Re: No on BART RR
Author: mook
Date: 11-06-2016 - 13:56
Sacramento Measure B. Funds a lot of things including a couple of much-needed local road jobs, but the biggest single chunk goes to RT which has never really recovered from the recession.
BART needs reconstruction, beyond basic maintenance. Once they discovered that it was necessary, they've done a fair job on maintenance in recent years, but they let it go too long before getting into that mode so now it's patch & pray. Not uncommon for railroads in general, and public agencies in particular where depreciation isn't part of the accounting process. So now they need a big chunk of money that can't reasonably be raised any other way. One can grumble, but it's needed and should be approved. It's similar in concept to what would have been needed in the 1950s-60s to bring PE or Key System up to a decent state of repair.
HSR isn't on the ballot, except peripherally as might happen if the revenue bond proposition passes and HSR wants to use some. With no immediate prospect of revenue, they can't issue revenue bonds that anybody would buy anyway. So that's not an issue this year. The 10 billion$ or so they have now (from G.O. bonds not revenue) wouldn't even be a down payment on base tunnels or any other way through the Tehachapis, nor would they cover even a few miles of work in LA proper. For now, they're funding the middle of the route where you can get some mileage for a modest amount of money. In any case, reiterating, HSR in any form is not on the ballot this year.
So besides BART & Sacramento, who else wants to chime in? Measure M (LA)? Something in Silicon Valley? There supposedly were a bunch of local transportation tax/bond measures on the ballot this year.