The Latest East-West Rail Scheme is the Most Grandiose Plan Yet, With a Price Tag Over $10 Billion. Is It For Real?

“Specifically, Marsden and his associates say they plan to renovate the harbor with three modern, automated marine terminals on the Samoa peninsula and not one but two new rail lines — one for eastbound trains and the other for westbound — running side-by-side for 220 miles between Humboldt Bay and the national rail network in the Central Valley, somewhere south of Red Bluff.”


“All they need to get started, they say, is $10 million from the local community. That’s a fraction of the total price tag, which is expected to exceed $10 billion — $4 billion-plus for the railroad and $6 billion-plus for the marine terminals. Marsden and his colleagues say they need that $10 million from locals first. “That’s very important to us,” Marsden said to the assembled train fans. This “seed money” will kick-start the endeavor, showing government regulators and the as-yet-unidentified major financiers that there’s plenty of local support.”