Transit News

Los Angeles, Jan. 28 - Statement from Erin Steva, Transportation Advocate, on today’s announcement from the Obama administration that California will receive $2.3 billion under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to prepare for high speed rail in the state.

The President followed up on last night’s commitment to job creation by announcing today that several states, including California, will receive funding to build or plan for high speed rail.  California will receive over $2.3 billion as an initial down payment towards a high speed rail link between San Diego and San Francisco and Sacramento.

Today’s down payment starts the long journey towards a stronger, faster rail system for America.

Getting high-speed rail onto tracks is vital to California’s future. Its construction in California will put thousands of people to work, clean our air, cut our energy-consumption, and assist in the resurgence of manufacturing. For millions of inter-city trips, high speed rail will be a faster, cleaner, more efficient way to travel across the state than driving or flying.

Congress needs to follow up on this initial investment by securing more long-term funding for both a high speed rail system and the local public transit systems that will eventually feed into it.  There will never be a shortage of workers ready to build these projects, or riders ready to use them, but in order to finally realize clean, efficient transportation in California, today’s investment must be followed by continued commitment from our leaders.

On February 9, CALPIRG will release "The Right Track: Building a 21st Century High Speed Rail System for America, a major national research report quantifying the public interest benefits of high speed rail.

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CALPIRG is the California Public Interest Research Group. State PIRGs are non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organizations.