CA Senate Approves High-Speed Rail

In a narrow vote, the California Senate has allocated $8B for the beginning of a high-speed rail system.

The vote was dramatic because it barely passed with just 21 votes, exactly the number needed, after some arm-twisting by Governor Brown and under pressure of losing $3.3 billion in federal funding. A number of Democratic senators, including three who served on the Senate's unofficial high-speed rail oversight committee, voted against the plan, saying it's too soon in the current economy and too risky an undertaking, with the possibility that the central "backbone" of the line could get built and the rest of it never finished if the funding never materialize.

Backers say the first line of the proposed system will link Los Angeles and San Francisco. However farming corporations in the Central Valley have filed multiple lawsuits to prevent the rail from running through their land.

Coming Soon To America, Right After Your Jetson's Flying Car & Home Holodeck

The Federal Railroad Administration says to be patient:

With the successful completion of the original phases of the Northeast Corridor (NEC) Improvement Project offering Amtrak's maximum 150 mph Acela train service between Washington, New York, and Boston, efforts to develop high-speed intercity passenger rail service have expanded beyond the NEC. However, just as the Interstate Highway System took 50 years to complete, the true potential of a fully integrated high-speed intercity passenger rail network will not be achieved or realized overnight.

Wait, the Acela to DC goes 150 mph? Does that include the traditional unexplained hour-long stoppage five miles outside of Trenton?

Chinese May Bankroll High Speed Mag-Lev Train Between Los Angeles & Las Vegas

Proponents of a high-speed rail service between Los Angeles and Las Vegas say a Chinese bank is willing to bankroll the project to the tune of $7B.

The California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission still has several hurdles to clear before it could move ahead with plans to develop the project between Las Vegas and Anaheim, Calif. The commission late Monday announced that the Export-Import Bank of China, which has 14 domestic offices and three overseas offices, said it would provide a direct loan that would require the backing of the U.S. government as well as cooperation with Chinese enterprises. “It is a very positive development for Nevada’s employment picture and very telling that the financiers who are stepping up to bat are the Chinese, the people most familiar with Transrapid Maglev technology,” Neil Cummings, president of the American Magline Group, said in a press release announcing the loan.

The train would reduce the travel time between the two cities to about one hour, rendering Las Vegas a sort of suburb of Los Angeles (for those who can afford it.) The California-Nevada rail group suffered a setback last week when it was left out of the $8B stimulus budget to develop high-speed rail links around the country. Especially stinging was that an archrival Orlando group will get $1.25B to develop high-speed rail service between Orlando and South Florida. Below is a map of the lines to receive the federal funding.