While Chevron is banking on the internal combustion engine, the voters of California will be asked to bankroll one of its alternatives this November. And so the Chronicle has dutifully printed a breakdown of Proposition 1A, which will finance part of the construction of a high-speed rail train linking San Francisco and Los Angeles. If the line goes in, residents will be able to travel from here to L.A. in two-and-a-half hours, for about $55 a head. In addition, the state has plans to extend the rail line south to San Diego and northeast to Sacramento. But it won’t come cheap: the first phase of the construction is estimated to cost a whopping $32 billion, making it perhaps the largest public construction project in California history. That’s why the state Chamber of Commerce opposes the project, arguing that California has no business issuing another $9.95 billion in bonds when the budget crisis is so dire. Still: S.F. to L.A. in under three hours? That’s pretty cool.
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