video - the transit coalition · the poll also asked about a quixotic proposal by high-tech...
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USC DORNSIFE / TIMES POLL
California voters are showing signs of buyer's remorse over the $68-billion bullet train project,poll finds.
Th e m a ssiv e pr oject to lin k Los A n g eles a n d Sa n Fr a n cisco by tr a in s tr a v elin g u p to 2 2 0 m ph h a s fa llen a
y ea r beh in d sch edu le.
By Ralph Vartabedian
Septem ber 28, 2013 , 5:00 a.m.
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52% want bullet train stopped, poll finds
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A majority of voters want the California bullet train project stopped and consider it a waste of
money, even as state political leaders have struggled to bolster public support and make key
compromises to satisfy critics, a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll found.
Statewide, 52% of the respondents said the $68-billion project to link Los Angeles and San Francisco
by trains traveling up to 220 mph should be halted. Just 43% said it should go forward.
The poll also shows that cracks in voter support are extending to some traditional allies, such as Los
Angeles-area Democrats, who have embraced the concept of high-speed rail as a solution to the
state's transportation problems. The survey results suggest that the current plan and its
implementation are of specific concern to those voters, according to officials with the Republican
and Democratic firms that jointly conducted the poll.
"I don't think they are against the concept, but they are against the way it is being executed," said
Drew Lieberman of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, a Democratic polling firm in Washington.
The massive project has fallen a year behind schedule and is facing lawsuits that threaten to stall the
momentum of the project and a groundbreaking now likely to come early next year.
The new findings mirror a USC Dornsife/L.A. Times poll taken last year, just before the state
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Legislature approved funding to start construction, under
political pressure from the Obama administration and the
state's Congressional leaders. At that time, state rail officials
argued that public backing would increase as improvements
to the rail plan became clear.
But a wave of new support hasn't materialized. Instead, signs
of buyer's remorse among voters for approving a 2008 ballot
measure to fund the current project have increased. The poll
found 70% of respondents want the project to be placed back
on the ballot — up from the 55% measured in last year's USC
Dornsife/L.A. Times poll.
As public opposition solidifies and the start of construction
nears, the question of whether the state should go forward
with one of the biggest and most technically difficult
infrastructure projects in California history is taking on
greater urgency.
"It should have public support to go forward," said former
state Sen. Quentin Kopp, a former champion of the rail
project who has become one of its most influential critics.
"The lack of support reflects a general disbelief of the
authority leadership, which has become a public relations
game."
Kopp, who served for years on the California High-Speed
Rail Authority board, said the agency will almost certainly
need another bond measure to complete construction,
making public opinion potentially crucial to the project's
survival.
The results include some good news for the project. A 61%
majority said the bullet train would help reduce traffic on
highways and at airports, and 65% said it would create jobs.
And by one measure, public opposition appeared more
pointed last year. At that time, 59% of poll respondents said
they would vote against high-speed rail if it were on the
ballot, though they were not asked whether the project
should be stopped.
Rail agency officials declined to be interviewed.
Spokeswoman Lisa Marie Alley said in a statement: "We will
continue to uphold the will of the voters, Legislature and
federal administration to help modernize California's
transportation system and create tens of thousands of new
jobs."
Fifty-one percent of respondents called the project a waste of
money, and 63% said they would never or seldom use it.
Given the choice, 58% of voters would rather fly or drive
from Southern California to the Bay Area, and 39% would
take a bullet train.
Voter concerns about the project have been heightened by
the tough economic times that continue across the state, the
poll shows.
"Over the last five years, voters have had to tighten their
belts, and they feel the government should be doing the same
thing," said David Kanevsky of American Viewpoint, the
Republican firm that helped conduct the poll for the USC
Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and The
Times.
Poll respondent Lara Erman, a Burbank resident, cited those
concerns as the basis of her opposition to the project. "Our
state and our country are in a lot of trouble right now with
the condition of the economy and the job market," she said.
"It would be better served as a private enterprise project."
Bryan Koenig, an aircraft mechanic in Ridgecrest, said he
objects to the project mainly because he won't use it and "the
cost is exorbitant."
The bullet train network is supposed to begin carrying
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Construction was supposed to have begun late last year, but
it now appears it will not begin until 2014, assuming a court
ruling does not sidetrack it. A Sacramento County Superior
Court judge ruled this summer that the state violated the
legal protections imposed by the 2008 voter-approved bond
measure that will provide $9 billion in funding. A second
ruling, due this fall, would determine how to remedy the
violation.
The sampling of 1,500 registered voters conducted in mid-
September found significant differences in voter opinion
about the project across the state. In Southern California,
56% of respondents said they want the project stopped. Even
in the Bay Area, where support has historically been strong
with the backing of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, only 51% endorsed
the project. The margin of error in the poll was 2.9
percentage points.
Nowhere is the project more controversial than in the
Central Valley, where farmers, businessmen and
homeowners have formed coalitions to overhaul or derail it.
Even though Gov. Jerry Brown touts the benefits to the Central Valley, 59% of voters there want to
call it off, according to the poll. Opposition is even stronger in the Northern California counties,
where 61% say it should be killed.
"The best thing for Brown is to have one of the lawsuits stop the project until he leaves office," said
Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC.
The poll also asked about a quixotic proposal by high-tech businessman Elon Musk, chief of Space
Exploration Technologies and Tesla Motors, for a tube-type transport system, called the Hyperloop,
that would move people between L.A. and the Bay Area in 30 minutes at a cost of $20 per trip. Sixty-
five percent of the respondents said the proposal was not realistic. Nonetheless, they liked the idea,
and 55% said they would take the Hyperloop, compared with only 13% who would opt for the high-
speed rail.
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