’s California. Went out to Fresno and we actually did a hearing out there and that section that’s been chosen between Fresno and Bakersfield has neither the population or the inter-city connections to make that a success and yet we’re throwing billions of dollars at that marginal project."
California’s high-speed rail authority chose the Central Valley as the first link in a system that would connect San Diego to Sacramento.
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