Appeals to be heard in May
04/30/14 Filed in: High-Speed
Rail
Oral argument on three
cases involving the CA HSR Authority will be heard by
the Court of Appeal in Sacramento in May. The
Town of
Atherton appeal
will be heard at
2:00 on Tuesday, May 20. The Extraordinary
Writ for
both the Tos
case
and the
Validation case
will be heard at
9:30 on Friday, May 23. The Court is located at
914 Capitol Mall, Sacramento.
Caltrain Electrification--Has Caltrain Lost its Way?
04/30/14 Filed in: High-Speed
Rail |
Transportation
Planning
Caltrain issued its
very large Draft Environmental Impact
Report for its Peninsula Corridor
Electrification Project, which depends on HSR
funding to electrify the tracks from San Jose to
San Francisco. TRANSDEF filed extensive
Comments and Attachments, making the case for studying a
fully worked-up DEMU (Dual-mode diesel-electric
multiple unit) alternative. This alternative would
accomplish many of the goals of the
electrification project while remaining within the
financial reach of Caltrain, now that HSR seems to
be crashing. Because it would eliminate most if
not all the proposed electrification that is
controversial for a significant portion of the
public, it would improve Caltrain’s public
support. A policy letter to the Joint Powers Board makes
the case that Altamont Corridor access to the Bay
Area should be reconsidered and supported, because
it would preserve Caltrain’s capacity to grow in
the future, and because it would allow Caltrain to
determine its own future, independent of the fate
of HSR. Read
More...
A Flurry of Amicus Briefs Hit Court
04/26/14 Filed in: High-Speed
Rail
Transportation
agencies, worried that they could lose their funding
from the HSR Bond, filed amicus briefs with the Court
of Appeal, as did Sen. Galgiani, the author of AB
3034. The briefs and their replies can be
found here.
TRANSDEF Proposes New Approach at TAM
04/24/14 Filed in: Transportation
Planning
TRANSDEF appeared at
the Transportation Authority of Marin to propose a
strategic approach to operating the agency. In
particular, the time has come to recognize that the
era of the single-occupant vehicle is over. There
isn’t enough roadway capacity to accommodate all
those solo drivers, and there isn’t enough money or
right-of-way to feasibly do that. Rather than having
a congestion problem, Marin has an expectation
problem, in which people expect to be able to drive
alone.
Read More...
Read More...
Cap and Trade for HSR: Scientifically Worthless
04/19/14 Filed in: High-Speed
Rail
TRANSDEF released
its analysis today of the CHSRA’s
Contribution of the High-Speed Rail
Program to Reducing California's Greenhouse Gas
Emission Levels (June 2013). In short, the
construction of HSR would generate more greenhouse
gases (GHGs) than it would reduce, for at least 2
decades. Because of this, it would be illegal to
use cap and trade funds, which are intended to
reduce GHGs, to build HSR. Read
More...
Court of Appeals to CHSRA: No Way
04/15/14 Filed in: High-Speed
Rail
The Court of Appeal
summarily dismissed the CHSRA’s second Petition for
Extraordinary Writ of Mandate, saying in effect that
there were no legal grounds upon which to grant
relief. It is expected that the desperate CHSRA will
attempt to get relief from the California Supreme
Court, where success is exceedingly unlikely. See all
the legal
papers.
ARB's Scoping Plan Update
04/07/14 Filed in: Climate
Change
The CA Air Resources
Board (ARB) is updating the 2008 Scoping Plan, which
laid out the State’s plan to reduce greenhouse gases
(GHGs) which cause global climate change. TRANSDEF
filed its comments, which stress the need for
clarity as to the contribution of the economic
recession and higher gasoline prices to the
state’s reduced GHG emissions in the past 6 years.
The comments call for ARB to remove HSR as a GHG
emissions reduction measure, given that it is
projected to increase GHGs for decades.