THAT'S DEBATABLE:Railways in land of freeways

It appears that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed 2007 budget has put the brakes on plans for high-speed train service between Los Angeles and Anaheim, but Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle is still holding out hope that funding for the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center between Angel Stadium and the Honda Center will be restored. The governor has also requested an indefinite postponement of a $9.95-billion rail bond that was planned for next year. Do you support the proposed cuts? And what are your thoughts about eventually bringing high-speed rail to Orange County?

I do not support adding another $10 billion of debt to the state credit card to create a state-run rail system.

There are private firms willing to invest several billion dollars to build and operate toll roads in California. The absence of such companies lining up to offer their capital to build high-speed rail tells me the market knows something many of my legislative colleagues evidently do not: Namely, that passenger rail does not make much economic sense here in California. If such a rail system is built, there will be so many stops mandated by local politicians that it will hardly qualify as "high speed."

Locally, you can see what diverting large sums of money into rail has done in Los Angeles County — just travel north on I-5 until you get to the Orange County-L.A. County line. When you slow to a crawl, note that the freeway in L.A. is the same width that it was when it was first built 50 years ago. This is so because Los Angeles has spent its limited tax dollars on light rail and mass transit.

Chuck DeVore

Assemblyman (R- Newport Beach)

I am intrigued by the idea of bringing a high-speed rail to the state to provide service to Orange County, but I am unsure if California is ready to embark on such a monumental project.

California's road network has been static for nearly a quarter of a century, and the status quo just will not cut it anymore. We have not built new roads and highways to keep up with our massive population growth. The 405 Freeway is more of a parking lot than a multi-lane freeway, and we all know that not only does congestion negatively affect our environment, but it also cuts deeply into our economic productivity.

Providing the much-needed traffic congestion relief will require a multi-pronged approach. First and foremost, we must open up more lanes, build more onramps and offramps and get the cars moving.