Backers Push Bullet-Train Measure as a Dramatic Change in California Transportation. By Eric Bailey, LATimes, October 15, 2008."For a quarter century it has been a California dream on one drafting board or another -- a bullet train system so novel, environmentally friendly and fleet that it could reshape transportation in the car-crazy Golden State. Now, state voters will be asked Nov. 4 to provide some locomotion by approving nearly $10 billion as a down payment toward the ultimate vision of an 800-mile high-speed rail network. Promoters of Proposition 1A boast that the $45-billion project, featuring sleek trains reaching 220 mph, would be the nation's most ambitious public works effort since completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. Foes say it would be a fiscal black hole that wouldn't deliver as promised. With gas prices high, highways congested and airports jammed, it would seem the best of times for a bullet train. But to some it seems the worst, with Wall Street in meltdown, California facing a perpetual budget deficit and the lurking specter of last month's horrific Metrolink commuter rail accident... As envisioned by the train's advocates, a trip from San Francisco to Union Station in Los Angeles would cost $55 and take little more than 2 1/2 hours. Bakersfield to downtown L.A. would take just 54 minutes."
2008-10-15
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment