Fiona Ma represents California’s Twelfth Assembly District, which includes parts of San Francisco, Daly City, San Mateo, Colma and Broadmoor. She has been a vocal advocate for developing a high speed rail line connecting California’s major cities. An initiative to fund part of the construction costs of a high speed rail line from Sacramento down to San Diego will be on the November 2008 ballot.
What’s the single most compelling reason to support high speed rail?
For me personally, it’s traffic congestion. When I drive from San Francisco to Sacramento, I can’t guarantee how long the trip is going to take because of traffic.
I also fly all the time, and experience a lot of wasted time at the airport. So many people like me are fed up with being in their cars and waiting in airport lines. Plus, California is the world’s twelfth largest source of carbon dioxide. With the need to reduce global warming, whatever we can do locally to pollute less as we travel will help.
Do you expect opposition to the November ballot initiative that would invest close to $10 billion in the construction of high speed rail in California?
Southwest Airlines killed a high speed rail proposal in Texas. They haven’t come out in opposition yet to California’s high speed rail proposal, and we hope that they aren’t going to come out and oppose. The oil industry and the car industry could potentially come out and oppose—their industries profit from our reliance on automobiles.
However, I’m focused on the benefits of high speed rail. Travelers want efficiency and they want comfort. Seniors often have a hard time traveling by car or airplane.
A lot of students are asking for high speed rail. For families, who have to deal with young children in airport lines, trains could be a more convenient way to travel as well. Trains are also typically cheaper than planes.
What’s the most important thing CALPIRG members can do to bring high speed rail to California?
They can lobby their state legislators to support the high speed rail ballot initiative in November 2008. The sooner we build high speed rail, the cheaper it will be, and the sooner we’ll be able to ride it. And of course in November, we need supporters to vote for the bond measure to fund high speed rail.
High speed rail would connect Sacramento, the Bay Area and the Central Valley with Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego. The train would attract up to 70 million passengers annually who would otherwise drive, reducing traffic congestion and pollution.
