Schwarzenegger Hopes California's Future High-Speed Railroads Will Rely on the Chinese, Again

By Rebecca Boyle Posted 09.13.2010 at 3:45 pm 11 Comments

Meeting the Conductor via Twitter/@Schwarzenegger

Chinese workers built this country’s railroad system 150 years ago, laying track for less than $30 a month in a grand effort to connect the coasts for the first time. Future railroad systems might also be built by the Chinese — or Chinese-owned firms, at least. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is hoping to spur Chinese interest in helping his beleaguered state build a new high-speed rail network. China has plenty of experience with high-speed trains.

On a trade mission to Asia this week, Schwarzenegger said he hopes China will invest in his state both in terms of financing and in bidding to work on the project. California is about $19 billion in the red, so “creative financing” is a must, the governor acknowledged.

Under the federal stimulus plan, California is getting $2.25 billion to start work on a a high-speed rail system that will carry 90 million passengers a year, especially between Los Angeles and San Francisco. California aims to finish it by 2030.

On Monday, Japan offered to loan funds to support the project, Bloomberg reported. Officials with the state-owned Japan Bank for International Cooperation didn't say how much they would offer, but sizable loans will be needed — the project could cost $40 billion.

The stimulus awarded $8.5 billion to 13 regional high-speed rail projects, and most will require imported technology — though the U.S. leads the world in rail freight, the nation is far behind the rest of the world in high-speed passenger trains.

While flirting with China might not please American manufacturers, it’s a good idea to at least get some Chinese perspective. China’s high-speed rail network covers 4,300 miles — the distance from Anchorage to New York by car. And the country plans to stretch this network across Europe by 2020.

Chinese companies also have international experience — they’re building high-speed rail projects in several countries, including Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, according to Marketplace.

Schwarzenegger is also scheduled to view high-speed trains in Japan and South Korea.

[AFP]

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11 Comments

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android_14094

09/14/10 at 10:43 am

What's wrong with Americans building these railroads? You "care" about the American middle class and you go to China for your railroads?

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imabeast

09/14/10 at 11:05 am

@android...
I could not agree more. Its bad enough that we out-source our products, our jobs get taken by illegal aliens, and now were inviting china over to build a railroad that could potentially employ thousands of Americans?

"In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before.".. Paul Dirac

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Igot1forya

09/14/10 at 12:52 pm

I saw that picture and immediately thought of the Robot-Cab driver in Total Recall lol

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warren49

09/14/10 at 1:00 pm

Build American....sounds good. One problem. We don't have a clue about how to do any of it. Thanks to our need to do nothing but concentrate on short term rewards, like quick profits, we have quit building anything. We are now reaping the long term rewards of such short sightedness. We can't even summon the will to fix crumbling roads and bridges. That sort of thing is falling apart around us and we actually argue that we can't afford to fix it. It is becoming embarrassing.

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25th Scientist

09/14/10 at 2:13 pm

warren 49 You hit it right on the head and that's a damn shame. If a civilization is more focused on sport/play, devalues education/educators and let's its infrastructure go to hell in a handbasket then what do we have left?

Our best minds go to Wall St rather than science, engineering, medicine, etc.

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tcolguin

09/14/10 at 3:10 pm

For the record I'm in Silicon Valley (California). Yeah it is the "American way". I watch people stuck in freeway parking lots, which they have to be doing everyday. I might be zooming along on the other side of the freeway while they are doing 5 mph.

Car pool lanes mostly empty.
(I made it a point to be close to my work or be on a motorcycle or my job is a "reverse commute", anything so I wasn't stuck in the same way). You might ask why I didn't add public transportation. Well live 5 miles from work. Means either 4 buses, or 3 buses and walk 1/2 mile. Either way total time to get to work about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Time in my car, less then 10 minutes. Where are those Disneyland monorails! Been to Ukraine 14 years ago, buses run every 5 minutes during peak times.

They all complain about it, and then do it everyday. Public transportation funding is voted down, and such.

So the bottom line is if you can't get the people to even care about getting themselves out such a terrible situation, how can you expect the funding and support for people to go into careers that will fix it?

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NOM

09/14/10 at 6:21 pm

Hm... the phrase "A Chinaman's chance" sums it all up.

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Gajumaru

09/14/10 at 10:15 pm

I can't agree more with the three individuals before me. People complain that China is taking our jobs and the like but where are OUR high speed railways? This country has barely any inceptive to get anything done anymore. And even when it is done; it is extremely over budgeted, taking forever to complete, or a far cry to what the project was supposed to be. Anyone live in Boston? Does the big dig ring a bell?

Any meaningful project has to jump through political hoops for YEARS before they get realized.

Even when we build these trains, who will ride them? Barely. Having a car(suv) per-person is the American way.

Don't make me start on the union workforce for these projects.

I love America and I just hate to see it falling behind the rest of the world.

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Gajumaru

09/14/10 at 10:27 pm

I had to add to my comment for another example; I have been hearing talk for years in having a train start in New Bedford and going up to Boston. But of course it is just as likely to fail as any project nowadays.

Oh and another thing I meant "incentive" in my other post(I hate typos)

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Knowledge_is_Power

09/15/10 at 8:37 pm

To those who blame illegal immigrants for stealing jobs, they fill horrific jobs that pay poorly and no Americans want them

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android_14094

09/16/10 at 9:48 am

Knowledge_is_power,

So... If I advertise for a software engineer, starting pay $12,000/year, is that now a "horrific job" that no American wants?

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