Derailing vision for train

Re “State puts brakes on bullet train plan,” April 29

In seeking to kill high-speed rail service, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reveals the vision of a toad and the ethics of a toady. For 50 years, California has been proving that building ever more freeways and few alternatives is a sure formula for ever more traffic jams. But the governor wants to keep right on making the same old mistake over and over.

Of course he brings good news to the auto industry, which put him into office in the first place by financing a rollback of the auto tax. Were it still in effect, it would have been yielding the billions for roads that Schwarzenegger would now steal from the future -- which is high-speed and commuter rail.

CHUCK NEWTON

Del Mar

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We have just returned from Taiwan, where you can travel from one end of the country to the other in less than two hours on the recently completed rapid rail. The trains are clean, comfortable, quiet, convenient, safe and fast. Clearly the Taiwanese have spent their money wisely. How can a country such as Taiwan make significant investments in advanced infrastructure such as bullet trains and subways while we seem to concentrate our resources on widening freeways?

Rail transit does not pay for itself directly any more than freeways do. Rapid rail can be a part of a transportation system that supports a modern economy. Freeways are, of course, an integral part of our transit system, but they have their limitations and are not the future of transit. Canceling plans for a rapid rail system in California is shortsighted and counterproductive.

JEFFREY WILLIAMS

Hollywood