Government Technology - August 2007 - (Page 34)

“We needed the $14 million for this fiscal year to hire the engineers and get mobilized and get ready,” Mehdi Morshed explained. “We need $103 million next year to continue that work, and then we’ll need somewhere around $200 million the next year.” A bond, which is set to be on the November 2008 ballot, would secure nearly $10 billion to begin construction. This, Mehdi Morshed said, is the cornerstone of building a high-speed rail network that would allow people to move between Northern and “In a national sense, California is so important because if that system could get built it would prove the case.” Rick Harnish, Midwest High Speed Rail Association Eurostar is a train service connecting the UK with Paris (Gare du Nord), Lille and Brussels (Brussels South). Trains cross the English Channel via the Channel Tunnel — also known as the Chunnel. Southern California in less than three hours, finally giving residents a long sought-after alternative to expensive flights or the grueling six- to eight-hour drive along Interstate 5. But the bond measure has been postponed twice, and Schwarzenegger is threatening to postpone it again. “We’ve been funded annually by the Legislature from existing transportation funds. When we go to construction, it’s going to require far more money than they can support with the existing budget,” Mehdi Morshed said. “The Legislature and the governor proposed the $9.95 billion bond measure. It’s been postponed twice for a couple reasons. One, they wanted other priority projects to move forward; two, the high-speed rail project wasn’t really ready to go into construction so the bond money wasn’t needed at the time. For 2008, it’s different. Now we actually need the money because in a couple of years, we’ll be ready to go into construction.” On the surface, supporting high-speed rail seems like a no-brainer for Schwarzenegger. The Golden State governor garnered considerable press for his sudden shift toward promoting green policies. According to studies conducted by the CHSRA, the train would serve nearly 117 million passengers by 2030 while generating annual revenue of between $2.6 billion and $3.9 billion. In addition, it would cost two to three times less than expanding highways to accommodate the same need. High-speed trains, which run on electricity, could also have a potentially huge positive impact on California’s air quality. Ardent supporters say the train would eventually pay for itself, and even the most pessimistic are forced to admit that the train would generate more money than highways, which cost millions annually to maintain and repair. One would think it should be a slamdunk for the suddenly green-loving governor. Not exactly. According to Sabrina Lockhart, a spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger, the CHSRA must explain how it plans to raise the additional $30 billion before the governor throws his weight behind high-speed rail. “He is asking the Legislature to indefinitely delay putting this $10 billion bond on the ballot in November [2008],” she said. “What he is waiting for is for the [California] HighSpeed Rail Authority, which is the body that is responsible for developing the plan for high-speed rail in the state, to come up with a comprehensive financial plan for building the system. It’s expected to be more than $40 billion so what the governor is essentially saying is, ‘Before we ask California’s taxpayers to mortgage $10 billion plus interest, we have to know where the remaining $30 billion is going to come from.’” For months, rumors circulated that the governor planned to snuff out high-speed rail once and for all. Schwarzenegger wants “to quietly kill this — and not go out and tell the people that high-speed rail isn’t in the future,” The train à grande vitesse (TGV) Atlantique trains are the second generation of TGV trains, and were built from the outset with a maximum speed of 186 mph. AUG_07 The TGV (train à grande vitesse, French for “highspeed train”) is France’s high-speed rail service, and holds the record for the fastest wheeled train, having reached 357 mph on April 3, 2007. The TGV also holds the world’s highest average speed for a regular passenger service. TGV trainsets travel at up to 200 mph in commercial use. state Sen. Dean Florez told the Los Angeles Times in April. But suddenly in May, Schwarzenegger penned an editorial in The Fresno Bee where he appeared to have shifted his position on high-speed rail. “I strongly support high-speed rail for California, and especially for the San Joaquin Valley,” the governor wrote. But he also added, “Before asking taxpayers to approve spending nearly $10 billion plus interest, it is reasonable to expect the authority and its advisers to identify with confidence where we will find the remaining $30 billion.” Herein lies a classic example of government bureaucracy. 34 PHOTO BY DAVID MONNIAUX http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - August 2007

Contents Point of View The Big Picture The Last Mile Letter to the Editor GT Spectrum Up Close Vanishing Act Way Back Machine Fast Track to Nowhere Best of Both Worlds Texting 911? GIS to Go Neighborhood Watch Two Cents Products Signal: Noise Government Solutions

Government Technology - August 2007

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