Arthur's Blog: In an Historic Event for the Future of Travel, California Passes High-Speed Rail Appropriations Legislation

Last week, the California legislature passed, in effect -- by a margin of one vote -- a major appropriations bill devoting over five billion dollars to the construction of a single, 130-mile segment of what is eventually proposed to be a high-speed rail line between San Diego/Los Angeles and San Francisco. The initial tracks will be constructed at a rough mid-point of the proposed rail line, in California's Central Valley.
The bill will be signed this week by California's Governor Jerry Brown, who has been a strong proponent of high-speed rail. He overcame fierce opposition based on all the standard arguments that are so well-known to readers of this blog: "a boondoggle," "unnecessary," "a waste," "it will never be completed," "no one will ride on it," etc.
It would seem obvious that once this initial segment is completed, there will be heavy pressure to complete the other portions of this breathtaking transportation development. It would seem difficult to simply permit that segment to be unused. And thus, the dream and the vision of many for the eventual construction of high-seed rail lines throughout the country seem to have been given a strong start. In my view, we are finally acting like an intelligent nation, turning back the strong opposition from oil interests, and from the Luddites who would condemn us to suffer stifling congestion on both our highways and air routes.
So I, for one, rejoice at California's initiative, and hope that our readers will share those sentiments. We are late in following Europe's lead in creating this new method of transportation so vital to our continuing economic development. How wonderful if we could also enjoy high-speed rail between many other heavily-traveled routes between major population areas, in a country that will number over 400 million persons in the very near future. 
Either we take those steps, or we condemn ourselves to backward, moribund, second-rate status.