High-speed rail: Metrolink commuter rail system.

The California High-Speed Rail Act creates the High-Speed Rail Authority to develop and implement a high-speed rail system in the state. The Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century, approved by the voters as Proposition 1A at the November 4, 2008, general election, provides for the issuance of $9,000,000,000 in general obligation bonds for high-speed rail purposes and $950,000,000 for other related rail purposes. This bill would appropriate $4,000,000,000 of those bond revenues to the Southern California Regional Rail Authority to fund improvements to the Metrolink commuter rail system. The bill would require those improvements to support blended operation with high-speed trainsets upon completion of specified phases of the high-speed rail system, and would require that infrastructure upgrades funded by this appropriation make the corridor or usable segment thereof suitable and ready for high-speed train operation.