One thing that needs to be made clear; much of the funding recently approved for projects such as Caltrain electrification, run through tracks at LAUS, the LA Metro Regional Connector, track upgrades for ACE and Capitol Corridor among others were part of the package for High Speed Rail. Last year the legislature approved 13 Billion dollars in rail passenger funding of which 6 billion was for High Speed Rail. Half of that $6 billion was matching Federal dollars only for High Speed Rail. Some politicians and CHSRA boad members understand that we need conventional and high speed rail to work together to get a system up and running. As for Federal Money the California High Speed Rail Authority is not counting on additional Federal Dollars. I heard that from Dan Richard, the Chair of the CHSRA at the RailPAC/NARP meeting in San Francisco on October 5th. The CHSRA needs to build a fast connection between Bakersfield to Palmdale before they can get lenders to  invest in California HSR. That would cost about $10 billion and there is $4 billion left in the existing State HSR bond money. That leaves $6 billion the CHSRA needs to find. Dan Richard and other members of the CHSRA board have backgrounds in finance. It won’t be easy but raising the $6 billion shouldn’t be impossible. NB

November 4, 2013
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