Proposition 1A passed 53 percent to 47 percent in California on Tuesday. The network will eventually extend from Sacramento through San Francisco and L.A., to San Diego.
The bonds authorized by the proposition provide for about $10 billion or one-third of the cost for the whole system. In an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California, said:
Voting for bond measures like high-speed rail was an opportunity for voters to say, “Well, there is something we can do.” It pointed out just how desperately Californians feel we need to make investments in the future. For it to pass at this time even by a narrow margin I think says a lot, because it was a big price tag.
Now maybe Obama will consider funding high-speed rail for the Midwest, which has been creeping along for years now. High-speed rail should be a crucial part of a plan for energy independence.
