Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has gutted funding for the much-anticipated high-speed rail line that would link the Valley with the Bay Area and Southern California. This could be the kiss of death for this badly needed project.
That's terribly frustrating. Ahnold has passed a lot of wind lately about making California a world leader again, much the way Pat Brown did in the late '50s and early '60s with bold and sweeping efforts such as new highways, water projects and a world-class higher education system. Schwarzenegger has sought to appropriate Brown's mantle as a visionary leader, but he misses one crucial point: What Brown did then was new. What this governor proposes to do is not.
And when faced with something actually new -- at least in this country; the rest of the developed world figured out the need for high-speed rail systems decades ago -- Schwarzenegger chokes. He want to cut funding for high-speed rail from the current $14 million to just $1.2 million in his latest budget. That's a far cry from the $100 million the project needs to begin purchasing right of way and continue engineering studies. He also wants to postpone -- indefinitely -- the already twice-postponed vote on a $9.95 billion bond measure that would fund the actual beginning of construction on high-speed rail.
Schwarzenegger has shown, definitively, that his "vision" is more about posturing than it is about progress. Instead of looking ahead to the future, he just wants to replicate the past. His foresight apparently extends all the way to the mid-20th century. Some "vision."
Thanks for staying on this important issue,it's very disapointing that it generates so little interest in our valley...maybe people don't remember how the automoble industry systematicly bought up and dismantled an existing transit system in this country...that, was the last real "vision" for mass transit,or was it the SUV?...so here's why people need huge cars w/ lots of horsepower...they've got an 800 lb. gorrilla on board!