History
The cost of the initial San Francisco-to-Anaheim segment was originally estimated by the CHSRA to be $35.7 billion (2009) / $38.7 billion (2012) / $42.5 billion (YOE), but a revised business plan released in November 2011 by the CHSRA put the cost at $65.4 billion (2010) / $69.7 billion (2012) / $98.5 billion (YOE). The latest plan has revised the costs down to $53.4 billion (2011) / $55.2 billion (2012) / $68.4 billion (YOE). An implementation plan approved in August 2005 estimated that it would take eight to eleven years to "develop and begin operation of an initial segment of the California high-speed train." It would have also shared tracks with Caltrain and Metrolink using a quadruple track configuration.
On December 2, 2010, the CHSRA board voted to begin construction on the first 54 mi (87 km) of the system 3 mi (4.8 km) south of Madera at Borden, and continue through downtown Fresno to Corcoran. On December 20, 2010, with the infusion of an additional $616 million in federal funds reallocated from states that canceled their high-speed rail plans, the initial segment of construction was extended to Bakersfield. Another $300 million was reallocated on May 9, 2011, extending the funded portion north to the future Chowchilla Wye, so that the train can be turned. Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2013.
In September 2012, the Obama administration gave California's high speed rail project the green light. President Obama put the project on a fast track. President Obama's plan would streamline the permitting process for the 114 mile section of the project which starts just North of Fresno in Madera County and runs South to Bakersfield. The White House says it will shave six months off the construction time.
Read more about this topic: California High-Speed Rail
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“It would be naive to think that peace and justice can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of history will automatically resolve the problems.... However, with faith and perseverance,... complex problems in the past have been resolved in our search for justice and peace. They can be resolved in the future, provided, of course, that we can think of five new ways to measure the height of a tall building by using a barometer.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“[Men say:] “Don’t you know that we are your natural protectors?” But what is a woman afraid of on a lonely road after dark? The bears and wolves are all gone; there is nothing to be afraid of now but our natural protectors.”
—Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)