High-Cost Rail - Part 135 Deal with the Devil

The Chron has lured high-cost rail foes in with a provocative headline "Brown’s cap-and-trade deal could eventually kill high-speed rail" but how real is it?

A last-minute deal that Gov. Jerry Brown made with Republican lawmakers to win support for a 10-year extension of his signature climate program could cost the governor another top priority: high-speed rail.

In extending California’s cap-and-trade system of controlling greenhouse-gas emissions through 2030, lawmakers approved a Republican plan this week to put a constitutional amendment before voters that seeks to give the minority party more say over how the program’s money is spent. One-fourth of that money — more than $1 billion so far and $500 million projected a year in the future — goes toward high-speed rail, a project that Republicans widely oppose.  First, the proposed constitutional amendment must win voter approval when it’s on the ballot in June. The amendment calls for a one-time increase in the number of votes that the Legislature needs to approve how cap-and-trade money is spent, including the funds for the rail project.

That is one "if" piled on top of two others.  The first is whether Brown will actually keep his word to put said amendment on the ballot at all.  Then it has to pass and then the supermajority vote has to go against the boondoggle.  One can only hope.  In the meantime, local towns like Belmont may be waking up to what a nightmare the passing tracks are.  I had dinner in San Carlos last night and the condos being built right on the Caltrain ROW are immense.  I hope they are being built well enough to stand a ton of train traffic just feet away.