By Deirdre Newman In March of 2009 Dierdre Newman was supported by the Spot.Us community and the Bay Area Monitor to look into the High Speed Rail in California "High Speed Rails Funding Puzzle."
We are happy to report that a year later Deirdre worked with the Bay Area Monitor again for a follow up piece: "All eyes on High-Speed Rail."
We are very excited that Deirdre and the Bay Area Monitor have continued to work together to cover this topic - which wouldn't have been possibly without your initial support.
Written by Deirdre Newman Wednesday, 31 March 2010 18:22
California High-Speed Rail Authority adjusts its timeline for the statewide bullet train in order to meet deadlines imposed by the federal government in the disbursement of billions of dollars in stimulus funds, the project is being met with critics from all sides who are alarmed about the high cost of construction and the potential impact of the route.
The recently announced disbursement of $2.25 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding from the Obama administration is contingent on the project winning environmental approval by the fall of 2011 and construction starting by the fall of 2012.
While California received the largest amount of funding of any state for high-speed, intercity rail, the authority is now in the precarious position of having to abide by federal deadlines while the project draws intensified scrutiny due to the award. A report on various alignment alternatives for the San Francisco to San Jose section has already been delayed twice and is now expected in April.
If the deadlines are met, the award will ultimately be divvied up among specific projects — including the San Francisco-San Jose section — that are part of the system’s first phase, an approximately 520-mile route from San Francisco to Anaheim. The entire system, when extended north to Sacramento and south to San Diego, is expected to span about 800 miles.
The high-speed rail project garnered enough support for voters to pass a $9.95 billion bond act, Proposition 1A, in 2008. This bond measure was essentially a down payment on the project, which will be funded by a combination of state, federal, local, and private funds.
While the price tag to build the initial high-speed rail system from San Francisco to Anaheim started out at around $33.6 billion, it had increased to $35.7 billion by the time authority planners presented their 2009 Business Plan Report to the state Legislature in December. This reflects inflation costs between 2008 and 2009, as well as section cost updates. The authority also had to adjust the cost for the federal stimulus award application so that it was in year-of-expenditure dollars. This brought the most current estimate to $42.6 billion. Almost 80 percent of that cost is attributable to inflation, according to the report.
Continue reading at the Bay Area Monitor.
Posted by Spot. Us on 04/01/10
