Sacramento, San Diego left out of rail system

The $98 billion that would be spent to build the first phase of California’s high-speed rail system would not be enough to cover two key cities — Sacramento and San Diego.

Connections to both are included in a second phase of the planned high-speed rail system, but when that would happen is anyone’s guess. The first phase will not be completed until 2033, at the earliest.

That left some officials in San Diego seething on Tuesday, when the rail system’s business plan was released.

Jerome Stocks, chairman of the San Diego Association of Governments, called the exclusion of San Diego “ludicrous.”