State's high-speed rail hopes revived by bill

A year after its already modest budget was slashed and its mortality became the butt of Sacramento jokes, California's high-speed rail enterprise appears to have reawakened.

[Martin Engel]

1. McClintock and Battin, legislators in the State Senate, have a different opinion. Perhaps someone working for the press will determine what that might be.
2. Like vampires, this project won't die no matter what Kopp says. Diridon and Kopp have been threatening this for decades. "Don't give us what we want, and we'll just go away." I don't think so!
3. The Democrats, of whom I am one, support this project, Dukakis and Brown among them, because they believe it will create jobs and pump money into a moribund economy. Maybe yes, maybe no. Will they hire only out-of-work Californians and spend the money only in the State of California? Of course not.
4. Let me say this one more time. This is not about the trains, it's about the money. The HSR promoters will get their hands on borrowed billions. Paying it back will be someone else's problem. Have you any idea how much power such funding control bestows on the managers of this overpriced enterprise?