high speed rail project

High Speed Rail TrainWith California’s High Speed Rail (HSR) debacle straggling along, there’s a fair chance they could be losing monies that was going to be slated for them.

Of course, as it stands, voters who didn’t read the entire proposition voted in the High Speed Rail Project, back then touted with a $10B bill, has now hit new estimates of upwards of $99B.  Nice sales pitch on the proposition.  If anything, this sad fight for our future says we need to read our voter pamphlets.  The whole thing!

But as it stands, Union Pacific chimed in a few weeks ago, sounding like they weren’t going to play ball with the HSR project… and rightfully so.  (It’s up to them to grant passage rights or not.)  And the worst possible aspect is starting to raise its head….

The HSR committee doesn’t know where they’re going to get most of this money they need, so they’re only going to build, at one section at a time.

The federal government has pointed just over $3B to the project, with the disclaimer that construction has to start next year.  So to make sure they get the money, the HSR project will start building their highly technological new transportation avenue in the Central Valley of CA, from Borden to Corcoran.

[click to continue reading…]

{ 0 comments }

CaltrainFor the moment, as of a week prior to this article, there’s a plan afoot that will keep all eighty-six Caltrain vehicles in motion, and as the text of the article says, keep all Caltrain stations open. (ZEJN92D67ZW4)

This will come with another dig into the consumer wallets with a 25 cent fare increase and an additional $1 tacked on to the daily parking fee.  That, and an additional boost of operating funds from the MTC (Metropolitan Transportation Commission) that will add up to another $3.5 million.

This is only a stop-gap, being that this is a one-time deal and it’s been urged that Caltrain needs to find a dedicated funding source to stay alive. It’s been suggested that like other rail-transit systems in the United States, that Caltrain look at dedicated sources such as revenue from state sales taxes, rental car taxes and car leasing taxes.

In the newspaper article I was reading (The Daily News, 4-22-11, Section A) they said riders were glad the closures were staved off.

[click to continue reading…]

{ 0 comments }

High Speed Rail Snags and Caltrain Cutting Services [Consumer]

July 20, 2010

As the CA High Speed Rail Project keeps running into snag after snag, it continues to amaze me how this soap opera is proceeding.  From the moment the proposition that was not thoroughly read by voters passed, this seemed to be one of the fastest moving responses to an approved proposition I’ve ever taken note [...]

Read the full article →