The Break-Up of California’s High-Speed Rail?

Computer generated image of the proposed high-speed trains for use in California (Photo – California High-Speed Rail Authority).

California legislators are considering a plan to divert some high speed rail funds intended for the first leg of the bullet train in the Central Valley to rail improvements in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles (Burbank to Anaheim).

By Ethan Elkind

Los Angeles Times national reporter Ralph Vartabedian, Glendale Mayor and Metro and Metrolink board member Ara Najarian, and Ethan Elkind, director of the climate programs at UC Berkeley Law and UCLA Law, discussed the legal soundness of the funding shift on KPCC’s AirTalk on July 30.

The funding diversion could be viewed as the end of the dream of true high-speed rail service in the state, but the reality is that significant new funding would be needed for high speed rail in the near term. Using the currently available funds to provide meaningful transit benefits in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California’s major population centers, will not foreclose the idea of upgrading the systems to high speed service at a later date, assuming significant new funding and the political will to provide that funding.

Ethan Elkind directs the climate program at UC Berkeley Law, with a joint appointment at UCLA Law. His book “Railtown” was published by the University of California Press.