For all the questions about its management and cost, this much is clear about high-speed rail: Californians who authorized the project three years ago want a do-over, according to a new Field Poll, and by a wide margin they want to vote "no."

Opposition to the multibillion-dollar project crosses party lines and includes more than a third of voters who previously favored the state's plan to build a high-speed rail system.

It comes after the California High-Speed Rail Authority last month revised the estimated cost of construction to almost $100 billion over 20 years, more than twice what was previously thought.

"These were supporters of high-speed rail to begin with," poll director Mark DiCamillo said. "More than a third are now on the 'no' side."

The poll could hardly come at a worse time for the rail authority, which is seeking approval of the Legislature to start construction in the Central Valley next year.

Nearly two-thirds of voters, or 64 percent, want the Legislature to call for a re-vote, according to the poll. If such an election were held, 59 percent of voters say they would reject the $9.9 billion bond package Californians approved three years ago, the poll found.

Pluralities of Democrats, Republicans and independents all oppose the project, according to the poll.

"I think we need it, but the price of it is too much," said Jay Ward, a 55-year-old from Fresno who originally supported the measure but opposes it now.

The electorate's worsening view of high-speed rail is at least in part in response to rising cost estimates and the project timeline's extension to 2033. But it likely also reflects a more general resistance to spending in the weak economy.

"The whole economic climate has changed, the state budget situation has changed," DiCamillo said. "I think we're just in a totally different environment, and a $9 billion project I think would have less chance of passage now than … three years ago."

The poll is Field's first measurement of public opinion about the project since 2008, when 52.7 percent of voters approved Proposition 1A, contemplating a network of high-speed trains connecting the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas by 2020.

After limping along for much of the year under increasing political opposition, the project appeared to be buoyed in recent months by the support of Gov. Jerry Brown and by the release of a new business plan.

Before the poll numbers became public, Tom Umberg, chairman of the rail authority board, told lawmakers that the bond measure "gives us the direction, some would say the mandate, to build a system that connects Northern California with Southern California."

But Sen. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, said the estimated cost has risen so dramatically since 2008 that many voters feel "they've really been had. … I think the people of California are finding out that they want a re-bid and a re-vote."

Of voters who supported the bond measure in 2008, 37 percent would vote against it today, according to the poll. People who originally voted against the measure remain nearly unanimous in their opposition, at 96 percent, while those who didn't vote three years ago or can't recall how they voted oppose it by a 2-1 margin, 57 percent to 28 percent.

"Really, our state is behind the times in terms of mass transportation," said Barbara Burroughs, a Citrus Heights Republican who voted for the project but now opposes it. "It's just way too expensive now."

The poll follows a critical report about the project by the Legislative Analyst's Office. The nonpartisan office said last week that the rail authority's plan does not comply with a provision of Proposition 1A because it does not identify funding for a usable section of track. The first section the authority plans to build, from Bakersfield to near Chowchilla, could not support high-speed travel until it is extended in a future phase of construction.

The report said future funding sources are "highly speculative," and it found the economic impact analysis included in the rail authority's new business plan "may be incomplete and imbalanced, and therefore portrays the project more favorably than may be warranted."

According to the Field Poll, even among voters who still support the project there is an appetite for a re-vote.

Gerald Palmer, a 76-year-old retired lawyer from Tehachapi, said he believes the project would benefit the state, but that the heightened controversy warrants another election.

"It's a democratic process," he said.

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Call David Siders, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 321-1215. Follow him on Twitter @davidsiders.

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