It is interesting to note the combative comments from Robert Cruickshank. One would think that this occasion would be a time to take the high road.

"After California voters approved the high speed rail project and gave $9 billion to fund it in the November 2008 election, NIMBYs living on or near the proposed route did everything in their power to prevent HSR from being built. They sued at every possible opportunity, and lobbied the Legislature to deny authorization to sell the Proposition 1A bonds. “Those efforts delayed the project’s groundbreaking, originally planned for 2012. But in 2014 the opponents were handed a series of decisive defeats. The Legislature had already voted to authorize the sale of the Prop 1A bonds in 2012. In June 2014 they agreed to give 25% of the cap and trade revenue to HSR, which gives a big boost to the project’s finances for years to come. NIMBY lawsuits also fared badly, with the state Supreme Court siding with the Authority and then the federal Surface Transportation Board ruling at the end of 2014 that their approval trumps CEQA[The California Environmental Quality Act]."


Railway Age