I think this is an excellent investment in California's future. The economic impact of such a project will pay for it many times over.

I agree.  This will certainly boost our local economy.  On the other hand, the population boom may prove unwelcome (for some). 

Tip of the day:  Buy land/real estate in the San Joaquin Valley...

If the rail project gets on track, here's hoping no construction bid is awarded to the Masons, considering what they did to the Denver International Airport: http://www.spiritdaily.com/...

A totally lame and obscenely costly project. If anyone thinks Bakersfield needs this, they need to see a proctologist. Sorry, Steven, I'm just a misinformed conservative  : )

So let me get this straight.  We are turning down Federal stimulus money to help bail out California's enormous financial debt or better yet we cutting education costs by the hundreds of millions of dollars and laying thousands of teachers, but we seem to find the time and resources to apply for $4 billion in Federal stimulus money allocated to build a high speed rail?  Oh, yeah this makes sense!!!  I understand voters approved this bill but come on, this thing will get stuck in court because some environmental group found some endangered insect, bacteria, or moss growing on a rock that is only found in a small corner of Kern County.  Then what was initially supposed to cost the project $9 billion will be doubled and won't even begin construction for at least another 10-15 years.  The environmental impact report alone will take a few years.  Anyway, this is a HUGE waste of money when we cannot even support programs that need supporting.  $4 billion:  I think of many teachers who would get their jobs back, I can think of many programs that we cut that could not get funded again.  And $9 Billion:  let's see there are about 35 million Californians.  that would give each and every legal resident of California $257 in their pocket.  Wow, yeah, we have our priorities in the right spot (insert sarcasm here).

So we should stop all efforts at progress and not invest in our future at all?

I oppose the cuts in education, but there is no evidence this program is cutting education.  If anything, it will boost eduction later by enriching the state.

I suppose the same argument can be made about any development project the state undertakes.  Just remove "High Speed Rail" and replace with "Airport/Freeway/Port/Civil Project N-" etc. etc.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step!

FYI: The original post is a raw press release from the high-speed rail authority, so read it with that uppermost in your mind.

It's only an announcement that they are APPLYING for the funds, not that the funds have been awarded or allocated. That's why I thought it merited a simple blog post, but not a news story.

I have no stake in this fight, vanity. I think I'm about as confident as you that, given the chance, government can create a boodoggle out of just about anything.

Steven, thank you for taking my brief comment in the spirit in which it was intended, and for the further clarification.

The HSR project really makes no sense to me unless it's carrying freight and not people. I think readers here are bright enough to fill in the blanks, so I won't go into the specifics.

However, I will offer this rant:

I'm sick of the semis blasting up and down the 99, drivers with absolutely no clue about our poorly constructed on-ramps. I'm tired of being nearly run off the road trying to merge on 99N from 204. Or from California Avenue. Or from ... every single on-ramp (except for White Lane, so thank you Mark Salvaggio).

I drive to Los Angeles at least once a month and up to Bass Lake or the Bay Area at least twelve times a year, and the semis are a MENACE. Though they aren't directly involved in every accident, many times drivers of passenger cars acquire a serious case of road rage when one truck decides to pass another .... anyway. The rest of the story and all that.

I'd rather see the big trucks off the road more than anything else, mostly for our safety, but also for the environment.