The Morning Briefing: High-speed rail

"The Morning Briefing" is SmartPlanet's daily roundup of must-reads from the web. This morning we're reading about high-speed rail.

1.) China's high-speed rail cautiously back on track. It is one year since the fatal Wenzhou train crash dented China's enthusiasm for high-speed trains. Construction and operation has resumed of high-speed railway networks, but at a slower pace and in a more cautious way.

2.) High-speed rail would do wonders for Phila. Amtrak is thinking big in small-minded times. At all levels, government is scaling back. One of our political parties has decided that investment in infrastructure is a dangerous, socialistic experiment, and the other one can't manage to persuade the country otherwise.

3.) Bay Area faces new high-speed rail costs. Now that Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation to allow the state to spend billions on high-speed rail, Bay Area residents had better brace for the real ride -- a push for $650 million in toll hikes and new San Francisco taxes.

4.) High-speed rail is the right plan at the right time. Earlier this month, the state Legislature passed Senate Bill 1029, authorizing the issuance of $2.7 billion in state bonds to begin construction of the nation's largest transportation project -- California high-speed rail -- as well as authorizing an additional $2 billion in bonds to match local and federal funds for related projects.

5.) How many jobs, really, can high-speed rail create?
- UC study: Does it raise the right questions?

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com