Corea, Sanchez, and Anaheim succeeded in having the 6-10 billion dollar LA-Anaheim added back in, today at CHSRA.

The trouble is that for this $6-10 billion we get a less than 10 minute travel time saviing over Metrolink-LOSSAN trains. And, we spend this $6-10 billion to save ten minutes for less than 8,000 riders. And, this estimate is "white noise" on a link basis given the lack of validation for most of the modeling assumptions. For the laymen, that estimated ridership, may or may not be exclusive of ML (because without HSR-some models would show indifference to a 10 minute savings and take ML anyhow, even if there was no HSR. By comparison, the 5 billion or so MTA and the taxpayers will spend on the "subway to the sea" (or at least UCLA) we could carry about 20 times as many daily riders, which is an estimate based on far sounder modeling reliability.

Also by way of comparison, if we had $6 billion for LOSSAN we could save almost an hour to San Diego (Yes,Virginia,you could get to San Diego in 1:45. This would raise speeds on significant segments to 110 or even 125 capability. Monies for full double track, the Union Station run through, and even the Jim Mills tunnel into San Diego under the University Mesa would easily make this possible. And, still have another billion left over which could reduce LA-Santa Barbara by 15- 20 minutes, and LA-SLO by another 15-20 minutes.

An alternative investment to LA-Anaheim HSR in the whole LOSSAN corridor of this magnitude would boost service level by nearly 70%, at curent operating costs because of increase reliability and better crew and equipment utilization. This alternative investment would save tens of thousands of hours daily in travel time for current LOSSAN users. This alternative investment would more than double the current 9 million plus annnual ridership on Metrolink, Coaster, and Amtrak in the LOSSAN corridor, or at least 6 times the ridership of LA-Anaheim HSR, even if you believed the "iffy" HSR modeling. And, these corridor trips would each generate many more passenger miles per additional trip than LA-Anaheim would.

But, what does cost effective responsible planning have to do with fleecing the taxpayers, right?

It's fair to say you can thank the excellent lobbying by those who spent the original $700+ million, since this project started, on mostly useless planning that was never based on any reliable analysis of real demands or effective cost benefit analysis. And, this embarrassing LA-Anaheim fiasco is an unfortunate example of how much more work is needed to see still more fundamental reform to the process by which these projects are selected. Maybe, this kind of nonsense is why the State Senate leadership is still not convinced the CHSRA is yet fully "getting it"?

And, just when thought it was safe to hope that some sanity might prevail, we get this kind of nonsense. I had hopefull reported recently that I thought this project was making progress, that it was off of "life support" but still in the ICU. Well with this unbelievably wasteful and poorly thought out decision today, I think it is officially back on "life support" again.