☆ Opinion: State Senate passes another flawed High-Speed Rail bill
Image by California High-Speed Rail Authority
Marc Joffe of Contra Costa Taxpayers Association analyzes SB 545 (authored by SJ’s Dave Cortese), which will commission a study on “economic opportunities along the corridor” of California HSR. Um, shouldn’t the DOT instead be figuring out funding sources for the $128b boondoggle? An Opp Now exclusive.
On Tuesday [6/3], the State Senate passed a new high-speed rail bill authored by Dave Cortese (D-15). SB 545 instructs the state’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation to “commission a study on economic opportunities along the corridor of the California high-speed rail project.” To motivate the bill, which is expected to cost taxpayers $759,000, Cortese claimed “there will be massive development potential along the 350-mile corridor.”
References to a development corridor create the impression that land adjacent to the tracks will become more attractive once high-speed rail service starts. But the only opportunities will be near the stations themselves.
High-speed rail track itself does not add value to adjacent land. Indeed, the noise and wind generated by high-speed trains as they pass will likely make nearby land less valuable and less attractive to develop.
Whatever development and value capture opportunities high-speed rail can provide are only in the vicinity of the twelve stations at which the trains are supposed to stop; and, even at these locations, the added value ranges from nonexistent to less-than-hoped.
The areas around the San Francisco and Millbrae stations are already built out. The remaining stations could benefit from additional foot traffic, but that will depend on how many riders high-speed rail attracts; and, as I have previously reported, Authority ridership estimates have been inflated.
In fact, inflated ridership estimates are one of the justifications the federal Department of Transportation is using for rescinding grant funding to California high-speed rail. The loss of this funding will further jeopardize the prospects for this project, which was already $7 billion short of the funds needed merely to connect Merced and Bakersfield.
The announcement from DOT should at least answer one of the objectives of Cortese’s study: “Identify opportunities to secure federal funds, including federal loans.” We now know that the answer is none.
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