California Gets $2.25 Billion In Federal Stimulus For High Speed Rail (VIDEO)

WASHINGTON (Associated Press) — High-speed rail projects in California, Florida and Illinois are among the big winners of $8 billion in grants announced Thursday by the White House – the start of what some Democrats tout as a national rail-building program that could rival the interstate highways begun in the Eisenhower era.

President Barack Obama announced the awards during a town hall meeting in Tampa, Fla. – a follow-up to Wednesday's State of the Union address that focused on getting Americans back to work. Thirteen passenger rail corridors in 31 states will receive grants, which are funded by the economic recovery act enacted last year.

Obama said focusing on building 21st century infrastructure projects is an important element of the country's economic recovery.

"It creates jobs immediately and it lays the foundation for a vibrant economy in the future," Obama said.

Though the administration bills the program as "high-speed rail," most U.S. projects won't reach the speeds seen in Europe and Asia. California's trains would be by far the fastest, exceeding the 200 mph achieved by some trains overseas.

Some of the money will go toward trains with top speeds of 110 mph, while other funds – such as the $400 million allotted to Ohio to connect Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati – will be for trains traveling no faster than 79 mph.

A half-dozen Cabinet members and other senior administration officials were fanning out across the country for rail events Thursday and Friday. The White House said rail projects will create or save thousands of jobs in areas including track laying, manufacturing, planning, engineering and rail maintenance and operations.

Obama told the crowd at Thursday's town hall that when the high-speed rail line connecting Tampa and Orlando is finished, "I'm going to come back down here and ride it."

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and members of Congress have acknowledged they expect much of the expertise and equipment to be supplied by foreign companies. Except for Amtrak's Acela line between Boston and Washington, there are no high-speed trains in the U.S. and no domestic high-speed rail industry.

The $8 billion investment is just a start. Last year, Obama asked Congress in his budget request for an additional $1 billion a year for five years. Congress for this year approved another $2.5 billion that remains to be awarded. And Obama is expected to ask for yet more rail funds when his budget is presented next week.

Also, LaHood has hinted that some of the $1.5 billion allotted in the stimulus plan for discretionary transportation projects may go toward high-speed rail.

Japan launched the first high-speed trains in 1964, and France and other European countries followed in the 1980s and 1990s. China has announced plans to expand its high-speed rail system to a network of more than 16,000 miles by the year 2020 at an estimated cost of $300 billion.

In the U.S., only the projects in California and Florida are planned to reach maximum speeds of 150 mph or more, what most transportation experts consider high-speed rail.

Projects awarded the largest grants include:

_ California: $2.3 billion to begin work on an 800-mile-long, high-speed rail line tying Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay area to Los Angeles and San Diego.

_ Florida: $1.25 billion to build a rail line connecting Tampa on the West Coast with Orlando in the middle of the state, eventually going south to Miami.

_ Illinois-Missouri: $1.1 billion to improve a rail line between Chicago and St. Louis so that trains travel up to 110 mph.

_ Wisconsin: $810 million to upgrade and refurbish train stations and install safety equipment on the Madison-to-Milwaukee leg of a line that stretches from Minneapolis to Chicago.

_ Washington-Oregon: $590 million to upgrade a rail line from Seattle to Portland, Ore.

_ North Carolina: $520 million for projects that will increase top speeds to 90 mph on trains between Raleigh and Charlotte and double the number of round trips.

By spreading the $8 billion among so many states, Obama is ignoring the advice of transportation experts and high-speed rail advocates who said the best way to build continuing political support for the program would be to concentrate on two or three grants large enough to get a high-speed line up and running. Once that happens, they reasoned, other parts of the country would lobby for more money to build their own lines.

Rep. John Mica of Florida, the senior Republican on the House transportation committee, complained that the Midwest lines awarded grants will achieve top speeds of only 110 mph and were "selected more for political reasons than for high-speed service."

WATCH: A visual tour of the California High Speed Rail system.

Comments

[unamas]

12:32 AM on 01/31/2010

What would tourists zip through Central Valley between SF and LA? Don't they want to check Santa Barbara, Big Sur, Monterrey?

[misfitglory182]

05:50 PM on 01/30/2010

I find this so exciting!! Since I live in San Diego county the fact that this high-speed rail line would go all the way up to Sacramento just opens up so many possibilit­ies to California­ns. Even to drive from where I am at (in the Northern part of San Diego County) to Los Angeles would take around 2 1/2-4 hours (depending of course on traffic, pit stops, etc.)....b­ut now with this new rail line I could get up there in less than an hour. Not to mention it would create jobs and save many commuters time, gas, and money.

I only have 2 major concerns regarding this project.

The first being that I would hope that the government is still going to work on reinforcin­g the bridges, roads, and highways so we don't have everything else falling apart. I think it is essential that the government doesn't get distracted by this new and exciting endeavor and forget about what we already have that needs fixing.

My second concern is that after the train crash in L.A. a while ago with the two commuter trains crashing into each other, which was later discovered to be caused by an engineer texting, I would hope that there would be a stricter policy with texting on all trains but ESPECIALLY on the high-speed trains. As long as there isn't another accident like that I would feel safe riding on a high-speed train.

[Camille21]

05:10 AM on 01/30/2010

The problem with the SF to LA train is that it goes smack dab through the middle of upscale neighborho­ods on an unsightly elevated track! Residents of these neighborho­ods are fighting to force the train to be built undergroun­d. We all voted yes on the fast trains because for some reason everyone thought the train would be placed in a sparsely populated area i.e. along the route of the major highway that you take to L.A. After the ballot measure for the bullet train passed, we all found out ,to our horror, that the train was to be built along the current caltrain track. The current train goes smack through silicon valley. Any derailment would land ON HOUSES. The current train is just yards from backyards. The stimulus money should be used to put the train undergroun­d or to move the train to a less populated area.

[MadAppraiser]

08:08 PM on 01/29/2010

American transporta­tion and urban planners hands have been effectivel­y bound by the American automobile industry and Washington lobbyist in terms of domestic high speed rail implementa­tion since its inception. Once again American lobbyist comprehend America's needs better than mainstream America!

[mrpurple805]

02:42 AM on 01/30/2010

"Once again American lobbyist comprehend America's needs better than mainstream America!"

I was going to make an angry counter-ar­gument to this, but then I realized that it is really a clever joke. Well done!

[MAHMAH]

06:40 PM on 01/29/2010

This is rediculous­. In CA, there isn't any way to even get from BART to San Jose without a cab or car. No way to get from SF to San Jose without having to take BART to SF Airport and then take SAMTrain to cupertino and then a car or bus to San Jose. I just don't see what benefit there is to a HSR when we don't even connect our major cities that lie within 30 miles of eachother.

[mrpurple805]

02:43 AM on 01/30/2010

Ssshhhh, you'll wake the trolls by pointing out the obvious!

[pascaljim]

03:56 PM on 01/29/2010

Those persons who cannot wait to board a hi-speed rail train should demand wheelchair access, 'cause by the time hi-speed arrives, many will be dead and the rest in a state of decline.

I'M TIRED OF PIE IN THE SKY PROJECTS.!­!!!

L.A. Times reports constructi­on will be limited on the Expo Line due to noise concerns..

... Where is a Robert Moses when we need him??

[KataVideo]

12:42 PM on 01/30/2010

We need a Shinji Sogo

[blacktea]

03:43 PM on 01/29/2010

just what we need, another train from Palmdale to Gilroy. When you are spending other people's (borrowed) money, you come up with some crazy ideas.

[TovSquirrel]

04:25 PM on 01/29/2010

Like invading sovereign nations?

[blacktea]

04:32 PM on 01/29/2010

yeah, however history has shown that government­s destroy things a lot better than they build them.

[blacktea]

03:39 PM on 01/29/2010

The US and CA both face historical­ly high deficits and debt. And this is Obama's plan? We are doomed.

[mrpurple805]

02:44 AM on 01/30/2010

Yes, most of us are.

[jtjsrch]

02:55 PM on 01/29/2010

FYI to all posting. There is a division of a European company operating here in Sacramento­. To date they have built mainly light rail cars here, but they recently expanded with the idea that being in CA they can build the cars for the CA high speed. That is their main business in Europe. (Sorry I cannot remember their name)

[TovSquirrel]

04:25 PM on 01/29/2010

Siemens.

[stylembe]

02:27 PM on 01/29/2010

It really is a fantastic plan. North America is so behind in this sort of venture. I'm glad that the Obama Admin is breaking ground on this.
www.stylem­be.wordpre­ss.com

[mrpurple805]

02:45 AM on 01/30/2010

Well, they are at the planning stage. After a decade of environmen­tal impact reports, expect the money to have vanished with nothing material to show for it.

[nukemind]

01:07 PM on 01/29/2010

Awesome. It's about time the US got a high-speed rail system. Now if only LA would get a subway like that of NYC (as well as Houston and numerous other cities) we'd be set! Real public transporta­tion that might alleviate some of the gridlock faced by commuters.

[Berkeleylefty]

01:16 PM on 01/29/2010

L.A. DID have a great subway / rail system and it could have also had a great monorail system:

http://www­.monorails­.org/tmspa­ges/LA1963­.html

[TovSquirrel]

04:28 PM on 01/29/2010

Yes, GM bought up the PG&E (?) Red Cars so they could close it and sell automobile­s to southern California­. Got a great freeway system out of it--I guess that's a plus.

[Curbrunner]

12:56 PM on 01/29/2010

Looks like another expensive terrorists­' target in the making.
Will TSA be getting their draconion clutches into this system too?

[aNdYtm]

12:47 PM on 01/29/2010

This idea surely HIGH SPEEDS us to more deficits. There is NOT EVEN ONE financiall­y successful passenger train in the history of USA. So are we having a high speed train just because other countries have them?

[Berkeleylefty]

01:14 PM on 01/29/2010

Because we have been told time and time again that cars and planes were the way to go....and we bought into it. There is nothing more fun that riding on a train, not worrying about the driving and enjoying the scenery, with or without your kids. Who knows? You might even meet fellow humans along the way...and give each other a friendly wave instead of the middle finger...

[abbeyroad]

02:23 PM on 01/29/2010

They will generate money for the state, create many jobs, eliminate traffic, encourage tourism, and cut down drasticall­y on pollution.

You're not very bright, are you ?

[mrpurple805]

02:46 AM on 01/30/2010

If the California state government is involved, you can bet that this will not generate money.

[mlaiuppa]

12:46 PM on 01/29/2010

I've seen the map of proposed routes.

I can't go from California to New York. There is no cross country route.

Until there is at least one way to go across the country, to me this is a fail.

Going north and south for a finite distance isn't enough. It's a start, but it's not enough.

[jfrisco11]

12:31 PM on 01/29/2010

America is too much talking and never let things done. Asian countries already have high speed train without a fuzz. Bullet train in Japan anyone? they built it years ago. Just build already.

[Berkeleylefty]

01:08 PM on 01/29/2010

Not if the short-hopi­ng local airline lobbies have anything to say about it...Can anyone say SouthWest? Burbank to Oakland in about one hour? Still hard to compete with that...

[mrpurple805]

02:47 AM on 01/30/2010

And the airlines don't have to deal with buying up land (cheap in the Central Valley, but not in LA or the Bay Area) to build their routes. A high speed train will have to do that, unless it is going to use existing rail lines.