Biden Plugs CA High-Speed Rail For Funding

"Though California is in the throes of a budget crisis, Vice President Joe Biden said (June 3) that the state’s high-speed rail project was well-positioned to compete for a significant share of the $8 billion that the Obama administration has set aside in the Recovery Act for high-speed rail lines -- possibly more than 10%.

The Obama administration is still developing criteria on how to allocate the $8 billion from the Recovery Act for the rail projects, but Biden said federal officials would “look at projects that could be completed quickly and have measurable impact” -- chiefly in taking cars off the road."

“The reason why California is looked at so closely -- it’s been a priority of your governor, it’s been a priority of your Legislature, they’ve talked about it, a lot of planning has been done,” Biden said.

"State officials have identified two sections of the project that could meet the Recovery Act criteria for high-speed rail of having contracts awarded by 2012 and work completed by 2017. The sections would be those between Los Angeles and Anaheim, at a cost of $3 billion, and between San Francisco and San Jose, at a cost of $4 billion to $5 billion.

The money could pay for laying tracks, building tunnels and bridges, and acquiring right-of-way, according to Mehdi Morshed, the executive director of the California High Speed Rail Authority."