HSR Can't Come Fast Enough

"Right now, the California High Speed Rail Authority plans to connect Sacramento sometime after the more lucrative Anaheim-to-San Francisco line is up and running. The authority says it can start construction in 2012, start testing the system in 2015 and open the system to the public in 2020. Along that first leg, towns like Fresno, Bakersfield and Gilroy will get high-speed rail service long before Sacramento does. A Merced-to-Sacramento route and another connection between the Central Valley and the coast would follow possibly a decade or more later, depending on funding.

That has chafed a few Sacramento leaders. Back in March, Mayor Kevin Johnson told The Sacramento Bee that he was 'disappointed' at Sacramento's second-tier status.

'I'm very interested in how we can expedite Sacramento being a part of the high-speed train,' Johnson said Tuesday. 'We want to be a part of that first leg.'"