Who’s Slowing Down a High-Speed Train in California?

Travel Blog  •  Jim Benning  •  06.13.07 | 4:20 PM ET

tgfrancethumb</divPhoto by Copleys via Flickr (Creative Commons).

Oh, to be able to hop on a high-speed train like this French TGV to breeze through California. High-speed rail has serious support among the public and in the state legislature, according to a recent story in San Diego CityBeat. So who’s standing in the way? According to Steven T. Jones’s report, it’s none other than Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who in the case of high-speed rail really does seem to be The Terminator. Writes Jones: “While posing for the April 16 cover of Newsweek with the headline ‘Save the Planet—or Else’ and touting himself around the world as an environmental leader, Schwarzenegger has quietly sought to kill—or at least delay beyond his term—high-speed rail.”

Interestingly, Jones cites sources who say that neither oil companies nor auto manufacturers oppose a high-speed train in California.

Schwarzenegger has delayed a $10 billion bond issue to build the Los Angeles-San Francisco leg, most recently pushing it back from 2006 to 2008 because, according to Jones, he feared it would hinder another bond measure for freeway construction. Now he wants to push it back even further. Jones’s story not only takes Schwarzenegger to task but makes a strong case for the project, invoking the success of the TGV in France.

He writes:

In France, the TGV line from Paris to Lyon connects the country’s two most culturally important cities in the same way that Los Angeles would be linked to San Francisco—from one downtown core to the other—allowing for easy day trips and eco-friendly weekend jaunts. Advocates for high-speed rail say it’s an essential component of California going green and the only realistic way to meet the ambitious climate change targets approved last year in Assembly Bill 32.

Several years ago, after enjoying so many train trips abroad, I took the Amtrak from Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay Area, eager to see how my home state’s rail system stacked up. I arrived a good five or six hours late thanks to numerous inexplicable delays and had to cancel dinner plans with a friend. Amtrak workers on board shrugged and said, “What do you expect?”

So, sadly, I’ve just about given up on trains in California until big changes are made.