Sacramento — Traveling in California this holiday weekend, it certainly would be convenient, even fun, to step aboard a 200-mph bullet train and zip around in quiet comfort.
It definitely would beat suffering through long, inane security lines at oppressive airports -- or enduring a daredevil, but dull, drive along Interstate 5 through the San Joaquin Valley.
The long-dreamed-of California bullet train, however, keeps encountering difficulty leaving the station.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to sidetrack it, offering a medley of rationales for his efforts to again delay a $9.9-billion rail bond proposal slated for the November 2008 ballot. The governor and Legislature already have twice postponed the bond vote -- the last time, in 2006, because it would have competed with their $37-billion public works package.
One month ago, Schwarzenegger spokesman Adam Mendelsohn told Times reporter Marc Lifsher that the governor and the public still had higher priorities than creating a bullet train. "Right now, the voters are crying for relief from congested freeways," he said. "That's the immediate priority." The spokesman also mentioned the need for building dams and prisons.
But the governor soon began spinning his delaying effort another way, contending that the project needed a "comprehensive financing plan" before being submitted to the voters.
Many believe that's a bogus argument and Mendelsohn's explanation was closer to the truth: The governor continues to have higher infrastructure priorities, including water storage.
Schwarzenegger's go-to guy for the bullet train is David Crane, a San Francisco financial services executive who advises the governor on economic growth and recently was appointed by him to the California High-Speed Rail Authority board.
Crane, a political novice, is expounding on the need for a concrete financing plan.
As currently envisioned, the cost of creating a $40-billion high-speed rail system would be shared one-third by the state and one-third by the federal government. The final third would come from local governments and private entrepreneurs.
Crane insists all this should be laid out in detail. Somebody in Sacramento, he says, should get potential investors and the feds -- such as California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco -- into a room and wring out financing commitments.
