This is an idea that cannot be allowed to become an idle report in a back room somewhere, as it addresses so many issues well, one of which is fast transportation up and down the coast, and if it could run close enough along the coast to see the ocean occasionally, an incredible (though occasionally blurry) view along the way.
Fast track, green train
Time is running out for high-speed rail if the governor and the Legislature really want to fight global warming
By Nicholas Miller
When Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the Global Warming Solutions Act into law last year, it added credibility to his claim of being an environmentalist. But there’s a major red flag in the governor’s green resume: Schwarzenegger chose not to fund high-speed rail this year, which may be one of the only ways to reach the act’s emission-reduction targets, according to a recent study.
This month, the Bay Area-based Transportation and Land Use Coalition reported that high-speed rail in California would dramatically reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
Over 40 percent of CO2 emissions in the state come from automobiles and planes.
“If you really are trying to reduce global warming, and if we really are trying to reduce energy use by transportation,” argued Mehdi Morshed, executive director of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, “the more people you transfer into a train, instead of a car or a plane, the better off you are. The energy efficiency for trains is about six-times that of a car or airplane.”
However, in January Schwarzenegger proposed a mere $1.2 million for the CHSRA, an amount that would cover only administrative costs and falls significantly short of the $106 million requested for further research and infrastructure development. It’s now up to the state Legislature to fully fund the CHSRA.
The governor also proposed to postpone the $9 billion high-speed-rail bond tentatively set to go before voters next year. High-speed rail would shuffle tens of millions of passengers between Sacramento and Los Angeles on a 225 mph bullet train.
The Legislature continues to weigh out the pros and cons.
Earlier this month, a bipartisan delegation led by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, went to Paris to study the French high-speed train, or Train à Grande Vitesse. Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, was the only American legislator aboard the TGV from Paris to Strasbourg, which topped out at a record-setting 357.16 mph.
“You couldn’t see anything out the window. There was a plane flying next to us filming--that’s how fast we were going,” Ma said. “Those that like speed, the people on the train who are in this business, were having a great time. They were cheering and shouting, and I was like, 'OK, when are we going to slow down?’”
But environmental-science and transportation experts now warn that if California is going to rein in climate change and meet its emission-reduction targets, the bullet train needs to be put on the fast track.
