California Gov. Jerry Brown pushed hard for a $100 billion rail project in his State of the State address yesterday, and the New York Times story about his speech offers some interesting context.

Mr. Brown championed the rail project at a time when it has seemed increasingly endangered. The cost has doubled to $98.5 billion. The notion of starting the work in a sparsely populated section of the state has been ridiculed. And support for rail projects in Congress has all but died.

…

“Critics of the high-speed rail project abound, as they often do when something of this magnitude is proposed,” he said in his speech, adding: “The Panama Canal was for years thought to be impractical, and Benjamin Disraeli himself said of the Suez Canal, ‘Totally impossible to be carried out.’ The critics were wrong then, and they’re wrong now.”

Both the cheery optimism and local opposition sound familiar to those following Honolulu’s rail project. But what about the notion that Congress no longer backs rail?

Republicans’ support might have dried up, and they do now hold the House. But many Democrats are still totally gung-ho for high-speed rail. The real question: Will funding for the project survive all the partisan fighting in Washington?

For that matter, will Honolulu’s federal funding come through?

Read the rest of the story: Brown Asks California to Cheer Rail Project

(Photo: Jim Wilson/The New York Times)