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June 4th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
A new poll shows almost three fifths would oppose the bullet train and halt
public borrowing if given another chance to vote.
Almost seven in 10 said that, if the train ever does run between Los Angeles
and San Francisco, they would “never or hardly ever” use it.
Not a single person said they would use it more than once a week, and only 33
per cent said they would prefer the bullet train over a one hour plane
journey or seven hour drive. The cost of a ticket, estimated at $123 each
way, also put many off. Jerry Brown, California’s Democrat governor, has
championed the project as a way to create jobs and is backed by unions. The
74-year-old governor has been personally committed to a high speed rail link
since the 1970s.
But he is trying to convince voters to spend billions on a train while at the
same time proposing tax increases and austere public spending cuts,
including a five per cent pay cut for state workers, to deal with a budget
deficit that has ballooned to $16 billion.
California’s politicians have until Aug 31 to give a final green light to an
initial $6 billion, 130-mile section of track in the Central Valley, and
they are expected to approve it. Only a simple majority vote is needed in
the Democrat controlled legislature.
Jim Nielsen, the Republican vice chairman of the state’s Assembly Budget
Committee, who opposes the project, called it “an idea that gets worse
the more information we get about it.” In April the state’s own
Legislative Analyst’s Office called the funding plan vague and speculative.
Supporters say the California economy, the world’s ninth largest, will recover
in the long run and the remaining money will be found from private
investors, the federal government and fees from the state’s cap-and-trade
programme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
They say the rail line will prove crucial to the state’s economic future,
linking north and south as airports and freeways reach capacity. But critics
suggest the money will dry up and the state will instead be left with an “orphan
track” linked to neither major city.
Dan Schnur, Director of the Unruh Institute of Politics, who carried out the
recent poll, said: “The growing budget deficit is making Californians
hesitant about spending so much money on a project like this one when
they’re seeing cuts to public education and law enforcement.”
There was also disillusion with the handling of the project so far. It was
initially projected to cost $45 billion and deliver passengers between the
two major cities in a few hours by 2020.
Last autumn the state-run California High-Speed Rail Authority, which is
overseeing it, disclosed the cost had more than doubled to $98.5 billion
with a finish date of 2033.
After an outcry $30 billion was shaved off that estimate, but only by reducing
the speed of the trains and using sections of existing slow track.
The authority is also facing legal challenges from those whose land the track
will have to cross.
Last week agricultural groups filed a major environmental lawsuit asking for a
preliminary injunction to block construction.
Unless building begins shortly there is also a risk of losing federal funds.
The federal government has set a deadline of September 2017 for finishing
the first section of track.
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