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In November, Californians voted in favor of 800 miles of high-speed rail connecting cities throughout the state. The initiative promised major reductions in CO2 emissions and tons of new jobs, but the major drawback has been the hefty $10 billion price tag.
Californians should have felt some relief today as President Obama signed the stimulus bill that includes $9.3 billion in incentives for high-speed and intercity rail projects. Last Thursday, it was announced that California's high-speed rail project was eligible for assistance from the stimulus package, although an exact amount has yet to be allocated. Although voters approved the rail project, tax payers have been skeptical about the amount of the cost they'll be responsible for. Also, many people have criticized the 22-year schedule for building the rail system. An influx of federal money may help on both fronts - the tax burden may be lessened and construction may be able to move forward more quickly.
The $9.3 billion allotted for rail systems is actually an increase from the Senate version of the bill and is separate from $8.4 billion assigned to public transit agencies in the bill. Congress has definitely been responding to the growing need for mass transit and the money in the stimulus bill has the potential to do a lot of good in California and beyond.
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written by Spokker, February 17, 2009
On the other hand, California still doesn't have a budget. The HSR Authority is in danger of losing funding. California is not holding up its end of the bargain and the project is in danger.
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written by BruceMcF, February 18, 2009
What it can do, however, it allow the CAHSRA to get funding to do work now, so that the ongoing budget crisis does not delay its work ... because Stimulus bill spending does not necessarily require the state matching funds.
The problem is, while the CAHSRA has bonding authority from Prop1A, it can't sell any of those bonds until the crisis is resolved.
The bonds are $9b of the required $46b -- much cheaper than the $80b to $100b it would cost to provide the same transport capacity by road and airport construction -- and there are safeguards against spending the state money until the rest of the finance is lined up. So the more Federal money is received up front, the greater the financial security of the project.
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written by ed, February 26, 2009
California might get a couple of billion, but majority of that money is going to Chicago.
the Chicago to St. Louis line will be the first to be completed in the next couple of years....Amtrak has been working on upgrading that line for the past few years.
Obama would take care of Chicago first.
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As for whether this will move forward more quickly, I'm afraid that might rest with the state budget issues as much as anything else.