As usual the deceptive Tolmach spreads fear, uncertainty and doubt by illustrating all of the positives of Altamont and none of the negatives. He also illustrates all of the negatives for Pacheco and none of the positives.

For every Altamont supporter there is an organization, city or individual who opposed Altamont. Pleasanton would have supported the alignment, as long as trains terminated in Livermore (sound familiar?).

By all means, an I-5 alignment would be nifty. Please tell me where you'll get the broad political support for it if you cut out the Central Valley? Could San Francisco have carried Prop 1A to passage all by itself? This is the same Central Valley offering $300 one-way plane tickets to the rest of the state. This is the same Central Valley that is growing whether you like it or not.

Getting over the Tehachapis will certainly be difficult. Conventional railroads had a hard enough time doing just that. But looking at Tolmach's stuff trains will effortlessly fly over the Grapevine on clouds levitated by Jesus Christ.

The European approach to high speed rail isn't the only valid approach. There is also the Japanese approach complete with intermediate station stops with bypass tracks. Noise mitigation in Japan is an art, and while the trains are certainly not without impact, they aren't the end of the world either. My God, the Central Valley is already used to many 125 DB horn blasts per day.

Tolmach was an HSR supporter and once things started not going exactly his way he has been throwing a public temper tantrum ever since. Let me point out that the California Rail Plan isn't exactly setting the world on fire either.

He is not above telling lies. He has misrepresented East LA to suit his agenda. [calrailfoundation.org]

For one, he isn't even talking about East LA there, and two, the LOSSAN Corridor between LA and Fullerton isn't exactly the prettiest thing in the world. Add 110-125 MPH HSR to that corridor and no one will notice a damn thing in the way of impacts.

BOB2 is another expert with real-world experience and advanced degrees I assume. Apparently no one involved in the CAHSR project has those two things. Nope, BOB2 knows what's right for California and no one else. Say, BOB2, are you not above blowing up at a CHSRA presentation and getting into a shouting match because someone happens to disagree with you? Or maybe I'm thinking of somebody else.