Bullet Train Making Tracks
Sacramento, CA — Years of prep work have been completed and now California’s $64 billion high-speed rail project is ready to lay some track but the feds could still derail the project.
The go ahead was given on Friday by Governor Jerry Brown’s finance department after approving the rail authority’s request to spend $2.6 billion on work in the Central Valley. The decision allows the authority to ask the state treasurer’s office to sell a portion of the nearly $10 billion in bonds approved for a bullet train by voters in 2008. Previously some of the bond money was spent on administration and on work to connect the new system to existing tracks.
There is still a huge cloud hanging over the project as significant federal funds will be needed to make high-speed rail a reality in California, and the Republican-controlled Congress does not support the project. Additionally, much needed private money has not yet been secured.
