The city of Sacramento responded to the recently released California High Speed Rail Authority business plan with a letter of support – and a couple of suggestions for the authority to consider as the project develops. City Councilman Steve Cohn said Tuesday that the city is in support of the project overall, but Cohn and the council want to emphasize two points: recognition that the high-speed rail project must be phased in, and funding should also upgrade existing connecting infrastructure. “It can’t all be built at once,” Cohn said at the Law and Legislation Committee meeting at City Hall Tuesday. “The revised business plan does a more realistic job of explaining this phasing process

Thursday morning, the Federal Department of Transportation is expected to announce it’s decision on how roughly $8 billion of federal stimulus funding will be allocated. California hopefully awaits a response to it's application for $4.7 billion of the stimulus funds in order to proceed with a high-speed rail project that has long awaited realization. California High-Speed Rail Authority Board Chairman Curt Pringle believes California is a strong contender. “We can double the value of the federal government’s dollars by matching them with state bond funds approved by California voters last year.” He said. By this, he referred to the narrow passage in November 2008 of Proposition 1A, al