Active again

And yet another new plan for the proposed CA HSR is announced in Sunday's Fresno Bee (April Fool's Day). The new plan calls for the funding to come from a new business penalty fund. This leads to questions about the proposed 'cap-and-trade' taxation program; is this new penalty for doing business in California part of a marketing strategy to attract new businesses that are needed for increasing revenue to its sagging economy?

The newly revealed HSR plan does claim high ridership numbers to pay for it's operation and maintenance. BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) in the San Francisco bay area operates at a 61% subsidy (Wikipedia). For a government agency in California to propose a plan that claims profitability, reflects a politically motivated number.

One aspect of the newest HSR proposal is that it does provide a useable Amtrak connection from Bakersfield to Burbank. That cost of $31billion is a reasonable figure to build a new Amtrak line but, is a far cry from what the voters agreed on for HSR.