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Californians Offer Opinions on High Speed Rail

Supporters of Prop 1A are looking for support in San Diego. A panel assembled for a town hall meeting at UCSD yesterday. The high-speed rail ballot measure would borrow nearly $10 billion to build the

Californians Offer Opinions on High Speed Rail

Supporters of Prop 1A are looking for support in San Diego. A panel assembled for a town hall meeting at UCSD yesterday. The high-speed rail ballot measure would borrow nearly $10 billion to build the first phase of a high speed rail project.

San Diego economist Kelly Cunningham says the project could create 45, 000 new jobs in the county and alleviate congestion.

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Cunningham: The rail line goes directly from downtown San Diego, through Riverside, to the Ontario airport where they do have the capability for long haul flights. And so right there it alleviates part of our airport needs.

But, Prop 1A opponent Morris Brown says the rail may not come to San Diego for decades.

Brown is leading a campaign against Prop 1A called Derail.  He says the line will only come to San Diego if the first phase is successful.

Brown: You're gonna have to wait for a phase two on this project, the furthest south it's going to go is Anaheim and then they say that to get it to San Diego you're gonna have to depend on profits from the core segment.

According to the proposition, state bond money can only be used on the project after federal and private funds are raised first.