California allocates $250 million for high-speed rail

Yesterday, the California General Assembly reached a budget deal with Gov. Jerry Brown that includes a $250 million appropriation for high-speed rail in fiscal-year 2015, which begins July 1.

Funding for the line, which will run from Los Angeles to San Francisco, will be drawn from the state's greenhouse cap-and-trade program. In future years, the high-speed rail program will reportedly receive 25 percent of the revenue from that program, according to the Midwest High Speed Rail Association (MHSRA), which issued a press release yesterday lauding the appropriation.

"California high-speed rail is the vanguard. They're creating the model for how we can construct fast and convenient high-speed rail to connect local economies and communities all across the country — especially here in the Midwest," said MHSRA Executive Director Richard Harnish.