Don't terminate high-speed rail

California expects to add as many as many as 20 million new residents in the next couple of decades. Our state's infrastructure is already strained nearly to breaking, and it will collapse under the weight of all those new people if we don't take steps right now to fix it.

That's why the bipartisan package of infrastructure bonds crafted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democrats in the state Legislature is so promising and so important. But there's one thing missing from the package: money to continue the process of building a high-speed rail system for the state.

The Legislature added $13 million to the governor's budget for that purpose, but the signs out of Sacramento suggest the governor will veto that appropriation. That could mean the death of the high-speed rail proposal, and that would be tragic. We'd lose a generation of good-paying jobs, and a chance to help clean up the Valley's foul air. A high-speed rail line would also connect the Valley to the rest of the state in both physical and psychological ways, something we desperately need.

The governor is closely focused on building highways and expanding airports, but making them adequate to meet the growing transportation demands would cost three time as much as the high-speed rail line. Those with the governor's ear are telling him the trains would be too expensive, but the greater cost to California would be not building the system.

We need highway improvements, especially on Highway 99 that serves the Valley. But highways and airports are the vision of the 1950s, not the 21st century. E-mail the governor and let him know that -- and right away.