Bonds Worth $9.95 Billion To Fund High-Speed Rail System Waiting For Approval Of California Residents

Sacramento, CA (AHN) - On November, aside from electing national and local officials, California residents will aside decide on the fate of gay marriages and a high-speed rail system bond for the state.

If Proposition 1A would be approved by Californians, it will authorize the raising of $9.95 billion through bonds to fund construction of an 800-mile high-speed train that will connect Northern and Southern California.

The planned rail will run at 220 mph. At that speed, it would take two-and-a-half hours to travel from Transbay Terminal in downtown San Francisco to the Los Angeles Union Station, with stops at the Peninsula and South Bay.

If approved, the rail system will be the largest public works project in California. The main line between San Francisco and Los Angeles is expected to cost $32 billion, while $10 billion more would be needed to extend the service to San Diego, Sacramento and Riverside Counties.

The $9 billion to be raised through bonds will be used to plan and build the system, while the remaining $950 million will be allocated for connecting it to existing rail services including the BART, Altamont Commuter Express and Capital Corridor.

The rail bond proposal was initially scheduled by legislators for 2004, but they had to postpone it twice on the request of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger who said the state could not get deeper into debt. But this year, the governor supported the inclusion of the rail bond in the November ballot despite California facing a staggering $17.2 billion budget deficit, because it would be a vital investment in the state's transportation system.

Those against Proposition 1A argued that the state could not afford the project. Those in favor of the high-speed rail project pointed out California's population will climb up to 50 million by 2030 and ultra-fast trains are its best option.

Rod Diridon, a member of the High Speed Rail Authority, explained to the San Francisco Chronicle, "This is our chance... We have a perfect storm of factors... the high and higher-in-the-future gas prices, the growing concern for global warming, the terrible condition of our highways, and compounding that is the congesting coming in and out of our metro areas. Those four factors make a perfect case for high-speed rail."

According to a study by the Progressive Policy Institute, not only California but other major U.S. cities would benefit from high-speed rail systems. Among the areas cited by Paul Weinstein, Jr., author of the report, were the D.C.-Boston, Minneapolis-Chicago-St. Louis-Detroit, Tampa-Orlando-Miami and San Antonio-Dallas-Houston corridors.