Senator seeks to revamp rail authority leadership

It's about time.

Go For It!

We cannot afford this. Kill it now and help restores this state's bond rating and fiscal responsibility.

The news a few days ago was that the State of Florida chose to not go forward with HSR there.

The follow on part of the report was that our California US Senators Boxer and Feinstein pitched for the funds that had been allocated for Florida be re-directed to HSR in this State.

What a sham.

Give Florida credit for deciding that HSR was not a good approach for its state. I have spent enogh time in Florida over the years to believe that it actually could benefit from HSR, given the density of population and the proximity of its metro areas to each other--they lend themselves to surface transportation, not air. I digress here a bit about Florida and HSR.

Just because Florida decided to not pursue Federal funding for HSR does not mean that those funds should be diverted to the ill conceived and mis-represented HSR project in California.

The current day "Robber Barons" driving this train right now should be replaced. With nobody. The entire project should be cancelled.

I'm not sure I'd replace the current board. Because they are bumbling fools they may be the best tools to assure this fiacso in the making never happens. If the board gets replaced by competant civil engineers and economists the system may get built.

The current board is the HSR's own worst enemy. They haven't made a reliable report, estimation or prediction yet. The public is becoming aware.

Where is Governor Brown in all of this?

HSR was positioned by two savvy pols, Quentin Kopp and Rod Diridon. They fooled a lot of people. But upon further review, they delivered a dinosaur capable of laying a deficit egg big enough to bury California.

Legislators are finally waking up to the fact that we have been sold a bill of goods.

Florida, Ohio and Michigan all recently dropped HSR plans for the same reason, HSR is a loser. Once fed money runs out, our state will have tracks to nowhere, trains and technology from foreign vendors, and an ongoing labor bill that eats us alive.

The High Speed Rail Authority is the head of this monster. Cut it off.

Central Valley Republicans are thinking about more productive ways to use that money than this boondoggle--
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Valley Republicans Seek Options for High Speed Rail Money:
Web Link

Washington DC – Today, Representatives Devin Nunes (CA-21), Kevin McCarthy (CA-22), and Jeff Denham (CA-19) introduced legislation that would empower California state leaders to make sweeping investments to State Route 99. (more information on the Nunes blog)

The legislation, titled the San Joaquin Valley Transportation Enhancement Act, would allow the State of California to redirect federal high speed rail funding to finance long overdue and urgently needed roadway improvement.
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This legislation deserves a look. If solid .. then it deserves our support!

And now, a word from the irascible, cantankerous curmudgeon:

While there is a lot of enthusiasm and support for this effort by Senator Lowenthal -- SB517 -- I regret to say that I don't share it. His intention is to replace the existing Board of the CHSRA, and re-locate that Board within the Department of Business, Transportation and Housing.

Here's why I object to it.

1. I don't want this project managed by anyone else. I don't want this project to exist.

2. I do not believe that this project can be "done right," as Lowenthal and many others of us believe. Therefore, it doesn't matter who manages it.

3. There are mistaken assumptions in the idea that a new, professional management team will do what we HSR critics want, and not do what we don't want. That is naive on our part. It's not the way the world works.

4. What we have now is a chaotic, fumbling, pretentious group of amateur public relations misfits who can only mis-manage this HSR project. They stick their foot in it, daily. That, in fact, is to our advantage in seeking to terminate this project entirely.

5. A management team acceptable to us could very well create a rail route and alignment that we don't want. Then their credibility will remove our basis for further complaining.

6. It is foolish for us to believe that a more professional group of managers will take us more seriously. There is no basis for them to do that. We are the amateurs; they are the professionals. Their job will be to create the most cost/effective HSR project on budget and on time. Our local needs could well be an interference with these goals of the new management group. Only now, we have no one to turn to for support of our continued dissatisfactions.

7. If we seek to terminate this project, as I do, then leaving this presently existing team of incompetents in place serves our purposes. They manage to shoot themselves in the foot in a new way every week. Our intentions benefit from their disastrous performance.

8. The sponsor of this legislation, Alan Lowenthal, wants this high-speed rail project in California, as does Joe Simitian. Some of us don't agree with that. We don't want the project at all; anywhere. That's the whole point of the blog: Web Link

Therefore it is not in our interest to upgrade the management team in order to mitigate the mistakes, lies, and bad judgements of the current rail authority.

9. We want the project terminated, not the management team upgraded. I believe the opportunity for termination is now greater than ever in Washington. Persistent local fumbling will only support our case.

10. Lowenthal doesn't see this project as a boondoggle. I do, as do many others. Boondoggles remain so regardless of how they are managed.

If I can't afford to buy a regular plane ticket, am I likely to sign up to buy a ticket for a ride out in Space? Of course not.

So why is this state--that can't afford to subsidize a proven public service such as Caltrain--prepared to sink billions in HSR, which is unproven and whose need isn't clear.

Im glad to know that none of the above posters will be complaining if gas hits 5 dollars a gallon.

Jardins, I really don't understand what you mean by the "need isn't clear". How do you propose we expand our airports when the state population hits 50 million? Are you one of those people who buried their heads in the 70s, and left my generation with the infrastructure for a state half our size?