California high-speed rail in line to snare federal billions, veep says

June 5, 7:25 AMCalifornia Statehouse ExaminerScott Sabatini

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Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a roundtable on the Recovery Act, Tuesday
at Pace University's Lubin School of Business in New York.
(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

California’s high speed rail link between Los Angeles and San Francisco got a morale boost from Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday, who said that despite the economic woes across the state, the project is a strong candidate for a share of the $8 billion set aside by the Obama administration for rail transportation.

California officials will lobby for their slice of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to build the voter-approved, high-speed rail line that would take passengers from San Francisco’s Transbay Terminal to the heart of Los Angeles in 2 hours and 40 minutes.

"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 in a conference call with reporters.

Biden said the administration wants "to get shovel-ready projects out the door as quickly as we can. . . . So California is in the game."

Voters approved $9 billion in funds and project officials are looking for a combination of federal funds and private investment to come up with the rest of the $34 billion price tag.

Eventually the rail would expand to include Sacramento to the north, and Anaheim and San Diego to the south.

After the successful vote, opposition groups along the Bay Area's peninisula route for the rail line sprouted up, possibly putting the project in jeopardy. The groups are angry at the size of the rail line, much of it built on concrete pillars above existing rail lines, that will be constructed in their neighborhoods.

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