The California High Speed Rail Blog also had a discussion earlier this week about Schwarzenegger's trip to Asia. Japan is interested in loaning CA money for this as well. The Atlantic had a good article earlier this summer about China's expanding ties to sub-Saharan Africa. China built many of the railroads in post-colonial Africa in the middle part of last century. I don't want to bash China but it is too bad we have this fixation on our deficit and taxes and we're not willing to provide dedicated funding for this infrastructure. Instead, we have to beg the Chinese and others.
China Touts `Complete Package' for California High-Speed Rail
By Bloomberg News
9/15/2010
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-0...ed-trains.html
"China can offer a “complete package,” including financing, as it competes to build a high-speed railway in California costing more than $40 billion, according to the nation’s railway ministry.
“What other nations don’t have, we have,” He Huawu, the ministry’s chief engineer, said in a Sept. 14 interview in Beijing. “What they have, we have better.” He declined to elaborate further on how much financing may be available.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger this week rode on bullet trains in China, Japan and South Korea as the state seeks contractors and financing to build the planned network linking Los Angeles and San Francisco. China is competing for the high-speed line and for one in Brazil as it works to boost high-technology exports and pare its reliance on low- wage production..."