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Re: California OKs funding for high-speed rail line
Author: mook
Date: 07-08-2012 - 13:52
Muni Central Subway is a light rail line -- possibly setting a new record for cost per mile! Most LR lines encounter what Wall Street types call "resistance" when the cost gets much over $60m/mile even with lots of bridges/tunnels. Even BART has a hard time (absent hard rock or transbay tunneling) exceeding $100m/mile by much. Nearly $1B/mile will be hard to beat...
I'd like a citation for that Supreme Court case -- it could provide guidance for repurposing the Valley HSR Fed requirement into money for filling an actual gap (like Bakersfield-LA or at least Palmdale where Metrolink can be connected) and running somewhat upgraded Amtrak as an interim service. Failing that, the legislature did what it more or less had to politically - we can't just give $3B or so back to the Feds and say "here's our tiny contribution to deficit reduction" if we have bond money to cover the state share. Of course, while they are general oblication bonds (in theory covered from the General Fund) both AS & JB have used transportation funds to pay debt service on transportation-related bonds so whoops there goes another pothole not fixed.
I'd like a citation for that Supreme Court case -- it could provide guidance for repurposing the Valley HSR Fed requirement into money for filling an actual gap (like Bakersfield-LA or at least Palmdale where Metrolink can be connected) and running somewhat upgraded Amtrak as an interim service. Failing that, the legislature did what it more or less had to politically - we can't just give $3B or so back to the Feds and say "here's our tiny contribution to deficit reduction" if we have bond money to cover the state share. Of course, while they are general oblication bonds (in theory covered from the General Fund) both AS & JB have used transportation funds to pay debt service on transportation-related bonds so whoops there goes another pothole not fixed.
