Only 31% support high-speed rail project

Lisa Benson (Tunnel work story)

From the Community Coalition on High-Speed Rail:

A recent poll by a very well-respected polling firm shows that while 48% of the voters are supportive of the concept of High-Speed Rail, only 31% of California voters want to keep paying for the proposed high-speed rail project once these voters have been informed about the massively escalating cost. 

You can read all the details in this excellent story in the LA Times by veteran reporter Ralph Vartabedian. The bottom line is that while Californians love the "dream" of a functional high-speed rail system, they have no confidence in the performance of the state's High-Speed Rail Authority that oversees the project. 

The voters' lack of confidence is well-justified! 

NOT gaining much press coverage was the recent endorsement of the Authority's 2018 Business Plan that supposedly outlines how the Authority will make the high-speed rail project happen. Authority Board Members and the recently-appointed CEO applauded themselves for their "honesty" in highlighting the challenges that the project faces. 

What the Board of Directors and the CEO didn't say in patting themselves on the back is that the "honest" part of the document makes quite clear that there is simply no money available, now or in the foreseeable future, that would allow the Authority to connect tracks in the Central Valley with either Los Angeles or San Jose. 

In other words, as CC-HSR has been saying for years, what the taxpayers are getting for their willingness to put $10 billion on the table in upfront money is exactly NOTHING. The Authority is going to deliver a stranded set of tracks in the Central Valley that has destroyed Central Valley farms with no connection whatsoever to the major urban centers that the high-speed rail project is supposed to serve...

Rob's comment:
The Community Coalition on High-Speed Rail has always provided the best in-depth criticism of this dumb project, which has been aptly described as the Democrats' version of the Bridge to Nowhere.