High speed rail progress in California
Barry Hiscox FCInstCES
READERS may recall from earlier letters that, due to ‘freezing’ and/or reduction of national budget caused by the previous national government administration, the originally planned rate of construction and development of the 880 mile, 24 station high speed rail link between San Diego and San Francisco/Sacramento was severely curtailed and starved of funds with the result that construction had been limited to a phase 1 active construction stretch of 119 miles (192 km) between Bakersfield and Merced.
From January 2015 and to December 2023 a total of US$11.2bn had been spent on this and the upgrades to existing rail lines in the San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles, where phase 1 includes plans to share tracks with conventional passenger trains. It is relevant to note that as long ago as 2008, voters passed proposition 1A directing the Californian High Speed Rail Authority to construct an electrified 494 mile long rail system connecting the mega regions of Los Angeles and San Francisco to the growing cities of the Central Valley.
Fortunately, with renewed focus under President Biden’s administration the authority has made considerable progress in obtaining additional federal funding to advance work on the project resulting in US$3.1bn from a Federal-State Partnership for Inter-City Rail (Fed-State ) grant to support passenger service in the Central Valley, including the purchase of six train sets, a station in Fresno and other design and construction activities. Although later than originally planned there is hope that the ambitious originally conceived scheme for high speed rail in California will ultimately be realized.
The bi-partisan infrastructure law introduced by the Biden- Harris administration
This law is delivering significant results for people in Michigan. More than US$10.4bn is already headed to the state with over 551 specific projects identified for funding. Since it was passed, approximately US$6.8bn has been announced for transportation – to invest in roads, bridges, public transport, ports and airports – and approximately US$699m has been announced for clean water and water infrastructure. Michigan also received US$2.2bn to connect everyone in the state to reliable high speed internet, and as of March 2024, more than 941,000 Michigan households are already saving on their monthly internet bill due to this infrastructure law. Many more projects will be added in the coming months as funding opportunities become grant awards and as formula funds become specific projects.
Roads and bridges in Michigan
1,269 bridges and more than 7,025 miles of highway are in poor condition. The new infrastructure law will rebuild roads. It also includes the single largest dedicated bridge investment since construction of the Interstate system. Michigan is expected to receive approximately US$7.9bn over five years in federal funding for highways and bridges. To date, US$5.1bn has been announced in Michigan for roads, bridges, roadway safety and major projects, including US$4.4bn in highway formula funding and US$364.9m in dedicated formula funding for bridges.
And so to politics
Over here in the USA, it is extremely difficult to escape politics in going about everyday life. For as hard as one might try to be objective and avoid disagreement, the subject tends to crop up in every day aspects of life, probably because an effectively strictly opposed two party system representing opposite viewpoints make it difficult to form consensus of opinion and hence agreement on important issues of mutual benefit to both party and state. Thus, conflict often prevails. In essence there is no third party to take the edge off extremes or find middle ground to overall benefit.
When you couple this to the fact that almost everything over here has to be voted upon in the quest for an ideal democracy, for example, a public library service, whose survival in every township is primarily dependent upon the passing by public vote of a ‘millage’ for support/continuation (in my case here in Commerce Twp MI every 10 years), one forms the opinion that nothing can be forever despite an undeniable public benefit. Politics should not stand in the way of public education and continuity of such a service.
Fortunately in the UK you have the Public Libraries and Museums Act which as long ago as 1964 placed a public library service provided by local authorities in England and Wales under the superintendence of the Secretary of State and made provisions for regulating and improving the provision and maintenance of libraries, museums and art galleries. There is no circumstance under which I could imagine this public right/ entitlement would be changed, despite which political party is in power.
Barry Hiscox FCInstCES Past President, CICES