High-Speed Train Panel’s Future in Doubt

The California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission, once on a fast track toward building an Anaheim-to-Las Vegas maglev route, is on the verge of a power failure.

Today in Anaheim, the panel will hold its last legally authorized meeting, at least for the eight California members, because Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed a bill two months ago that would have extended the commission’s authority for another year.

But members of the panel have not given up. Despite a recent decision by Bechtel Corp. to pull out of the $5-billion effort because of recession-related problems, the commission is banking on Wilson to reverse himself and sign an emergency authorization bill by March.

At today’s meeting, commissioners will discuss what to do with a $500,000 fee Bechtel already paid to get a conditional franchise on maglev, a system using magnetic force for propulsion and to lift the train off the rail bed. For the first time, they will consider ways to bring limited public financing to the table to entice companies, including Bechtel, to bid on the project again.

Such a move would mean a dramatic policy shift from current law requiring a totally privatized effort.

Commission Chairman Don R. Roth, an Orange County supervisor and the project’s biggest booster, said he remains convinced that the project is feasible and desirable, despite having many critics.

“It’s still righteous and will be built,” Roth said. “But it will be public and private partnership, which is a different ballgame.”

Bechtel had been the only company to bid on the project. Rivals dropped out after deciding that the Anaheim-Las Vegas effort was not financially feasible without some use of public funds.

Under a new bill carried by Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove) and Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), any anticipated use of public funds would require the high-speed train commission to reopen the bidding and not simply award the franchise to Bechtel.

A possible entrant is the French-built TGV, which utilizes steel-on-steel technology instead of magnetic levitation and propulsion.

The new federal transportation bill signed by President Bush on Wednesday provides $600 million for new maglev research, but Roth acknowledged that those funds are earmarked for U.S. research, not the German-based system that the California-Nevada commission chose for its Anaheim-Las Vegas route last year.

Meanwhile, an aide to Katz said this week that the governor has indicated a willingness to reconsider his veto of the bill extending the commission’s authority.