California Full Speed Ahead On Bullet Train From Nowhere To Nowhere

Hopefully, the legislature is smarter than the governor or the California Rail Authority.

The authority overseeing efforts to build a high-speed rail system in California approved its revised business plan on Thursday, sending the ambitious project to an uncertain fate in the Legislature.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority voted 6-0, with two members absent, to approve its latest plan. Two hours of public comment preceded the vote, most of it favorable toward the bullet train.

"We're 30 years behind the rest of the world. It's time for us to move ahead in our country," rail board member Bob Balgenorth said.

Union members touted the project as a way to create much-needed jobs in a state that has battled double-digit unemployment for years. Critics targeted the project's $68.4 billion cost. That amount is $23 billion more than the amount sold to voters when they authorized the project in 2008.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/12/4409918/rail-authority-passes-plan-for.html#storylink=cpy