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Re: California high speed rail segment-interesting choice?
Author: BOB2
Date: 09-20-2012 - 08:22
Those of us who live in the real world, who have worked on real railroads and on real projects, who dwell in a place somewhere in between the far off loony fringes of political true believers, should take note that it was interesting that the Feds only approved the segment between Merced and Fresno.
This action obligates Federal funds for that segment and would allow Federal monies to be used in ROW condemnation. It is not going to happen right away. This action is more about "obligating" the Federal funds so that they don't lapse on September 30, 2012.
It appears that this somewhat "more rationale" segment was chosen so as not to throw more gasoline on the Fresno to Oildale controversy.
I will wait patiently, until after the election, and after the judge starts hearing the many environmental challenges to see where we are really going.
The Brown folks inherited a pile of crap from Arnold, Kopp, and Pringle. The Obama folks actually listened to Boxer and Feinstein funded this project without any analysis or a clearly defined "purpose and needs" process and funded the CHSRA fiasco before Brown's folks came on board. The Local Agencies/HSR MOU was the first step toward sanity they have made, since it would spend money on things that give real benefits to our existing regional and intercity systems. But, given the timing and the funding lapse issue, they Brown folks have had no choice but to go forward for now, pending legal findings, to keep the funds alive for future use.
Feinstein has her money for hubby's office building and no longer cares. Boxer was too incompetent to pass a Transportation Reauthorization with Jim Oberstar, which could have provided real transportation infrastructure jobs in this depression. Instead she waited and got together with that dubious idiot Mica (he's no Bud Schuster?), to pass this recent still-born mess of a two year Transportation bill, which failed to deal with jobs, our aging infrastructure, or how to finance needed investments and repairs. On this issue, both parties were a complete failure.
I still have a bet on that this project will see substantial revision and resulting in a major reprogramming of funds after the election to truly needed and truly "shovel ready" rail passenger projects, after the court tosses the EIS/EIR as inadequate due to flawed planning assumptions used in its preparation.
This action obligates Federal funds for that segment and would allow Federal monies to be used in ROW condemnation. It is not going to happen right away. This action is more about "obligating" the Federal funds so that they don't lapse on September 30, 2012.
It appears that this somewhat "more rationale" segment was chosen so as not to throw more gasoline on the Fresno to Oildale controversy.
I will wait patiently, until after the election, and after the judge starts hearing the many environmental challenges to see where we are really going.
The Brown folks inherited a pile of crap from Arnold, Kopp, and Pringle. The Obama folks actually listened to Boxer and Feinstein funded this project without any analysis or a clearly defined "purpose and needs" process and funded the CHSRA fiasco before Brown's folks came on board. The Local Agencies/HSR MOU was the first step toward sanity they have made, since it would spend money on things that give real benefits to our existing regional and intercity systems. But, given the timing and the funding lapse issue, they Brown folks have had no choice but to go forward for now, pending legal findings, to keep the funds alive for future use.
Feinstein has her money for hubby's office building and no longer cares. Boxer was too incompetent to pass a Transportation Reauthorization with Jim Oberstar, which could have provided real transportation infrastructure jobs in this depression. Instead she waited and got together with that dubious idiot Mica (he's no Bud Schuster?), to pass this recent still-born mess of a two year Transportation bill, which failed to deal with jobs, our aging infrastructure, or how to finance needed investments and repairs. On this issue, both parties were a complete failure.
I still have a bet on that this project will see substantial revision and resulting in a major reprogramming of funds after the election to truly needed and truly "shovel ready" rail passenger projects, after the court tosses the EIS/EIR as inadequate due to flawed planning assumptions used in its preparation.
