DerailHSR News
October 27th, 2008
The Orange Co. Register has published the testimony from Joseph Vranich.
The final few paragraphs are copied below:
Dissolve the California High Speed Rail Authority
It is time to dissolve the California High Speed Rail Authority. Give it no more funding than is required for terminating contracts, transferring data and duties to a more responsible agency, and conducting an orderly shutdown.
High-speed rail in California may be salvageable—after all this poor work—but someone else must be in charge. If the ...
October 26th, 2008
Noted in an op-ed in the Orange County Register, George Argyros, business man and former ambassador to Spain says:
High-speed rail service has a potential future in California. But this $9.95 billion bond measure, plus interest for planning purposes, is not a responsible beginning. It should begin with a comprehensive public/private finance plan (revenue and expenditures) accompanied by a detailed work plan, schedule and a mandated independent outside annual audit submitted to the Legislature and signed by the governor verifying authenticity of the audit’s ...
October 26th, 2008
There will be broadcast a debate between Judge Kopp from the High Speed Rail Authority and Mike Brady, President of DERAIL
8:30 am SUNDAY 10/25. 740 am radio. Here is a
LINK
to an audio lead in for that program.
The program will be re-broadcast at 8:30 pm in the evening also.
In the meantime take a listen to transportation expert Joseph Vranich in testimony before the State Senate Transportation and Housing Committee on Oct 23rd.
See our
October 24th, 2008
On Oct. 23rd, the California State Senate held a hearing on the lack of a promised business plan for the High Speed Rail project. The plan was promised by the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) during passage of AB-3034. AB-3034 was the key law which put Prop 1A on this November ballot.
The delivery of the business plan was mandated by law, yet the CHSRA has not delivered the plan. The plan of the legislature was to have a business plan available to the voters of California well before the Nov election, so the voters could fairly decide whether to approve or reject a 9.95 billion dollar bond measure. This bond measure would be a down payment to start a high ...
October 24th, 2008
High-speed rail safety is in the news today
From Deutsche Welle (Germany’s international broadcaster — sort of a version of the Voice of America):
“Deutsche Bahn to Recall Part of High-Speed Train Fleet” says that “German railways company . . . said Friday it would idle the most modern type of its bullet trains, amid fears that the axles of the ICE-T trains were cracking. . . . A cracked axle was blamed earlier this year for a low-speed ICE derailment at Cologne station in which nobody was hurt.
Deutsche Bahn said a late ...
October 24th, 2008
Dan Walters in the Sacramento Bee writes
Would Californians be buying a pig in a poke if they were to pass Proposition 1A, a $9.95 billion bond issue to partially finance a high-speed train system?
The answer is elusive because we’ll be voting in the blind. The state’s High-Speed Rail Authority didn’t produce an updated business plan by Oct. 1, as the Legislature decreed, that would lay out projected construction costs, ridership, fares and other vital details for voters.
Authority officials told a legislative hearing Thursday that the plan is late because the ...
October 21st, 2008
AB-3034 mandated that a business plan for the HSR project be presented by Sept 1st, 2008. The Authority has not produced the plan and is in violation of the law. Essentially the High Speed Rail Authority and it leadership team have thumbed their noses at the Voters of California and the State Legislature. There will be a hearing on this matter on Oct 23rd by the Transportation and Housing Committee of the California State Senate.
the Hearing Starts at 10:00 am. It will be webcast live — To view go to The California Channel
Here is a
October 21st, 2008
They write
As with all the state propositions that cost money but provide no funding, we’re voting no on Proposition 1A.
That’s the measure that would borrow $10 billion and spend it on promoting, not building, a high-speed train system. This is a colossal ripoff with no promises of any results except that the money would get spent.
Worse, it would get spent with no oversight, and participation on the campaign’s “finance committee” by nobody other than politicians and bureaucrats. Supporters brag that the $10 billion would not require a tax increase, but ...
October 19th, 2008
An article just published in the Sacramento Bee and authored by transportation expert Joseph Vranich exclaims:
For nearly 40 years I’ve advocated building high-speed rail lines, including in testimony before Congress and in speeches in Europe and Japan.
But for the first time, I see a project that I can’t endorse - the proposed California system. A due diligence report, which I co-authored, found that the state’s planners are projecting ridership to be so high as to be absurd. The promoters are understating cost estimates by billions of dollars, are exaggerating ...
October 18th, 2008
LA Times authors Steve Hymon and Martin Zimmerman publish an article with the headline
MTA may have to cut commuter service
The article clearly points out problems with public / private partnership arrangements, such as might be used to fund part of the HSR project which would be funded by Prop 1A.
Private equity is a key piece of the CHSRA’s plan to fund this mammoth project.
Wouldn’t this just be wonderful? We fund HSR partially with funds from the private sector. A major problem such as this article brings to light takes ...
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