Finally, good news for those of us who want an effective integrated high speed intercity rail system in California, but who don't want to support wholesale robbery of the taxpayers with the current mismanaged CHSRA gold plated boondoggle........ Regime Change at CHSRA!


California official to retire after years of pulling for high-speed rail

By Torey Van Oot

Sacramento Bee: Friday, Jan. 8, 2010 - Page 4A

After devoting more than a decade to bringing a bullet train to California, High-Speed Rail Authority Executive Director Mehdi Morshed is planning to retire.

Morshed announced his decision in a letter sent Thursday to board Chairman Curt Pringle. The 72-year-old leading advocate for high-speed rail projects across the country plans to step down March 31.

Morshed wrote in the letter that the 2008 passage of a $9.95 billion bond to help fund the project and the Obama administration's support for high-speed rail assured him that the proposed 800-mile track linking Southern California to the Bay Area and Sacramento will become a reality.

"For me, the past 11 years have been filled with frustration and exhilaration. Yet I would not trade it for anything else in the world," Morshed wrote. "We experienced a few delays in getting there, but today there is no doubt in my mind that the project will move forward and California will have the first state of the art high speed train in the nation."

Rail Authority Deputy Director Jeffrey Barker said the agency has launched a search for a CEO – a new title for the person who will replace Morshed.

"We're going to search for someone who has managed and delivered large public construction projects, preferably someone with rail experience," he said. "Someone who knows California, as well, although that's not a necessity."

Morshed was named executive director of the Rail Authority in 1998. Before that, he spent more than 20 years crafting transportation policy in the state Senate and worked for the California Department of Transportation.