High Speed Rail News

The leader of California's state Senate wants the Obama administration to say it will commit more federal money to the state's high-speed rail project if the president wins a second term.

May 16--The chief of the state bullet train authority said Tuesday that he hopes to obtain some type of relief from environmental laws that would eliminate a risk that the 130-mile initial construction project could be stopped by an injunction, a potentially growing prospect as agriculture interests in the Central Valley gear up for a legal fight.

Tuesday evening was the first chance for people in Kern County to view the updated High Speed Rail project plans.

When the Assembly Transportation Committee staged a hearing on the contentious bullet-train project recently, its bias for going ahead was starkly evident.

Like us on Facebook and enter to win an iPad -- We are giving away one a week for 6 weeks There are new questions concerning high speed rail and whether the project can be done right and done on time.

Pressure is mounting at the state Capitol for California lawmakers to approve billions of dollars in funding for the controversial bullet train.

Among the many concerns of voters in the newly drawn 31st Congressional District, top among them would most certainly be the need for more jobs.

SAN FRANCISCO - California will need to build its high-speed train line in record time if it doesn't want to risk losing federal funds - indeed, it will have to be the fastest piece of transportation construction in U.S. history, experts said.

By this point in his tenure, Gov. Jerry Brown had hoped to have dispensed with the huge budget shortfalls that greeted him when he took office.

In his new book "Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves From the Automobile" , Grescoe takes the reader from Shanghai and Bogota to New York and Los Angeles on a cultural tour that's too entertaining to qualify as wonky treatise, yet too smartly researched for mere travelogue.

If California starts building a 130-mile segment of high-speed rail late this year as planned, it will enter into a risky race against a deadline set up under federal law.

Taxpayers in California and around the nation have a new reason to pull the plug on the Golden State's high-speed rail project.

And if California can't decide fast enough, any other state interested in claiming those funds might be out of luck - since the money will no longer be available after Sept.

As roads become more crowded each year, transportation planners have been looking for a game-changer that can reduce congestion and efficiently move millions of people.

California's Legislative Analyst's Office said the latest proposal to build a $68.4 billion high-speed train system is still too vague and the state legislature should not approve funding it for it this year.

California's proposed high-speed rail line has a new, shorter route that no longer will end near one of the state's best-known tourist attractions.

Fresno County supervisors dialed back their recent criticism of California's bullet train, agreeing Tuesday to send a letter of conditional support for the venture to the state High-Speed Rail Authority.

As time winds down for the June 5 election, fundraising and endorsements are starting to shape what could be tight races at the county level.

The L.A. Times reports that U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood came to Sacramento today to convince California leaders to include funding for the $68 billion high-speed rail plan in the upcoming budget: "What I have said to them is, 'We need a strong signal that you are committed to the money for the match, sooner rather than later.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood warned the California Legislature today that the Obama administration will not wait until fall for a vote on high-speed rail, urging its approval in a budget vote next month.